The modeling agency

So yesterday in my Asian American Sexualities class we showed pictures of scantily clad Asian American women and asked a loaded question: is this feminism?

There were many thoughtful responses from the students. One that makes me thoughtful goes like this:

"It's not like anyone is forcing her to a be sushi platter."

"No one is forcing them to wear a bikini in a college fashion show sponsored by Asian American organizations."

On one level, that retreat into individual choice is acceptable because it asserts agency: those women are making a choice. It may be contributing to stereotypes, but it is also the source of their power and they are choosing it, so their reasoning goes. I call that the "modeling agency" defense (get it?)

I want to ask them a deeper question next class: So what IS forcing her to make that choice?

Is it peer pressure? A desire to be liked? A paycheck?

Is it to overcome a negative body image (none of the girls are fat)? Is it to support relatives back home? Economic justice is not a term I use often because I don't fully understand it or buy it. But the concept is attractive because it values the connections between individuals and systems.

As much as we value the individual and autonomy, real life teaches us that choices are limited and control is incomplete.

In my syllabus is this quote (and I've actually read Pedagogy of the Oppressed):

• Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. –Paulo Freire (cite…)

So the even deeper question is this: how does your choice contribute to the transformation of your world? The world that you complain about because it doesn't fairly include you in its media? Are these women practicing freedom?