There are a lot of good blogs out there critiquing the movie The Social Network for all the right reasons.  But quite frankly a lot of movies critics out there are men, not women.  And it’s admirable that they want to say something about Brenda Song being an Asian girl in a Hollywood film, but I usually find the feminist critiques of the film written by men to be, well, lacking.

I was reading one such critique at 8Asians.com by Dino-Ray who wrote the following about Brenda Song’s character (emphasis added by me):

Maybe the militant Asian in me has turned soft, but if you think of it, Song’s character wasn’t really being objectified. Despite the bit of dialogue (which is clever and makes the characters sound uber-dweeby), Song’s character is just like any other groupie: crazy and starved to feed off the fame and success of someone else. There’s really nothing wrong about that.

Then, it hit me.  There IS something wrong about that.  I AM upset that this arsonist groupie “just happens to be Asian,” as everyone keeps saying.  Why?  Because her character is a classic example of the new Asian stereotype permeating Hollywood films these days.

No, it’s not The Shy Wallflower, The Exotic/Mysterious Beauty, not The Seductress, not The Martial Artist.  It’s THE CRAZYASS BITCH. Young Asian girls–high schoolers or college girls–are being depicted as a the Crazyass Bitch, either in the name of proving all of the other stereotypes wrong or because “they just happened to be Asian,” as the excuse goes.  Take a look:

Cindy Kim (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle)

I liked stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.  I did.  But in retrospect I realized that it portrayed women horribly.  Especially Cindy Kim, who looked nerdy and plain-jane and straight-laced, and whom Harold wanted nothing to do with.  Later,  you find out that SURPRISE, she’s a naughty, crazyass bitch who went wild at a party:

Goldstein: The other night I ended up at that Asian party and I shtupped Cindy Kim!

Kumar Patel: Shut the fuck up! Are you serious?

Goldstein: Yeah man, she even gave me a blumpkin!

Kumar Patel: What is a blumpkin? Goldstein: Its when a girl gives you head while youre sitting on the toilet taking a shit!

Trang Pak and Sun Jin Dinh (Mean Girls)

These girls don’t speak English at all during the movie; they only speak Vietnamese with terrible, terrible English translations (see above).  They’re part of the “cool Asians,” according to the film, though I’m not sure why.  Unless your definition of “cool” means that you’re underage girls engaging in sexual acts with an ugly high school gym coach.  The crazy part?  They actually fight over him.

Su-Chin Qah (Juno)

Su-Chin is mocked in the film for being an irrational, judgmental pro-lifer with unintentionally humorous signs who hangs around the Planned Parenthood clinic that Juno visits.  The one cockamamie line everyone remembers?

“All babies want to get borned!  All babies want to get borned!”

Knives Chau (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World)

Already talked about this one, if you haven’t heard.  She’s exactly what you’d expect.  Just your garden-variety Asian groupie who is in love with a white protagonist and wants to do anything to be with him, including dyeing her hair and dressing up like an indifferent emo chick and attempting revenge against her for stealing her man.  She gets really emotional at Scott’s band’s show and passes out (see above picture).

Christy (The Social Network)

This is the only one of the films I’ve mentioned that I haven’t seen yet.  I haven’t seen it partially because of all of the flack it’s getting for being misogynistic.  I’ll admit that I’m glad to see Brenda Song in a film that isn’t in the fluffy, cheesy, immature Disney vein.  But, um, daymn that picture scares me.  So does this:

Eduardo: It’s not that guys like me are generally attracted to Asian girls. It’s that Asian girls are generally attracted to guys like me.

Dustin: I’m developing an algorithm to define the connection between Jewish guys and Asian girls.

Eduardo: I don’t think it’s that complicated. They’re hot, they’re smart, they’re not Jewish and they can dance.

Here’s a challenge: Find a major motion picture of the non-martial arts variety featuring a young Asian woman who’s portrayed positively–sane, cool, chill, “normal.”  Because I had a really hard time.

• Do you think the portrayal of young Asian women in movies “not a big deal”?
• Did you watch any of these movies?
• Did any of these characters bother you or did you think they were funny?
• Can Asian girls “be funny” without playing crazyass bitches?

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