The Tattoo (Chris McKinney) Novel Response 3

The last section of Supernova in the novel Tattoo felt like a very powerful statement on well-oiled saying of the Japanese man being a samurai. Throughout the entire book the main character Ken is being formed, or as he puts it, crafted in into a bomb, or the samurai as far as his Japanese ancestry goes. The idea of samurai – a man who knows no fear and is both the protector of his household and master of his wife – is the social norm and cultural standard Ken is raised under by his father, and is the prevailing theme of the novel. He is expected to not only be fearless, but also to ‘take shit from no one’, especially not from his woman (Claudia) in the later portions of the novel. It is emphasized in the later sections of the novel that marriage is a noose and it suffocates a man, making him weak, which is what Koa is trying to tell Ken through his own experience with Kahala. Ken is told by multiple people back from the country side that the old norms remain and he is supposed to be in charge, not the woman, and also that his infatuation with Claudia will not last and he should back out while he still can and not get ‘fucked’ by her.

Perhaps the most uplifting part of the novel is even though Ken’s life is a downward spiral he himself admitted he might never have any hope of escaping what he had become.  His son is to be raised without him and without Musashi (what he had become) his son will escape the cycle and it will become the end of the line of Hideyoshi samurai.

The theme of assimilation is caught in the conflict between Claudia and Ken’s father – the forced coming and clashing together and the ideals that they held. Claudia is the new way, while Ken’s father is the old way or as Ken’s father saw it, he is the right way – traditional – and Claudia is the wrong way – the haole way. Despite these differences Ken acknowledges the fact that even though they are two different people with two different backgrounds, he and Cal share a similar story not because of race, culture, or skin color but because they are both human and it is the choices they make that create the outcome.

Growing up in Hawai’i, we use the term samurai to describe men who live by these ideals – the old way of doing things – and this book is a very accurate portrayal of this concept. It is not a book I would have likely read on my own, but I’m glad I got the opportunity. It proves great insight into things we don’t even think of on a day to day basis. But what’s even more interesting is that this theme of ‘men being tough’ is not exclusive to Hawai’i or traditional social norms of Japanese culture. This expected behavior in fact can be found even in today’s modern society in America as discussed earlier this month regarding that men are expected in today’s world to be unemotional towards sex and to carry a cool and collected face. The book carried a theme that although many of Ken’s experiences may have seemed exclusive to Hawai’i, they were in fact not so and that really it can be related to anyone, anywhere in the world today. Though we all might never relate to the situations that Ken was presented with, there is something to be learned in regards to what to take out of the experiences we are presented with in our daily lives.

Review Paper: "The Ideal Woman Is: Asian."

It’s a growing trend nowadays that men seem to picture their ideal woman to be a youthful Asian (typically Japanese) bride. But what's more interesting is the increase in the stereotype male fetish of youthful Asian women in maid costumes. So what is exactly going on here? Why are men so interested in these socially accepted ideals of youthful beauty in servants’ clothes?

It all starts with historical stereotypes. In the past, Japanese women had the perception of being as a geisha: a woman whose job was to please and entertain men carrying a face of beauty and grace.  She was trained the arts and her sole purpose was to honor her male cliental, and this ‘ideal woman’ was continually perpetuated throughout the culture in history even to the modern day (where female students are required to take home economics and flower arrangement). It’s not surprising the West have the view of Asian women, especially those of Japanese ancestry, to be perfect brides when they are modeled to be such by their own culture.

But this still isn’t the full picture. With Japanese women and literature there are three main archetypes: the Maiden, the Wife, and the Mistress.  The same thing can be said regarding the West’s view of the fantasized woman, but most importantly is the idea of the maiden and innocence in regard to the appeal of this fascination with Japanese women. Japanese young women are marketed as this ‘maiden’ persona of purity and innocence to which even the West is biting into.

