Back to Blogging

I've been busy this week on surgery. Good times. I just watched "Good Morning Vietnam", surprisingly for the first time. Entertaining. Plus some of the scenery reminds me of the beautiful Philippines which is cool. Watching this movie reminded me of some issues that came up in an Asian American Women's studies class I took at NYU. The whole idea of the propagation of stereotypes towards Asian women: being submissive, excellent wives, and these exotic, mysterious "objects". It is an interesting topic; certainly these stereotypes are still alive and well. My Filipino relatives told me about growing up in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded and about the soldiers' interest in the locals. Then we all have seen the cinematic portrayal of GI's and the local female population in Vietnam...oh, and don't forget Thailand....and even if you go to Asian countries now, you can see what I lovingly refer to as "fever" in action. But again, not every non Asian man or non Filipino man who goes for an Asian girl is feeding into stereotypes, I know that...don't get me wrong, please! I am ALL FOR mixing it up as long as there is no scary reason behind it all. But seriously, I do think that it's an important point to acknowledge it and that goes for any type of person, right? A great example of the clash of cultures and Asian stereotypes can be seen in Stone's "Heaven and Earth". It can go wrong fast: hello mail order bride disasters and misogyny. But I won't say much more. Speaking of Asia, on a MUCH MORE superficial level, I stumbled upon this really funny Hello Kitty blog. And just to take it back, I must remind you of one of my favorite websites, Tokyo Decadance. Again, when you click on this link, and it asks to "install", just click no, and the website will load anyway. Have the volume way up. It's great fun. This segways to my next Japanese related item: we got Twinkie a new litter box---a Japanese one! It's the one in the photo above. It's by the brand Iris, and it has all these fun features like easy access to clean up (you lift the top) and a grid that catches litter so it doesn't track! It even has feet on the bottom...we got it at Petsmart and I love it...yes, I said I love that litter box. And remember, there should be one more litter box than there is cats in your household...so one cat needs at least 2 boxes!