Family, Culture, Gender: Narratives of Ethnic Reconstruction

Melissa Chow
16th May 2017

Oops, I thought I had done this before, but I guess I did not.
As Laotian-American girls, the young teenagers in the reading, "Family, Culture, Gender: Narratives of Ethnic Reconstruction" struggle to identify themselves due to the influences from society and their families. As girls, their parents expect them to become housewives and to take care of the house. Even though some of the Laotian girls have older brothers, they are given more responsibilities to handle than their older sibling. This is because it is basically training for becoming a good Laotian wife, one of the main responsibilities being to be good at cooking. Their parents also don't want them to date other races. A lot of the girls are indeed dating, but their parents disapprove even if the boyfriend is still within the category of Asian. A lot of this thinking is a result of disapproval of "cultural mixing". If the Laotian girls marry other races, their children will lose their cultural roots!! But of course as we've discussed a lot in the class, it is not a bad thing, and there really is no such thing as "cultural roots" because people really are influenced the most by current environments, not the past. You didn't even experience it before you were born! Anyways, there are lots of issues between Laotian parents and their young girls because they don't understand each other. The parents feel as if they are losing their connections to their kids, and the girls feel as if their parents are overbearing and totally not understanding of their current situation!!! It's hard for the Laotian girls to understand who they are when so many people put their expectations on them.