But where does the maid outfit fetish come in? It is the ever appealing idea of a relationship without attachment. As mentioned in the essay before this, there is a social expectation in the West that men are supposed to be detached of emotion, especially in relationships. They should be experienced with the act of intercourse and it should be something mundane and since there are no emotions invested in it, marriage is something that also becomes mundane and boring, and the thrill of a mistress becomes all the more appealing.

The union of the maiden and the mistress seem to have manifested itself in the new age fetish of attractive young Asian women in maid outfits and other attire usually associated with risky one-night-stands. Most people do not consciously think of these things as marriage of two themes together as a result of socially constructed expectations (and as a result, social norms). We write it off as it being a guy thing, when in fact that further proves the fact that it’s a social expectation for men to buy into this kind of thing.

Does this have adverse effects? Well yes, like anything that comes with a perception, it’s just that – a perception – it’s not always true and sometimes it can be anything but the truth. There has been a revitalized intrigue in America in Japan in the current generation and as a result women are becoming less and less meek. They still are nowhere close to as outspoken as Western women (which is expected given the cultural differences) but Japanese women given the environment of the big city and longer period of education, are straying further and further away from that ideal geisha woman.

These things are far from out of the ordinary to me, and worse than Western men in the consumption of the popularization of this fetish and the market it entails is the Asian men themselves. For the most part it’s harmless if you exclude the delusions it might create with those who believe blindly in the media, but it just goes to show the social norms and expectations of society. I believe that these ideas and the appeal to them has only heightened because of the movement of feminism and the result that women stray further and further away from this ideal. Just like how women like to read sleazy romance novels to feed their fantasies of a perfect romance, men buy into this market to feed their own fantasies.

Review Paper: Sociological Images Assignment

The social images from the articles Illustrating a "Normal" Lifecourse, Vintage Advice for Handy Moms, and The Cool Factor and the Display of Disinterest are examples of the social constructions and expectations for our youth/individuals within our society. What are these expectations precisely? To be a man is to be aloof, to not wear 'feminine' features such as laces, and to have a lifestyle that is acceptable by the standards of society (ie. not having children in your twenties).

In Vintage Advice for Handy Moms, what better way to have your child more presentable in your eyes than to have him fear being demoralized by laces in his eyes. This article suggests that by leaving shirt tails un-tucked, the boy is being less than presentable in some way shape or form. By doing so, he is assumedly being making his mother feel shame by going around like that (unacceptable to a standard in society). While the child will most likely not feel the direct effects of this shame, there is a level of unspoken fear from the mother this article is addressed to that she will be discriminated against by her peers (other mothers) for the way her boy presents himself in front of others. It’s the idea that how her child acts reflects upon how she raises him and it’s this standard of how we raise our children that leads us to discriminate others because it doesn’t meet the standard of what we think is acceptable.

In Illustrating a Normal Lifecourse, it’s shown what society perceives as an acceptable lifecourse for a woman. In her adolescence she is expected not to engage in intimate relationships whatsoever, the article refuses to acknowledge that such things that could be happening. It goes on to say that in her twenties, she would start exploring these relations; however when she moves to her thirties there is no ifs ands or buts that she will start having children. It is societies’ expectations that a normal woman would begin to settle down and start having children at her prime and afterwards it’s her job to care for the children until they’re out of the house. After they move out, she’s free to explore relationships again because chances are she’ll end her marriage or grow tired of it.

In The Cool Factor and the Display of disinterest, it shows that men’s standard for their masculinity is that they are aloof to intimate relationships. They should be experienced and it should all seem mundane (and rather boring). It underlays the prevailing theme with men that they cannot show emotions (especially not tears) because that feminizes them in some way, shape, or form.

