Bindi Shah- "Laotian Daughters - Chapter 6: Family, Culture, Gender"

This was actually a very interesting article since it highlights two of the main struggles that Laotian youth face. The first and most prevalent is the fight against traditional values. This is a complicated battle for them since, while they want to retain their culture, they also want to be completely separate from the parts they do not like. Rather than trying to say they are associating with their Laotian roots, I think a more accurate thing to say is that they are redefining what it means to be a second-generation Laotian youth as a new, complicated culture rather than mirroring what their parents want.

Most of the girls take pride in that they are Laotian, that they "are different" than other cultures. They wish to associate with their grandparents values along with Laotian food, dress, and customs even though many of them don't really know where any of these traditions came from; they grew up with it and therefore, embrace it. However, they reject the more concrete ideas that go against their western beliefs, which is what they really grew up in. Traditional Laotian practices include an extremely gendered and misogynistic society. The society devalues women, making them out to only be good for fertility and making the husband happy. The girls, growing up in a more progressive society (but by no means in-misogynist), inertly reject them.

I guess one could say that the girls accept the "liberal multiculturalist" parts of Laotian culture; the family, the fun, the food, and the dances. However, they reject what they believe is wrong in Laotian culture. They do this with what Scott and Kelly call "everyday acts of resistance." As we see in the article, Shah illustrates just how difficult it is for these girls to speak openly to their parents. Parents often are strict among the Laotian girls because, well, they are girls! They are trying to prepare them in a traditional Laotian way for a traditional Laotian society, but the problem is that they are in the United States. Such preparation is unfair and unnecessary is the US. I'm not trying to say it is justified in Laos because anywhere that this happens is fucked. My point is that parents are still living in their time where war was rampant and the only way to succeed was to marry into a rich dude. I get it. But they're in the US now, and they must realize that their daughters must have autonomy to succeed in life.

But they don't.

Thus, these girls use everyday acts of resistance. They date non-Laotian boys, wear revealing clothes, stay out late, run for positions of power, and refuse to accept pregnancy. This is perhaps the strongest tool they have in the face of their powerful parents. It is not really to make their parents change their means of thought. (because they won't) Rather, it is to help the Laotian girls establish a new culture, their own culture, in a world that tells them they are only Asian and by parents that tell them boys only want women who cook.