Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws, and Love

by Yen Le Espiritu

Overview

Labor, laws, and love. Yen Le Espiritu explores how racist and gendered labor conditions and immigration laws have affected relations between and among Asian American women and men. Asian American Men and Women documents how the historical and contemporary oppression of Asians in the United States has (re)structured the balance of power between Asian American women and men and shaped their struggles to create and maintain social institutions and systems of meaning. Espiritu emphasizes how race, gender, and class, as categories of difference, do not parallel but instead intersect and confirm one other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742560604
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/29/2007
Series:	Gender Lens
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.26(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Yen Le Espiritu, is professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, has written on ethnicity, immigration and race relations. Originally from Vietnam, she is the author of Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities and Filipino American Lives.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Introduction     vii
Preface to the Second Edition     xiii
Labor, Laws, and Love     1
Sociology and Asian American Studies     1
Theorizing Race, Gender, and Class     4
Asian Americans: Their Material and Cultural Lives     8
Getting There From Here: Goals, Scope, and Methodology     15
Stretching Gender, Family, and Community Boundaries, 1840s-1930s     19
Labor Recruitment, Exclusion Laws, and the Shortage of Women     20
Stretching the Boundaries of Family     25
Work and Changing Gender Relations     34
Conclusion     47
Changing Lives: World War II and the Postwar Years     49
Changing Power Relations: The Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans     50
Improved Lives: Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Indian Americans     57
Asian Americans and Postwar America: The Emerging Middle Class     60
New Arrivals: The "Separated" Wives, War Brides, and Refugees     63
Conclusion     69
Contemporary Asian America: Immigration, Increasing Diversity, and Changing Resources     71
Immigration Laws, Labor Needs, and Changing Gender Composition     73
Economic Diversity Among Contemporary Asian Immigrants     74
Gender Relations Among Salaried Professionals     78
Gender Relations Among Self-Employed Entrepreneurs     82
Gender Relations Among Wage Laborers     87
Conclusion     94
Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images     97
Yellow Peril, Charlie Chan, and Suzie Wong     99
Cultural Resistance: Reconstructing Our Own Images     111
Controlling Images, Gender, and Cultural Nationalism     117
Conclusion     121
Beyond Dualisms: Constructing an Imagined Community     123
Yellow as Neither Black nor White     124
Asians as Neither Man nor Woman     126
Race or Gender or Class     129
Beyond Dualisms: Constructing an "Imagined Community"     131
Works Cited     137
Index     167
About the Author     175

Editorial Reviews

Espiritu examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American women and men—with each other and with the dominant white society—from a gendered perspective. Locating gender in its intersection with race and class, this is one of the few works in ethnic studies or women's/gender studies that actually discusses the matrix of race/gender/class structures of oppression within a specific racial-ethnic community, i.e., Asian Americans, one that is also largely an immigrant community. Espiritu lends support to charges by women of color that traditional feminist theory falsely universalizes the category of 'women,' and overlooks the positions that white men and white women occupy over men of color. She also admits that this work does not disrupt the 'male-centered' framework of Asian American studies. The historical oppression of Asian Americans is explored along material and cultural lines, e.g., the formal and informal labor markets, including prostitution; family and small businesses; Japanese American internment; marriage and family; refugee resettlement; racist stereotyping. Theoretically, Espiritu advances the concept of 'racialized patriarchy.' She concludes with a call to create an 'imagined community' of cross-gender, cross-cultural,

Choice Reviews - Evelyn Hu-DeHart

Asian American Women and Men by Yen Le Espiritu offers a piercing and sensitive account of the experiences of first- and second-generation Asian American women and men, showing that gender differentiation and disadvantage is not a universal experience but is structured distinctly depending on its intersections with race and class. Drawing heavily on cultural theory, Espiritu exposes the binary oppositions that underlie representations of Asian American gender and sexuality.

Verta Taylor

Espiritu examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American women and men—with each other and with the dominant white society—from a gendered perspective. Locating gender in its intersection with race and class, this is one of the few works in ethnic studies or women's/gender studies that actually discusses the matrix of race/gender/class structures of oppression within a specific racial-ethnic community, i.e., Asian Americans, one that is also largely an immigrant community. Espiritu lends support to charges by women of color that traditional feminist theory falsely universalizes the category of 'women,' and overlooks the positions that white men and white women occupy over men of color. She also admits that this work does not disrupt the 'male-centered' framework of Asian American studies. The historical oppression of Asian Americans is explored along material and cultural lines, e.g., the formal and informal labor markets, including prostitution; family and small businesses; Japanese American internment; marriage and family; refugee resettlement; racist stereotyping. Theoretically, Espiritu advances the concept of 'racialized patriarchy.' She concludes with a call to create an 'imagined community' of cross-gender, cross-cultural, and cross-class coalitions bound together by the common struggle against all pervasive forms of structured domination.
— Evelyn Hu-DeHart, University of Colorado, Boulder

CHOICE

A sociological perspective of the relationships between Asian American men and women presenting a gendered analysis of class, race, ethnicity, and immigration that moves beyond "assimilation" as the predominant model. Espiritu (ethnic studies, U. of California) describes immigration and labor policies and conditions from the 1840s through today, demonstrating how subordinate power relations in a patriarchy contributed to changes in gender and cultural traditions for both men and women, as well as framing contemporary questions of dualism and cultural resistance. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Espiritu examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American women and men—with each other and with the dominant white society—from a gendered perspective. Locating gender in its intersection with race and class, this is one of the few works in ethnic studies or women's/gender studies that actually discusses the matrix of race/gender/class structures of oppression within a specific racial-ethnic community, i.e., Asian Americans, one that is also largely an immigrant community. Espiritu lends support to charges by women of color that traditional feminist theory falsely universalizes the category of 'women,' and overlooks the positions that white men and white women occupy over men of color. She also admits that this work does not disrupt the 'male-centered' framework of Asian American studies. The historical oppression of Asian Americans is explored along material and cultural lines, e.g., the formal and informal labor markets, including prostitution; family and small businesses; Japanese American internment; marriage and family; refugee resettlement; racist stereotyping. Theoretically, Espiritu advances the concept of 'racialized patriarchy.' She concludes with a call to create an 'imagined community' of cross-gender, cross-cultural, and cross-class coalitions bound together by the common struggle against all pervasive forms of structured domination.
— Evelyn Hu-DeHart, University of Colorado, Boulder

Choice

Asian American Women and Men by Yen Le Espiritu offers a piercing and sensitive account of the experiences of first- and second-generation Asian American women and men, showing that gender differentiation and disadvantage is not a universal experience but is structured distinctly depending on its intersections with race and class. Drawing heavily on cultural theory, Espiritu exposes the binary oppositions that underlie representations of Asian American gender and sexuality.
— Verta Taylor

Signs: Journal of Women In Culture & Society

Asian American Women and Men by Yen Le Espiritu offers a piercing and sensitive account of the experiences of first- and second-generation Asian American women and men, showing that gender differentiation and disadvantage is not a universal experience but is structured distinctly depending on its intersections with race and class. Drawing heavily on cultural theory, Espiritu exposes the binary oppositions that underlie representations of Asian American gender and sexuality.
— Verta Taylor

Signs: Journal Of Women In Culture & Society