Asian Men And Women

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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How society treats Asian American men and women differently Race and gender are two critical factors that influence the society greatly. There are other factors such as income, power, and prestige that also are social constructs. In the book American Knees by Shawn Wong, he explores these social identities through many of the characters. Many of these social identities are different for Asian American men and Asian American women. I'm going to list and discuss all the stereotypes and general belief about Asian Americans in which most of them are created by this society.

Asian American men have always been viewed as sexless, nerdy, and unattractive. Dating is tough these days, and these negative and often false beliefs about Asian men are not helping us(I'm Asian too) in finding opposite sex. "Asian men are short, they dress funny, they are childish"¦"¦"¦" These are some of the comment I've heard numerous times in the street, in movies, and even in the classroom by females.

The character Raymond Ding to me was not much of a believable character. The reason for that is he was too aware and proud of his race, culture, and his identity and yet he did not even know his Chinese name was. To me, he seemed hypocritical because he acted liked Chinese on the outside, but inside he did not know too much about himself as Chinese. "His grandmother had called him in a language he forgot a year after he stared public school" (p.12). How can he possibly lecture Aurora about his race and identity when he does not even know a word in Cantonese? Also, he said that he never wanted to marry another Chinese woman ever again. Most of Asian American Men are expected and encouraged to marry same race. In my opinion,