Monday, February 24, 2020

Week 9_Melanie Manuel_ASA 114 001


Melanie Manuel
ASA 114 001
24 February 2020

Daniel C. Tsang’s “Notes on Queer ‘N Asian Virtual Sex” posits that the Internet has become a site of sexual freedom for Asian Americans in this modern age. Oftentimes, the preconceived notions about Asian Americans is their asexuality and effeminacy, regarding Asian men. These preconceived notions can prove to be harmful to their psyche and perpetuate self-hatred, not only for their own ethnicity and culture, but also their sexuality. It is an interesting reading that highlights the benefits and problems with cyberspace—which is its own double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows its users freedom to be themselves without the fear of reprimand in the face of faceless usernames. On another, things said on the Internet does not go away, it is collected, stored, and sometimes used in futures scenarios, as seen in the way old posts from Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and other social media sites become archives for users to scour through to prove or disprove a public figure’s (past) problematic behavior. 

Truthfully, one of the issues I take with this article is the lack of discussion with Asian lesbians or the brief mention of Asian bisexuality. It seems to be swept under the rug, glossed over in a paragraph, while a larger discussion about the gay Asian community prevails. It is an important piece for positing such things about the gay community, but it also feels like the “G” part of LGBT is more largely discussed in the Asian American community. We’ve arrived to a continuously progressing world, I think it’s time to include the “L” and “B” folks in this conversation as well.
I’m including a video by Anna Akana in which she came out to her parents as well as the Internet. It is an interesting age now where the act of “coming out” can be publicized in this way, showing how far along the LGBT community has come. It is also an interesting video where Akana cites experiences of repression when attempting to come out as a bisexual woman. It seems to be easier to say queer than bisexual, and I think that’s a conversation worth discussing. 

Works Cited
Akana, Anna. “how I came out (and what my parents think).” YouTube, 15 November 2018, https://youtu.be/IiF8VqO0q_M.
Tsang, Daniel C. “Notes on Queer ‘N Asian Virtual Sex.” 1994.

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