The American Dream!

1. Western When I was growing up and a white man wanted to take me out I thought I was special, an exotic gardenia, anxious to fit the stereotype of an oriental chick I had expected to be smaller than this, more beautiful, wiser in Afrikan ways-”The Thirty Eighth Year Black hair, complexion Latin, jewelled eyes downcast…She might as well be on Mars- John Berryman Expectations The American Dream! Women of color have been constructed as exotic sexual objects, white women as passive sexual victims “I began to wear imaginary pale skin”- When I was growing up

2. My collage basically focuses on minority women and their struggles to keep up with western expectations. I began to get quotes from the text that stated some of the concerns that minority women have about themselves. The first quote that jumped out at me was the one from the Nellie Wong poem. From there I gathered other quotes from the book. I also began to think about some of my own concerns. I asked myself questions about what bothers me and how do I feel women of color are portrayed in media. The end result was this array of images that I didn’t even think I would be able to find on the internet. However I did! The image that struck me the most is the one with the Asian lady saying to get good hair you had to buy from her and as a result she will get rich. This is some that hits home for me because all my hair products come from Asian beauty supply stores. And I must admit that I buy the products in hopes of getting better hair. I hope that when people see my collage they get a better sense of what it means to be a woman of color. Most of the time I am the only person of color in my classes and I try not to dwell or make a big deal about. So I though that this project would be a subtle way to make that point. I don’t want people to necessarily get my images but I want my images to provoke thought. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/qoc/qoc.html women of color quote http://www.upn.com/shows/top_model4/show/ep04/pgall_03.php?id=4-model model image scipoet.tripod.com-couple image