Larry, if we do the male calendar, you’re going on the front cover. PH, HFL, and I could stand in the back.

I’d be behind some kind of athletics scholarships for young (female or male) Asian Americans. I mean, hell, we all know Asian kids already get the academic scholarships, right…? (Yeah, yeah, before someone gets their knickers all twisted in a bunch, that was tongue in cheek.)

In any case, however, I do have to say that this professor has pretty damn poor communication skills.

Why do you create an event that is exclusive? How do you teach the younger sisters that they too are beautiful and empowered by only having three contestants and, ultimately, just having one winner? You just reenforce the notion that the others are not good enough.

If you wanted to be an example, why not hold workshops for younger women that teach them that the definition of beauty is as varied as the cultures that make up Asian America?

But with that being said, I also commend you for giving voice to the opposition. It’s a burden to be the one carrying the target on your back.

It is one thing to disagree. It is another to sit back and criticise based on assumptions and conjecture. It takes hours of work by many people to put together an event, and there is no pot of gold in it for the organizers and volunteers at the end of the day. We all have jobs and no lack of other things to do with our time. But we are doing this because we care about out community and we care about women. We are trying to take ownership of the definition of “beautiful” in our culture. If you disagree with the vehicle we employ, then fine, you disagree. If you have some better idea, go do it. No one is stopping you. If you think a poetry slam is going to help, by all means. If you want to do a coffee table book, go right ahead. You want an essay contest or a science fair, have at. Show me what you can do.

You want to sit around and throw personal attacks at people you don’t know, expect pesonal attacks back. Gloves off. Jaehwan, I think you were too nice in not publishing that professor’s name. Maybe he had a bad day, maybe he hit send accidentally in the middle of his rant before making his point. Whatever, he did not follow up.

I have to say something about the contestants. It’s not about merely being pretty. As I said before, you can take any face and make it pretty and conversely, you can take any face and make it ugly. We have contestants who are both accomplished and have high potential a further sucesses. One of these ladies is a graduate student, another a professional who will return to graduate school. In my opinion, all the contestants will accomplish many things and be sucessful at what they put their efforts into. All of these women have strong messages. It is not easy to stand up infront of a room and say what is on your mind and maintain ones composure. I applaude them for their courage to put themselves out there and to hone in their speaking, and presentations skills. I hope that they are blessed many times over for the fact that they stood up and did something to change the image of Asian American women and to put a real face on Asian American beauty. For that, they are and will be blessed many times over.

Basically, I think the Professor is saying that beauty pageants in general are sexist and reinforce traditional notions of femininity. There is also probably a concern that the pageant promotes the exoticization of Asian women as well.

I am not saying that this particular beauty pageant is doing these things, but that’s probably the concern felt by the professor or others here and in that other thread about the pageant.

“on the other hand it could be easily argued a Mens beauty contest to redefine Asian male goodlookingness would be a positive and something that actually would be redefining beauty.”

Yes, something like Mr. Hyphen, which Hyphen Magazine hosts every year.

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/component/option,com_magazine/func,show_edition/id,93/Itemid,1/

Jaehwan: Let’s do a Men of Thymos Calendar–Swimsuit Edition!

You, “Daymond,” Panther Eyes, and Hung Far Low can be the stars.

how exactly is this pageant going to as you say “redefine beauty for Asian America.”

You bring up Mona Locke, how is she not considered beautiful now? She was a TV reporter, so clearly considered mainstream good looking. Whats next Lucy Lui as someone who has been overlooked as beautiful?

it seems most of the women at the beauty pageant are already considered beautiful so how the heck is that redefining anything?

Judging women on their looks, seems same old thing to me.

I didn’t say anything before as it seems like you have worked hard on this, and you do put a lot of time into BigWowo and other things. but respectfully I think the beauty contest is not a positive.

…on the other hand it could be easily argued a Mens beauty contest to redefine Asian male goodlookingness would be a positive and something that actually would be redefining beauty.

If you already called the school, and checked that the guy sent that to you (and not someone impersonating him) then i give you 100 Alpha points!! lol

Thanks for pointing that out, King. He seems to be against it but also doesn’t say why. I guess people have to resort to attacks against character and motivation when they can’t form an argument or even a premise. Pretty sad that people have to resort to that.

Anna,

This guy included his real name and school. I just changed it to save him some face. Don’t know why. I guess I’m just a nice guy. Do I get alpha points for that?

Some questions,

Didn’t you post the same exact thing here?

If redefining Asian American beauty and promoting great community contributions/work are the true aim of this event, why use such a tired and cliched vehicle as a beauty pageant? I have to agree with “No Thank You”–your “stock online” photos certainly do not welcome “nontraditional” beauties to participate in your pageant. Why not feature photos of REAL groundbreaking Asian American women who have achieved something and who redefine beauty, not stock models? Yuri Kochiyama, Helen Zia, Iris Chang, Renee Tajima-Pena, Elaine Kim, Ruth Osawa, Nobuko Miyamoto come immediately to mind. Also, it doesn’t seem like you’re really serious about having a true dialogue between the pro and anti-pageant proponents when you have those two events on two different days with completely different formats. Why not come up with something totally cool and new, like the Webby awards did for internet ingenuity? After all, there are so many ingenius and talented (and beautiful because they are ingenius and talented) designers, inventers, entrepreneurs, community leaders/activists out there already, working hard, who are not just willowy barely twenty-somethings who have nothing yet to show but “attitude” and “cuteness”. You know what’s really cool? The “Intel Star” TV ad featuring people going gaga over Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB. 1 million viewers on Youtube prove that, right?

are you sure it isnt just a troll?

If it was a profeesor, wouldnt he leave his name and contact details? i can’t imagine a PROFESSOR of ASIAN AMERICN STUDIES doing this!!

Are you sure its the ACTUAL professor there?, or maybe someone is just trying to cause trouble….