Friday Announcements: Mama Says Good Girls Marry Doctors; Update on Other Tongues; Vegans of Colour Research Group
Call for submissions: MAMA SAYS GOOD GIRLS MARRY DOCTORS – Retaining Control, Negotiating Roles: South and East Asian Diasporic Women and their Parents
Editors: Piyali Bhattacharya and Josephine Tsui
Contact: goodgirlsmarrydoctors at gmail dot com
Submission Deadline: July 1, 2010Are you a good girl? You know what we mean: you listen to your parents, there’s no gossip about you in the “community.” Or are you a bad girl? Were you caught smoking in high school? Did you marry that white boy against your parents’ wishes?
We ask you to contribute your story to a forthcoming volume: “Mama Says Good Girls Marry Doctors.” This book focuses on the pressures on South and East Asian women who have grown up in North America to be “good girls.” It seeks to collect the stories of such women, and their traumas, victories, and defeats as they face the control that their immigrant parents try to exercise over them in relation to the choice of a partner, or a career, or their freedom. We want to know how negotiating these pressures affects young Asian diasporic women, their relationship to feminism, to their parents and to their partners or siblings.
We do not seek academic essays, but creative non-fiction pieces, narratives, reflections and personal histories and memoirs. You can tell your own story or that of a friend or relative. As Asian women who have experiences such issues ourselves, we want this volume to bring a range of stories out in the open and available to other women who are facing these issues.
Your essay might focus on one of the following:
~How did your battle with your parents affect the way you viewed them, either immediately after any given incident, or retrospectively many months or years later? How did it affect the way they viewed or treated you?
~Is there a difference in the way your parents treat you versus your brother? Has it made a difference if you are an older or a younger sibling? Has your parents’ treatment of you affected the way you interact with your siblings?
~What were the creative ways in which you dealt with negative reactions from your parents about your partner, career, parenting skills, or any other issue?
~Have your friends outside your family or community been unable to understand the pull or responsibility you feel towards your parents? How have you dealt with this?
~ Have you found that your economic class differentiates your experience from what is considered the “norm” or from other women from your ethnic/cultural community?
~Have you ever felt like your life decisions in regard to your parents have compromised or altered your feminism?Of course, these are by no means the only questions we are focusing on. We want to hear your unique story. We are looking for women who have undergone interesting processes of self-discovery and want to hear about how these women have chosen unique ways in which to handle negotiations with their parents, and about the outcomes of their various efforts.
We want to hear your voice and your story!
Send all submissions (3,000 – 4,000 words) to: goodgirlsmarrydoctors@gmail.com by JULY 1, 2010.
Call for writing submissions: Other Tongues
Update: three weeks ago we ran a call for submissions for “Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out.” At the time the call-out asked for black/white mixed race women to submit writings. Other Tongues has since decided to open the anthology up to women of all mixed-race heritages. Below is their new announcement.
Co-editors Adebe D.A. and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions for an anthology of writing by and about mixed-race women, intended for publication in Fall 2010 by Inanna Publications.
The purpose of this anthology is to explore the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the 21st Century. The anthology will also serve as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today. We are inviting previously unpublished submissions that engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.
Please send one (1) submission of up to 2500 words of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, or spoken word as a SINGLE attachment to othertonguesanthology@gmail.com
Black and white images and artwork should be 300 dpi and sent as attachments in jpg. of tiff. format. Artwork and photography limited to three (3) per applicant.
Please include your contact information, including your name, address, phone number, e-mail, title(s) of work submitted, type of submission, and a short artist bio (50 words max) in the body of the email, with your name and the type of submission in the subject line (e.g. “Jazmine – Poetry Submission”). All submissions are due April 15, 2010. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.
If you prefer that your contribution remain anonymous, please include this preference at the top of your submission. All personal information you provide will be kept strictly confidential.
For the story behind this project, detailed submission guidelines, and the Editors’ bios, please refer to the document that is attached to this email.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact the Editors, Adebe DeRango-Adem and Andrea Thompson, at othertonguesanthology@gmail.com
For more information: www.adebe.wordpress.com www.andreathompson.ca or visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=276479812662We look forward to reviewing your submission!
Call for participants: Vegans of Colour Research Group
I would like to formally invite people to apply to be part of new research group on ning (online network and community) Critical Race and Veg*n Studies Intersect (http://sistahveganproject.ning.com/) that has two goals:
(1) This is for those of us conducting research that looks at the convergence/intersections of critical race/critical whiteness and veg*nism studies. This group is for anyone doing research/writing and they do not need to be affiliated with a university. I am hoping this network will provide a space for us to share the work we are doing, mentor each other, and review articles and manuscripts in process. I am inviting people to apply who are specifically working on critical engagement with veganism from a critical race perspective (anti-racism, anti-colonialism, racialization, racisms, decolonial theories, critical race feminisms are included in this, as well as how theories of race and vegan studies converge with anti-sexism, non-human animal studies, globalization, LGBTQ, disability studies, and class studies).
