I was just watching Undeclared , which is a pretty awesome show (Judd Apatow/Freaks and Geeks, anyone?). In this particular episode, the character Marshall is trying to make his crush jealous, grabbing the first girl in the common room to use as a pseudo-girlfriend. Okay, fine, that happens. What pissed me off was that this girl Kikuki, the only Asian featured on the show, did not speak a lick of English. Despite the language barrier, Marshall opts to use her as an accessory to get the attention of the girl he's actually into. A lot of the episode's humor revolves around the fact that the two are unable to communicate with each other and depend on electronic translators to keep the 'relationship' intact.
As an Asian-American woman myself, I didn't know how to react to this - I'm not sure which lens I wanted to look through first - race or gender? I kept on asking myself, what kind of message is this sending?? The invisibility of Asians in the media is one thing, but to portray the only Asian as a non-English-speaking foreigner - well, aren't we just perpetuating the stereotype? The character Ron even goes as far to say, "She seems dumb because she's foreign." Why does that make her less-than? Moreover, every time Kikuki meets one of Marshall's friends, she gives them a cookie. Marshall explains, "It's like a tradition or something," in a tone connoting that he thinks she's a bit weird for doing so. It also pissed me off that the White male was simply using the Asian female like a trophy, another stereotype that is detrimental to the Asian/Asian-American woman. He keeps on saying things like "Isn't she cute?" even though he clearly is not too comfortable with her. To further exotify her racial features, he announces, "She doesn't speak any English - she's all Japanese." What, does that give you ten bonus points or something??
I'm probably angry because I've personally been put into these stereotypes that have negatively affected me in the past. Am I reading too deeply into this? Hell, the casting crew probably wasn't trying to send a message at all. But that's almost more dangerous - we've normalized these images of what an Asian woman should look like on the screen; they're internalized and you don't have to think twice about writing such characters into the script without thinking about its implications.
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When I lived in China I met a man who *refused* to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese (although he had lived in China for several years), AND was married to a Chinese woman.
Of course, when i met him he had only been married 2 weeks and couldn't remember how long he had been married. And his wife knew basic English but they could hardly communicate. She also knew the local dialect. It was clear that she was upset that she was working on her English (while still in China) and he adamantly refused to learn Chinese..
TV may be bad. But reality can be so much worse.
I stand by my belief that the only good thing to come from Judd Apatow is Freaks and Geeks.
Don't get me started on the bromances..
anteup: YES YES YES YES!
I spent a good year feeling so conflicted: "'Why do I love Freaks and Geeks, but have uncomfortable feelings about the rest of the Apatow ouvre?" I came to the conclusion that maybe I don't actually like Judd Apatow. Instead, maybe I like PAUL FEIG! After all, he created the show and Apatow was just the producer.
Freaks and Geeks had strong, complex, vulnerable, interesting female characters. Also: strong, complex, vulnerable, and interesting male characters.
What do I find in the bromances? Male characters who want to have sex with girls...but also hate girls. There's a lot of misogyny under the surface in a lot of the films.
Sorry to ramble - in terms of the "Undeclared" episode, I haven't seen it, but out of curiosity, was the absurdity meant to poke fun at Americans' ignorance and fetishization of Asians? I would hope so. If not, then that's a pretty sad state of affairs for an otherwise (moderately) intelligent show.
Phew. Now that I've had some time to cool off, your point does seem valid (considering the show is supposed to be funny). I know I was probably jumping into the -isms a little too quickly, but the poking fun didn't seem too apparent to me. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=undeclared+16&aq=f.
I haven't seen the show--is the character of Marshall supposed to be a jerk we hope fails? (Such as Cartman or George Costanza?) Or is this racist and manipulative behavior portrayed as something we're supposed to find cute and funny? These kinds of contexts can make a difference to me. Do any other characters object to his using Kikuki? (And let me guess--the girl he really desired was white and probably blonde?)
Does anyone stop to think that it may hurt Kikuki's feelings that she's used as a pawn to gain the attenetion of another girl in school? Oh great--now I'm picturing Apatow scratching his head in bewilderment at the concept that women, particularly non-English speaking ones, feel.
I'd never heard of the show before checking out the link. From just watching the 1st clip the premise looked pretty rude. Are there any Asian-American regulars on the show?
SPOILERS
It's been a while since I've seen the episode, but I was under the impression that Marshall is so desperate he's not really that particular about whom to like. I always thought that he liked Rachel because she was nice to him, and since she was freaking out on move-in day and asked him to hold her hand, he thought he might have a chance or something. I think he likes Kikuki for the same reason: she pays attention to him, and that's good enough for him. He's uncomfortable because he's not used to having a girlfriend and can't believe his luck. Plus, he's very socially awkward in general. I don't think he's just using her to make Rachel jealous (even though she does get jealous and successfully breaks them up); I don't know if he would necessarily like Kikuki if he finally got over his insecurities, but I think he is really grateful that she's paying attention to him, which is the exact premise of his crush on Rachel. He is proud that he's finally dating someone (whom he perceives to be way out of his league to boot), that's why he wants to show her off. He doesn't even realize Rachel was jealous until Ron tells him, and then he defaults to his crush on her again. Besides, he cries when he breaks up with Kikuki, and the script for this episode says when Marshall tries to suck up to Rachel again, he's "talking trash about Kikuki, acting like he wasn't really into her", which means he was into her.
Also, I think you might have missed the context of Ron's remark. It's actually Rachel who calls Kikuki dumb (since she's pissed that Marshall is not there groveling at her feet anymore), and Ron replies that he doesn't think so. It's clear that the his "she seems dumb because she's foreign" remark is intended only as a preface to making fun of Lloyd, since he immediately adds "Like Lloyd." Since Lloyd is white, I don't think there's any racism there. Xenophobia, maybe. Sadly, it's still acceptable to make fun of foreigners and view them as exotic and sexualized. But it really goes both ways in the show (and in real life). Lloyd is viewed as exotic and desirable for being British, but he doesn't have a problem with it and uses it to his advantage in his sexual escapades. His sister wants to lose her virginity to Ron because he's this mysterious "bear of a man" from a foreign country. We are not really exposed to Kikuki's line of thought, but it's very probable that Marshall is as much an exotic trophy to her as she is to him. I know it's pretty hard to think of Marshall as a trophy, but it's not out of the realm of possibility (sadly, I'm speaking from experience here).
Anyway, it's a great show, which is probably why I typed up this novel here. Frankly, decent shows are so hard to come by (and they get canceled after the first season) I'm willing to disregard a lot of stuff.
BTW, if you like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, you might like Daria (if you haven't seen it already).