It’s been an interesting week here at YOMYOMF. With our frank, candid discussion about transgender portrayals vs. guys in drag for comedy’s sake, and the perpetuation of stereotypes, it’s been real here on the blog. With the YOMYOMF Network, although solely for entertainment, we are perpetuating positive Asian American media portrayals, even though that’s not front and center of our mandate. The fact that many of the producers and members behind the network are Asian American, doesn’t necessarily make it a main point on the overall agenda.
Taking ownership of such stereotypes and poking fun of it, is the art of parody. So, when I saw this new video from up and coming YouTube creator, Todrick Hall, I nearly spit out my Diet Coke and short circuited my Macbook Air. Entitled Beauty and the BEAT!, the video opens with what looks like Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, coming out of her house, smelling the flowers in her garden and ready to sing to start a new day. But she ain’t running into Gaston or some dancing tea cups. No sir, this iteration of Belle is coming at you straight from the ‘hood!
The fish out of water element of having a squeaky clean, and yes, very white Belle in the heart of the ‘hood is definitely a dichotomy that throws off a viewer’s equilibrium when seeing a Disney-esque musical come to life. And the fact that the ‘hood caricatures, ranging from gang bangers on the street corner to catty women with weaves at the beauty shop are singing and dancing right out of a Broadway musical makes the whole piece smart and comedy cold. Heck, they even threw in an Uncle Remus caricature too, for good measure, just to show you how racist this all is.
And who is Todrick Hall? After a cursory search, I read that he is a former-American Idol contestant! And apparently, he’s been mired in scandal. Whatever the case, this kid is taking his career by the reigns and is doing some interesting stuff. Beauty and the BEAT! is the first of what could be something interesting. Regardless if you like him or not, he’s got my attention.
What do you all think? Hilarious and smart or pushing the envelope too far?
we never see any of those stereotypes of blacks in the mainstream media, so by analogy let’s see the stereotypes of Asians that aren’t in the media: high achievers and captains of industry and 442nd/110th heroes.
according to the very flawed Pew report, the stereotypes of Asians as academic superstars are never shown on TV: when it’s sexy nerds Asians are nowhere to be seen.
sorry, but if you aren’t going to be making “Asian American media” then don’t be asking Asians to support auto-racist tripe like “Chink” at the festivals – don’t be rallying for support on the Asian blogs and just make “universal theme” movies with whites and leave Asians out of your projects.
if you’re going to be capitalizing on stereotypes then you’re going to be getting criticism – deal with it.
Credit goes to the ones who did it first. To me, this isn’t original. MadTV was doing things like this before YouTube even existed.
There’s a danger to exploiting this imagery if the audience doesn’t know the references or meanings. If it doesn’t really change society for the better (assuming that’s the excuse), then it is just exploitation.
Then it becomes cliche. It’s just playing the race card, weakening it when you really need it.
and blacks have been criticizing these modern day minstrel shows for a long time as well.
it’s the white music producers who want them to play up the ghetto stereotypes to sell records, not the NAACP – not that I’m saying it’s a good organization to start with, but at least they have people who are watching and are concerned.
Asians just have these apologist organizations that take studio money and perpetuating the small dicked Chinaman played by a very Korean KKKen Jeong
I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to laugh or cringe when I saw this. Honestly, it was meant to be funny, but at the same time the music video was, frankly, disturbing.
The white Belle comes from a squeaky clean neighborhood, where the sun shines, the flowers bloom and all is well in white suburbia. And then boom! She’s in the “hood”, where abundant stereotypes for African-Americans are seen from every corner: poverty, crime, family issues, drugs, overt sexuality…all of these things pop out at you from the screen, and there is not a white person besides Belle to be seen.
These negative stereotypes are all things that we are taught to associate with urban project neighborhoods and African Americans in general. Obviously they’re overly exaggerated in the video for the purposes of “entertainment”…but I don’t think that makes it any more right. The fact that we associate such negative images automatically with this one specific ethnic group says a lot about us as a society, and not in a good way.
In terms of specifically seeing Asians/Asian-Americans in mass entertainment, I agree that it seems almost impossible to make it in the U.S. Some shows, like Glee and Gray’s Anatomy, somewhat break through the barrier by even HAVING Asian actors, but the stereotypes are still there, and the roles few and far between. Asian entertainers are capable of so much more than just martial arts or intellectualism…but society in general doesn’t seem to care.