Nouriyah Saleh
May 15, 2017
Blog Response: Film: Edward Said on Orientalism and "Laotian Daughters: Working toward Community, Belonging, and Environmental Justice"
In the Film, Edward
Said discusses his work on Orientalism. He emphasizes on the fact that
Orientalism was created and defined by Europeans (the Occident). It was their
way to describe Orientalists as barbaric and backwards. This reveals that the
Occident viewed themselves as superior, and that their definition of
Orientalism is inaccurate because it's biased. The film makes history
questionable because it seems that some "facts" are more opinions.
In this chapter of
Shah's book, she talks about the daily struggles of Laotian girls relating to
gender roles, power relations, and culture. This reading hit home for me
because I experienced a lot of the same situations as the girls (even though I
am of a different Southeast Asian ethnicity).
Parents giving more freedom to their sons, expecting gender roles of
their daughters, and trying to maintain ties to their culture is still
prevalent today in families with immigrant parents. I think it's an oppressive
culture within itself, but is especially more noticeable in U.S. society where
individualism is highly encouraged. I believe that it's a struggle that can
persist in a woman's life for a long time because there is always that conflict
of wanting to pursue the "American Dream" but also wanting to keep
the family together and continuing cultural traditions. We are raised in a
collectivist way of thinking where family is the most important aspect. What
makes life difficult is that these immigrant parents are extremely difficult to
persuade to change their ways of thinking. I deeply empathize with other second
generation Southeast Asian women because "code-switching" is a real
thing and to live a duality makes you question your true identity.
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