Family Guy: Asian girls think everything small is cute
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
I watched the latest episode of Family Guy last night on the Tivo and this scene cracked me up so much!
(The boob joke is a bit tasteless, but the other stuff is on-point.)
I have to admit that I am totally guilty of this stereotype. I remember this one time I was in The Container Store. I was walking along one aisle and I spotted this tiny (about 3 inches tall) white ceramic jar with a hinged lid. Okay, not only was that already cute in and of itself, but it also had a tiny little spoon attached to it! It was total cute overload.
Then what happened next felt like it happened in slow motion. I moved towards the jar, arm oustretched, as I said “Cuuuuuuuuuuuute!” and then I was dismayed to find that at the exact same time, another Asian girl was also moving towards the same jar, her arm outstretched, also saying “Cuuuuuuuuuute!” When we got to the jar, we looked at each other in embarrassment, realizing that we had both just totally stereotyped ourselves.
I am also mortified that when I see a friend coming towards me, I almost always reflexively do The Asian Girl Wave: arm bent at elbow, hand positioned a little bit above your hip, palm facing out, hand ocillating side to side rapidly, head tilted slightly to one side.
Anyone else feel me on this? 
I guess it’s like my version of the racial pixie.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Bo wrote:
Family Guy Asian Santa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aunW_KjP7-Y
Posted 09 May 2007 at 10:13 am ¶
Brad wrote:
My gf does this all time lol.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 10:20 am ¶
mr guy wrote:
Damn.Reminds me of the slavery jokes family guy makes from time to time.Always a thin line with family guy…..
Posted 09 May 2007 at 11:59 am ¶
mr guy wrote:
As for The Asian Girl Wave, never seen it in action.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 12:00 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Yeah this episode had a slavery joke too that was VERRRRRRY borderline. Probably stepped over, actually.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 12:08 pm ¶
susanc wrote:
Don’t feel bad, you’re not the only one who does this. And if the small cute object is pink and/or has hello kitty on it? Watch out!
Maybe we need some sort of support group (Cuteaholics Anonymous)?
Posted 09 May 2007 at 12:11 pm ¶
mamazilla wrote:
how weird – i have never heard of or witnessed this asian girl obsession with small stuff… ditto with the asian girl wave…. but, chicago isn’t called the second city for nothing…
personally, i’ve always been attracted to stuff that’s oversized… (get your mind out of the gutter…)
i love oversized coffee cups, oversized clothes – especially pjs, big jackie o sunglasses, big hoop earrings, big coffeetable books, big chairs to lounge in, etc…
i think it’s because, even at 5′3″, i was always taller and bigger than my mom’s friends’ petite/size 0 daughters – so whenever oversized stuff seemed to dwarf me – i coveted it.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 3:17 pm ¶
deb wrote:
I have a fetish for small mp3 players. The companies that manufacture these players are in Hong Kong and Korea. Now I know why the female models on their websites are always so happy!
Posted 09 May 2007 at 3:33 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Damn Family Guy. Have people seen the FG movie? At the beginning, where “Asian reporter Trisha Takanawa” starts humping someone’s – maybe David Bowie’s? – leg and shrieking “I make you fish ball soup?” Then it cuts to the White anchor saying something like “thanks for setting Asian Americans back 100 years.”
But it’s a really interesting how neatly the movie evades responsibility by making the viewer say, “yeah, hey, she was messed up,” rather than “wow – someone created an Asian American female character and had her behave that way, then disclaimed responsibility.” Of course, “Trisha Takanawa” doesn’t exist, and the creators of the film/show are given a free pass for their calculatedly racist joke.
When I watched that show I was constantly walking the line – trying to process each racist/racial joke and come to some conclusion about whether it was offensive or just “pushing the envelope” – that I have stopped watching it. Any show that relies so heavily on the hilarity of racial stereotypes as mediated by a bland, no-race Whiteness is just too frustrating and ultimately, too dangerous, for me to support with my time.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 4:17 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
You know, I really am rambling a bit, but I think what I’m trying to get at is a larger conversation (and completely off topic in this thread) about how people enjoy media that is, in some fashion, perpetuating harmful stereotypes about their identities. ‘Cuz we all like something that is…um…problematic for ourselves. Like my little classic rock addiction – not so much a great place to be a woman.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 4:26 pm ¶
merq wrote:
No, Katie. I don’t think you’re rambling at all.
I was had the exact same reaction to the Takanawa/Bowie scene and the subsequent evasion of culpability.
Posted 09 May 2007 at 10:59 pm ¶
Vandia wrote:
That was really funny…..
Posted 10 May 2007 at 9:06 am ¶
Bianca Reagan wrote:
I don’t like pink things. But I do like tiny binder clip, and I love Hello Kitty! So cute!
And I’m not Asian. But I am a lady.
Posted 10 May 2007 at 12:30 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Bianca, I love tiny binder clips too!
Especially the silver or gold ones.
Posted 10 May 2007 at 12:51 pm ¶
Ailurophile wrote:
I love all things little and cute. And I’m a fortysomething white woman.
And, Katie, yes indeed. For instance, I’m single and I own cats. Cue the stereotypes and bad jokes.
Posted 10 May 2007 at 11:22 pm ¶
justin wrote:
I’m not a lady, but I do the wave thing. I guess I got that habit from my sisters, who are Asian ladies, they have excellent manners.
I saw an episode of American Dad where two white students said something like ‘ Michael Chung is so athletic and cool that you can almost forget that he’s Asian.’ I could relate to that (because I’m so cool). Later in the episode the son developed breasts and Michael Chung took advantage of him, it really made me think. . . .
So, Trish Takanawa is voiced by the women who played Miss Swan from Mad tv?
Posted 11 May 2007 at 12:30 am ¶
justin wrote:
Sorry, women should read woman. I think Bobby Lee’s ‘oh oohh, hot dog’ guy’s relationship to miss swan is more sinister than the reporter-presenter thing on family guy . When I saw the movie I felt like the writers were flipping me off. They usually have the presenters say something racist about the reporter and I swallow that cause it kinda objectifies the bland whiteness that we might overlook (on the simpsons).
Posted 11 May 2007 at 1:03 am ¶
Teresa wrote:
I am totally guilty of the asian girl wave.
-_-;
Posted 12 May 2007 at 11:16 am ¶
April wrote:
Normally, Asians in Texas don’t look at me or would even *think* to be friendly and say “hi” to anyone who *isn’t* Asian — BUT, they do when I bring my chihuahua to school. This is what they say EVERY TIME — “Cuuuuuute doggie, WHO are YOU????”…. lol.
Posted 17 May 2007 at 7:12 pm ¶
Hilary wrote:
“So, Trish Takanawa is voiced by the women who played Miss Swan from Mad tv?”
She is also Lois on Family Guy, which I didn’t know until she was on Keith Olbermann last week.
Yeah, making a racist joke and then pointing it out as such and claiming to be “ironic” gets old fast. Just like being sexist and trying to pass it off as cool or ironic. Sometimes boobs are just boobs, and racist jokes are just racist jokes.
Posted 18 May 2007 at 7:11 am ¶
alex wrote:
does anyone know if theres another site for the clip or know which episode that is from?
Posted 21 Mar 2008 at 1:46 am ¶