These three articles stuck out to me because not only do I see it all around in society but I catch myself using these standards as well at times. During our lives and our socialization process we are taught that boys aren’t allowed to cry, girls play with dolls, and eventually one day Sally and Joe will get married, have 2.5 children, buy a house of their own, and grow old together after kicking the kids out of the house. It becomes both a social norm and a stereotype that children of their respecting genders grow up and adhere to these qualities. Often times, I catch myself thinking that a guy is ‘so girly’ because he complains and doesn’t shrug it off like men are ‘supposed’ to, or that a girl is ‘such a girl’ because she whines constantly and displays too much emotion. While we don’t always verbally discriminate, no one within their lifetime can say they have never thought  someone was strange for not adhering to social norms and perimeters set within their minds for how people should act.

The Tattoo (Chris McKinney) Novel Response 2

Hawai’i is most likely one of the largest meccas of ethnic humor in the world, mostly due to the shared past of so many ethnic groups in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Racial slurs are also probably most common place here, without any malicious meaning, all except the word haole.

In the section of The Tattoo by Chis McKinney Looking At Musashi, the underground world of Honolulu is revealed to readers. But more that than, it becomes apparent the views that locals (Ken) have toward mainlanders -- especially service men -- more so than in other chapters. With the introduction of the character Mama-san, the bitter feelings between locals and mainlanders becomes shockingly apparent with the revelation of her past: violated, raped, and impregnated by western military men when she was in her motherland of Korea. It is shown that Mama-san’s socialization processes greatly influenced her trade in life -- that she owned the largest chain of strip bars and ‘massage’ parlors in the islands (and inter-island famous at that). She was immersed in the environment of the male’s primal urges and, whether she cared or not, perpetuated it. Whether or not is was out of defiance in making these girls do what they did or out of bitterness for the life she led, it was made clear she did what she did for the money above all else. Her daughter Claudia attested to that name meant everything to her mother: brand name, school name, title occupation name, the list went on. Status was what Mama-san cared about, she wanted power and to overcome the power differential she saw in her past.

When Claudia speaks to Ken about moving to the mainland, his first thoughts and words are spoken in fear of the ethnic stratification he believes exists on the mainland. Claudia dismisses it saying it’s from all the books he’s read of people of black skin berating on the white man, but Ken is obstinate of what he believes. Here, to locals, haoles are the scapegoat. Here, Caucasians are the minority, and are often the first to be blamed as those ‘dumb haoles’. We all have different self justifications such as they come here on vacation and take up our beaches, or they stole our Hawaii Nei and overthrew our Queen, or even because they’re tacky with their silly tourist trap aloha shirts and ABC store plastic leis. Regardless of our individual justifications, generally, most locals blame everything on haoles.

This part of the story, while not a beautiful part by any stretch, caught my interest for the sheer fact that it spoke upon paths in life. Ken went through the dilemma of whether he would end up just like his father and Claudia to defy her mother even though her mother still meant more than anything to her. It was something that stuck me as really an uncommon theme in modern day literature and cinema (the bond of family). While she still broke her bonds with her mother, it was very apparent it was a painful and heart wrenching process for her. It’s something I think that many locals go through: this idea of being the individual as American philosophies dictate, but also preserving that family bond that is prevalent in Asian and local culture.

Review Paper: Global Issue -- Perpetuation of Child Trafficking in Cambodia

To many Americans, the idea of human trafficking seems like a distant woe of the past. However, in other countries it is an all too real problem, and unfortunately Americans are sometimes involved in the perpetuation of the industry.

It’s a sad but true fact that most people are aware that men overseas in the armed forces tend to have their way with local women after being cooped up in ships for sometimes months at a time. Many of these men turn to prostitutes in foreign countries. But where do these prostitutes come from? In Cambodia, chances are they were a result of child trafficking.

Prostitution has become intermingled in urban life in Cambodia. It is estimated that 35% of prostitutes in Cambodia are under the age of 18, and to make matters worse, but not unpredictably so, it has been shown that the number of prostitutes rise when a large army or armed forces is stationed in the country. Unlike the Philippines and Sri Lanka which are known for the market of young boys, in Cambodia the predominant child trafficking is with young girls between the age of 12 and 17, which is not to say they weren’t introduced to the industry earlier in their lifetime either.

