More on Genderization of Race... and then some.

I wanted to further explain the genderization of race from what I've learned from my Sociology of Marriage and Relationships and Sociology of Asian Americans courses.

[I decided I needed to learn about my heritage since I knew absolutely nothing about Asians other than what my family had, nearly all my friends are Mexican, Black, White or some mix of these three; my "black" friend is actually half white and sternly states that she is white].

Let's start off with a few bases:
-There was were historical contexts that were brought up to make the point. For example slave owners would make African female slaves do all the hard manual labor but would never allow white females to do any hard labor in order to "show" that they were better. Since both men and women labored in the fields, there was not separation in gender like the white slave owners, thus in comparison culturally, there was a masculinization of the female gender in the context of Black Americans. There were other factors mentioned like the stereotype of single mothers and "strong, loud, women" in the Black community. This stereotype was probably formed from this historical context.
-Another historical account from the Asian perspective, other than the more widely known railroad working men, Asian women were being bought and transported from China with promises of a great life only to find that they've been sold into sexual slavery because they were in "high demand" due to the idea they were the "ultimate" in femininity. Again, there are echoes of this past in today's society with the stereotype that Asians are quiet and subservient. Here, instead of a masculinization of females there's a hyper-feminization of females.

With these historical contexts set, I bring up the case mentioned in class about the Asian woman shooting the Black girl. There is a huge play of gender roles here but hidden in color. If it were between a man and a woman, who would have the more severe punishment?

As for the issue of gay men in the context of race, the issues of feminization of race or masculinization I should rephrase the question, "Is it more ok to be gay if you're Asian, Black, Caucasian, or Latino?" through the eyes of stereotypes, of course. [Keep in mind you may not see it the same way because of your background in higher education]
Here, the feminization of Asians, males are faced with the stereotypes of nerds, being super smart, quiet, and unable to lead... All these "submissive" female qualities are linked to being gay, but at the same time there is "no such thing as a lesbian Asian" and thus this invisibility to a subgroup.
Whereas, it's the other way around when it comes to Blacks, my professor posed the question in a stereotypical context, "Have you ever heard of a gay black man?" another inivisble subgroup.

Along with this there is the stereotyping of penis size? The larger the penis the more masculine one is, right?

Anyone notice how all of these stereotypes of masculinity and femininity fall along the color lines as well?

She also mentioned white privilege as well and how she uses it not only to get away with speeding on the freeway, but to try and break stereotypes and advance other people of color, sexual orientations, etc.

My thoughts were a bit mixed up when I was asking, "Is it more ok to be White and Gay or Asian and Gay?" What I really wanted to point out there [having maybe 5 thoughts linked to that statement] was with White privilege, being gay in the White community is more "accepted" than it would be in any others. With white privilege, my professor was stating, comes the ideology that if you're White you can do or be anything you want without stereotypes that limit like, "I'm Asian so I'm a bad driver." This is what is termed internalized racism, where any particular race will incorporate the stereotypical characteristics of that race and use it to justify their own actions.

Anywho, with the issue of white privilege, the prevelance of this paradigm makes for another invisible group, the low-income and under priveleged white. Which also brings to mind also, low income Asians ["because Asians are rich too"] also an invisible group, both of these at least in the context of stereotypes. What didn't conclude in class tonight, or with the realization, that this is more of an issue of class rather than issues of race. We have the upper class, which is predominantly rich, white, heterosexual men controlling us all like puppets by making us fight amongst ourselves so that we would never turn our attention towards them. Again, if you walk the walk, talk the talk, look the look, and act rich then you must be rich. We can't say it's just race and white privilege, we have to look at things from a multidimensional perspective to see what else is going on.

One lens isn't good enough for me, give me all the glasses and lenses of the world for me to look through, including my own! I get bored with just one way of looking at things. :-p