Asian women on TV

I thought the Margaret Cho movie today was really funny, but as with all comedy, had some truth to it in the end. The most interesting part to me was when she was talking about how she had never seen an Asian person (or family) on television before so she was really excited to be on TV. She was really excited to be on television, then when they told her she needed to lose weight, she changed herself to fit the image they wanted. I thought this was very interesting because I feel it wasn't just about the weight issue, but probably also about the fact that she was Asian, and they wanted to portray a certain image of Asian women. We always hear about how actresses are told to lose weight, or improve their image, but I feel that maybe Margaret was so intent on following their "advice" because she felt they knew what they wanted to see (especially for an Asian woman new to TV).

Laura Kalinowski Post #11