However, it is not just the foreign ‘tourists’ that are to blame. There have been laws and movements to attempt to lessen trafficking in Cambodia, however, most of failed due to the fact that there are many corrupt officials who they themselves are involved in the trafficking scene.

So how does this relate to sociology? Well, much like how Americans view Hawai’i as an exotic location, where what happens there stays there, many people have that same attitude when entering foreign countries. They enter like this dream state, where nothing they do holds consequence – including purchasing the services of a prostitute that appears to be underage. No doubt to some service men, the act of spending the night with foreign prostitute is eased by the fact that she is just that – foreign and not of his ingroup or what is familiar to him. He can see her as an outsider and thus feel more superior and not feel the guilt he would undoubtedly feel if she was of the same race and majority group as him.

There is also acceptance. The foreigners to Cambodia accept that they can have this privileged of service and the industry and many major players the Cambodian economy accept that foreigners want to buy their people’s sexual services and use this in their economic competition. This idea of acceptance by both the majority group and minority group play a role in the perpetuation of the industry.

Now, Cambodia has earned the modern day stereotype as an escape destination (along with the Philippines and Sri Lanka) for pedophiles. These countries have that have had large occupations of armed forces, and still continue to have forces to this day, have made an economical acceptance that if this is what the majority group foreigners want, this is what they’ll get.

When people mention prostitution in the United States, we scrunch our nose and think it is unthinkable. When we mention that men over seas were ‘having a good time’ or ‘he couldn’t keep it in his pants’, we don’t think much of it: it has become a social norm – that is just men being men. Domestically we rally for the rights of minorities but when it comes to issues to other countries that our people help perpetuate, we still think of it as not our problem. It can’t be helped after all, right? Best not tackle things out of our control since that’s the way it’s always been, even if what we preach nowadays contradicts it.

The Tattoo (Chris McKinney) Novel Response 1

Growing up on the Windward side in the haole populated Kailua, I was always exposed to the themes presented in Tattoo but never to a degree as depicted in Ka’a’awa, an even more country side of the Ko’olaus. Being born and raised on O’ahu, particularly in what’s considered the country side (what I would later find out in my life) most things seemed natural, so much so that you never thought much of it. I remember that after years of attending the same church, when the church began to see an influx of attending Caucasians, I thought what was wrong? I believe that was the first time in my life that thoughts of ethnocentrism entered my mind and I had noticed the pattern of increasing Caucasian families taking up residence in Kailua and the coming and going of military. It was the first time in my life I started to feel animosity towards people of light skin, people who had been living around me all my life only now in greater numbers bringing about change.

Time has only increased these trends as nowadays, it’s strangely common to see tour buses coming into Kailua Town dropping off Japanese tourists for a five minute walk to the beach. Earlier in the semester we were asked if we thought that Hawai’i was imperial project. The first thing that came to mind was first the instillation of islands in Kailua Town as ‘beautification’, then the renovation of the stores and restaurants on the strip, and then most recently even further remodeling and relocation of stores, all for the beautification of Kailua, the increase in the number of tour buses bustling through, and the increase new luxurious homes being built, particularly on the lakefront properties of Enchanted Lake, an artificial lake.

The book covers themes of racism not thought about much by many Americans – racism towards Caucasians. The idea of an ingroup and an outgroup as well. At a point in the book, Koa and Ken are talking about Japanese and katonks, Japanese Americans from the mainland, and Koa clearly states that Ken is one of them: he’s a local, even if he may be of Japanese heritage. These sorts of things are actually all too common in Hawai’i, this idea of multiple identities and groups. We are locals first, then our ethnicity, and Americans last – if even that to some people, or when convenient.

I cannot call myself any different than the two adolescent Koa and Ken. I recall going to the beach nearly every weekend and having it mostly to ourselves with the exception of other local families. Then suddenly, it became overcrowded with tourists to the point we stopped going. Sand was kicked up everywhere, the water was no longer clear from there being too many people, and you couldn’t help the feelings arise of wanting them to leave - wanting things to go back to the way they were.

