Huh? Wha'?

Yes it's been much too long since I've last posted here. That's actually a good thing because I've been productive and writing my chapter and reading more law reviews on Virginia v. Black. At least, I'm trying to fit that in whenever I can on top of teaching classes.

I've been following Tim Hardaway's anti-gay comments and the subsequent outcry which resulted in his banishment from the All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. One in particular, has Charles Barkley not only admonishing Hardaway's comment, but stating that he should've known better. That as an African American and a black man, the history of discrimination, negative stereotypes, and violence should've taught him better than to say something so ignorant and incendiary.

[UPDATE: Yet another video removed for TOS violations.]

I was watching it and to my surprise Barkley seemed like the elder statesman. Well, rough around the edges, but he got the gist of it. Anyways, I came across this clip and consider it as a "different" to the usual public condemnation and subsequent "apology" by Hardaway. It stars George Takei, first shown on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, and I love the fact that it throws the stereotypes back at Hardaway. I think it works quite well.

[UPDATE: Damn this was a good video clip too.]

Has Asian Masculinity Arrived? And to Where Exactly?

Well yes and no. It's a whole lot better than what it was when I was younger -- geeky, dorky, nerdy. Really depressing stuff. But today, we have images and celebrities like Yul Kwon from this season's Survivor, Daniel Dae Kim from Lost, John Cho from Harold and Kumar, and Masi Oka, the sex appeal of dorkiness, in Heroes. And they've made it in the sense that they are ranked in People's Annual Sexiest Man Alive. In case you're wondering, George Clooney topped the savory list of mouth drooling masculinity and I most definitely agree with that result.

At the same time, however, I can't help but notice how the polls are also revealing about the details. One of the polls asks "Which Lost star do you want to share a deserted isle with?" Leading the pack is Matthew Fox (47%) and Josh Holloway (44%). Daniel Dae Kim? He's at 2% and Naveen Andrews at 5%. But Harold Perrineau rounded out the bottom at 1%. I have to keep in mind that the low numbers could be about how their characters were developed in the story and I am not a Lost fan so I'm not familiar with the narrative too well. But to contrast that point, we can turn to the Heroes poll, which does look a bit more promising than the Lost crew. Milo Ventimiglia (30%), Santiago Cabrera (27%), and Adrian Pasdar (23%) lead the index of desirability, while Sendhil Ramamurthy received 18%, but Masi Oka ended up with 2%. Hmmm ... what gives?

It's refreshing, and reassuring, to see a whole new generation of Asian American men defining, and whether they know it or not, challenging preconceived notions about stereotypical representations of Asian masculinity. However, I can't help but notice the near bottom rankings of these men. It confirms for me, yet again, that our sense of desire and fantasy are racially organized. I am not surprised at this outcome but I am not discouraged. I think these polls also reveal how much further Asian American masculinity can go. There's nowhere else to go but up and that's something I can look forward to.