I found this article about the pressures faced by overachieving high school girls through this blog, which explored the piece from a feminist perspective. Guess which direction I’m going to go? I am haunted by the quote from the only Asian girl in the article:
“It’s out of style to admit it, but it is more important to be hot than smart.”
“Effortlessly hot,” Kat added.
This girl scored perfectly on her SATs. Say what you will about standardized testing, but I have no doubt that she’s smarter than the average One Tree Hiller. While the comment was probably offhanded, I think it was a very astute observation. That is, we live in a culture that often rewards not just beauty, but hotness, as in sexiness, above intelligence. Big surprise, I know. What’s interesting to me is that Kat made this statement. Among the girls featured, she seems to be somewhat of an outsider. Not baring cleavage or wearing tight true religions, and obviously, not white.
This brings me to my point. I think outsiders are often the revolutionaries because they get to watch from well, the outside. If one is fully entrenched in something, whether it’s a culture, religion or basketball game, it’s hard to see objectively. This is why I believe us minorities are crucial in shaping this, our new home. We’re the new kids on the block who point out the absurdity of the status quo.
Since joining this here collective, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what it means to be Asian American. I’ve rarely thought about it before, to be honest. I react to things as a woman first, an Asian maybe second or third. What I realize though, is that being a woman and being an Asian in America are just two sides of the same coin. It’s being an other. Often being on the outside is a bitch. It means being marginalized and sometimes discriminated against by assholes or even kind people who are just oblivious. But being an outsider is also a privilege because I do not get to be complacent.
So to Kat: don’t worry! In a few years your late-blooming genes will catch up with your current classmates and you will probably not only be hot, but smoking hot. As in, a woman who knows that she’s sexy, but also knows the meaning of the words patriarchy and objectify.
To my fellow outsiders: let’s not just watch but also write, vote, protest. It’s hot.