Although Hawai’i has been slowly assimilated since the plantations first began as a booming business, it still continues today. Hawai’i, a rich ecosystem with numerous natural resources is almost solely dependent on tourism for gross domestic product and extremely dependent on imported food and fuel, even though in the past Hawai’i possessed some of the greatest and most refined agricultural systems involving utilization from mountains to sea.

Even though the presence of ingroups and outgroups in locals and mainlanders is strong, it does not mean the two do not get along. Just that, many of those in the ingroups always view the outgroup members and just that – always the “other”. However, there is an exception I have found over the years. Locals within the ingroup tend to accept outsiders readily if they live here and graduate high school locally. High school is highly prized locally as identity and a fast track to acceptance by the ingroup. On the mainland they ask, ‘Where did you go to college?”, however locals instead first ask, “Where’d you go high school?” Roots are very important locally and hometowns create even further breakdowns of ingroups and outgroups locally, but there is always the presence of the greater local ingroup identity of being raised in Hawai’i. 

Review Paper: Domestic Issue -- Southern California Gang Warfare

Los Angeles is known as the gang capital of the country. There has been a long history of African American gangs, however within the past two decades there has been an exponential growth of Hispanic gangs that have begun to dominate the area and push the African American gangs to the south. Within the last three years, more and more violent incidents have started occurring, mostly gang turf related, and many times with race gang conflicts. However, just recently within the past year there have been a rising number of incidents involving hate related crimes dealing with race. On September 9, 2010, it was published in the local San Diego news that two Latino gang members were convicted of first-degree murder of a citizen on the basis of a hate crime.

Historically, minority groups that immigrated to Southern California created neighborhoods known as barrios. Because these areas tended to be economically depressed, the males rose to become the protectors and guardians of this community. These males became the peacekeepers, settling disputes and maintaining order. Nowadays, the gangs are much more sophisticated and even collect taxes from others. More interesting is that the local gangs of Southern California, particularly the mafia, are arch rivals with the gangs from El Salvador. Over the years by result of chain migration, these gangs have become larger and larger. In fact, there has been so much migration that Southern California has become overcrowded and previous gang members have had to move, mostly moving to the south. The ethnoviolence that has arisen today not only exists between those of different ethnicities, but in some cases between the homeland gangs and the gangs that exist in the host country.

Ethnocentrism is a large part in the formation and maintenance of gangs (ingroup) and dominant group (outgroup) relations. Lately things have escalated in the Southern California area due in part to the increasing number of people who affirm this way of life as their social identity (the social identity theory that the ingroup members almost automatically think their group as better than outgroups).                     

It can be argued that this is very much an example that proves the Conflict Theory – the view that the elite exploit the masses. This is often times a driving factor in how gangs justify the things that they do: they are ‘sticking it to the man.’ What is ironic about this is that what these groups aspire to do is really to become the authority themselves. They claim they are rejecting rules and that it is the rules and establishment they fight against, but really they are living by their own set of rules and trying to enforce their rules upon others. So in essence, it is one large power struggle, much the same as the turf wars that take between rival gangs.        

The presence of gangs and gang turf wars have always been evident: graffiti, vandalism, violence, and the like. But what is most concerning is that in recent years the violence has escalated into hate crimes, sometimes resulting in causalities as with the unfortunate recent case of Cheryl Green, the victim of a hate crime. These cases serve as a chilling reminder that something that started out as forming an identity in a new host country could come so far as to create an entire world beneath the surface of the federal system: another system dictated by those empowered by those who revere them as leaders, the ‘shotcallers’ of gangs.

It’s always one thing to hear about these events, and it’s another to actually witness evidence of it occurring. In one such case, on the entry way of a tunnel in Southern California, the words ‘Go Home Yankee’ can clearly be read to all passing into the territory beyond the end of the tunnel.