August 11, 2004

Reihan: Wrestlin' with RaceArts and Entertainment

Guest blogging continues @ DanielDrezner.com with an interesting post from Reihan analyzing Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle. Interestingly, the racial dilemma he’s focusing on is Harold’s rather than Kumar’s -

In “Harold and Kumar”, Harold dreads the prospect of pursuing a romantic relationship with “Cindy Kim,” a straight-laced Korean American co-ed at Princeton meant to evoke the stereotypical Asian American overachiever. She is a crashing bore. “Maria,” this shapely bombshell he worships form afar, is decidedly not Asian (she’s of indeterminate Latin origin, it seems — one assumes that making her a classical Anglonormative blonde would’ve been too much), though it’s never clear that she’s not also a crashing bore.

it raises interesting questions concerning the ways in which sexual attraction is bound up with aspirations. Could it be that Harold needs Maria to affirm his own attractiveness, and his self-identification? Man, I don’t know.

Reihan’s a fun writer BUT, I think I like Manish’s analysis of the trend that Harold & Kumar may portend for us (oh, wait, it’s cuz he’s citing me. ;-)

Is Hollywood’s newfound interest in drugged-out Asians a good thing or a bad thing? Vinod points out via email that Asian stoner characters are unthreatening comic figures to the average American, a sly way of slipping Asians into major roles to be laughed at without making them romantic leads. That leaves them only slightly more respectable than Fu Manchu and Stepin Fetchit.

vinod on August 11, 2004 04:01 PM in Arts and Entertainment · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post