Kelly Loves Tony (Second Half)
In the second half of the film Kelly Loves Tony, we continue to see that there is an emphasis towards gender roles, the resistance, and cultural conflict. Tony continues to emphasize his patriarchy and that Kelly is to stay at home, help out with the house chores, take care of their baby, and given limitations not going to school. It is expected that women express their femininity, conform to traditions, and detached from the world. We continue to see Kelly resists traditional gender roles and believes that she should be able to have a decent education and not be fully responsible in serving Tony’s family, helping around with the housework. She believes that Tony should also be responsible in taking part and caring for the family. It seems that Kelly’s philosophy aligns with what family is like in the American culture as there is no obligation for the woman to serve for her boyfriend/husband’s entire family. We can also see that there i a cultural conflict between the Mien and American culture. In the Mien culture, it is expected for a woman to move into the boyfriend’s house and live with his family first and the boyfriend’s family can access whether or not it is a fit for marriage. In Mien culture, the family is decides whether or not the couple can marry after the couple lives together with the family. In American culture, the couple does not need to live in the family’s house after marriage and living in the boyfriend/husband’s house is not determine whether or not the couple can marry each other. I can connect Kelly Loves Tony to Shah’s work “Family, Culture, Gender: Narratives of Ethnic Reconstruction.” Laotian Daughters: Working toward Community, Belonging, and Environmental Justice,” as the Laotian women were expected to respect their families and are socially controlled by their parents because of gender roles expectations that women were to become detached from the the world. The parents of the Laotian daughters were afraid that their daughters would lose the values of Laotian cultures but the daughters felt that it was difficult for them to fit in the Laotian culture.
Rodriguez and Gonzalez
In “Asian American Auto/Biographies: The Gendered Limits of Consumer Citizenship,” Rodriguez and Gonzalez discusses that the automobile image/industry in America through Fordism is “mass production” “mass consumption” “reproduction of labor power” (249). This relates back to morals of the American workforce with many labor workers that lead to the development of the automobile industry in the United States. The automobile industry helped the United States build its industries, economy, and become competent in the international market. The American automobile industry allows for United States foreign policy to grow and provides many opportunities for Americans.We can see that the United States demonstrates its competence and the car industry uplifted the class mobility in the United States and helped transform its economy a profitable capitalist market. Because the United States experienced economic struggles, its automobile industry symbolizes hegemony as many United States capitalists feared other races and cultures competing with its automobile industry. Rodriguez and Gonzalez discuss the car had become the “sacred cow” of America, especially as the stage of American masculinity, that Japan’s emergence in the American and global automobile industry was a slap in the face (253). This is another example of struggles among race and class as the Japanese invades and involved in the automobile industry.The United States fears other races and inferior classes to will dominate U.S industries as the United States economy will decline. On the other hand, we can see that the emergence of Japanese cars is action in overcoming the struggles of race and classes in the U.S. society which many oppressed minority groups hope to overcome. The struggles of race and class connect to Gramsci’s article as hegemony is when social institutions dominate social groups and society as this can affect social and racial hierarchy. However, Gramsci emphasizes that there have been struggles experienced by minority groups and Pan Asian and therefore there should be actions towards challenging hegemony. The innovation of Japanese cars challenges hegemony (the power of U.S. automobile industry), supremacy, and is trying to overcoming race and class struggles. While the United States is structured around capitalism, hegemony and revolves around its struggles within its automobile industry, this made me more aware of class and race struggles that are still present in society as the United States’ global economy is declining because of the pressures and competition from labor forces in Asia and other regions which impedes the development and growth of the American economy. Therefore, the United States' neoliberalist perspective focuses on development and growth of its country and marginalizes many minority groups and for any country in the East to take over its economy, industries.
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