(2) I have also put this network together to ultimately create an edited volume called Critical Race and Veg*n Studies Intersect. I am hoping people accepted into this group will be interested in contributing to this volume. For those not contributing a piece, I still invite folk to be part of this private community to help brainstorm with ideas about the format, content, and promotion of the book project. I imagine the volume to be written in a way that is supportive of those who choose to practice veg*nism (as one does not have to be a veg*n to contribute, but I do ask that they are supportive of those who do practice veg*nism), but also critiques veg*nism in a way that productively opens up spaces to dialogue around underrepresented issues such as white privilege, whiteness, 1st Worldism, anti-racism, racialized colonialism’s legacies on food philosophy, and similar.
The book probably wouldn’t come out until 2012, as I’m in the midst of trying to finish my PhD for 2011. There is no rush.
You can apply to be part of this group by sending me the following:
- Name
- Organizational Affiliation (If you are independent then write that)
- URL and email address
- Research Interests
- Some titles of works you have written and/or writing (they can be published as well as unpublished papers your have writtenl)
- Other forms of media that are not formal papers you’ve created that critically convey your research, such as music, film, dance, painting, etc.
- Any other information you feel is pertinent
Send this information to breezeharper@gmail.com.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
jen* wrote:
question: Is veg*n the same as vegan? Or is it inclusive of vegetarian?
Posted 26 Feb 2010 at 1:23 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
@goodgirlsmarrydoctors:
Do you have to use your real name, or can you use a pseudonym?
Posted 26 Feb 2010 at 2:31 pm ¶
Ruchama wrote:
“Veg*n” generally is used to mean both vegans and vegetarians.
Posted 26 Feb 2010 at 2:37 pm ¶
2 Strand Twist wrote:
I’m excited to see the Mama Says essays. I’m black, but have sometimes felt as though my parents were too controlling. I’ve heard Asians talk about strict parents in passing, so I sometimes wonder how many of those experiences I would recognize. I wonder what might be the same, or different.
Maybe I will finally get a better understanding!
Posted 26 Feb 2010 at 3:30 pm ¶
Miriam wrote:
Why doesn’t West Asian (Middle East) count too?
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 12:04 am ¶
CVT wrote:
Interested to read what comes out of the “Mama Says” anthology. Definitely know plenty of Asian folks that dealt with a lot of parental pressure growing up (especially the women). However, I do hope that they put in some stories that go against the general stereotype of “strict, conservative” Asian parents, so that the collection doesn’t just reinforce stereotypes for non-Asians.
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 2:59 am ¶
genq10 wrote:
Why are controlling parents seen mostly as an Asian thing? Not that I would ever say Asian parents are not controlling (some are, some arent), but many other parents from non-asian, non-”western” countries are controlling as well, its just never seen the same way.
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 4:30 am ¶
Katsuryi wrote:
Can mixed-race women also write in for “Mama Says”? My experience with my Chinese mother could make good book material.
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 7:14 am ¶
Gretchen wrote:
@goodgirlsmarrydoctors:
how many essays can i submit?
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 6:12 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Me too. The title “Mama Says Good Girls Marry Doctors” sets up a selection bias in which stories will be heard. It seems to be encouraging the submission of only the stories of Asian women that fit that stereotype.
Because non-Asian people like easy stereotypes, and many Asian women with immigrant parents may be defining Asian-ness against whiteness, instead of against other POC with immigrant parents.
Also note it says, “Did you marry that white boy against your parents’ wishes?”, as if the only interracial relationships that Asian women have is with white men.
Yeah, I’m kind of cynical about everything.
Posted 28 Feb 2010 at 9:09 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
@genq10:
This video might make you feel better: Russell Peters – Beating Your Kids
(I don’t like how he uses “Canadian” to mean “white”, though.)
Posted 28 Feb 2010 at 9:28 pm ¶
p wrote:
I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE ‘MAMA SAYS’ ANTHOLOGY.
Posted 01 Mar 2010 at 12:47 am ¶
Piyali Bhattacharya wrote:
Hi everyone! My name is Piyali Bhattacharya and I’m the editor fo the “Mama Says Good Girls Marry Doctors” anthology. I’d just like to use this space to clarify a few issues raised about the project on this forum.
First, a huge vote of thanks to Racialicious for posting the Call and to those who have shown interest in the project! My partner, who runs the blog by the same name and is also helping me with the book, Josephine, and I are very excited about this venture and think of it as a kind of gift from those women who are willing to shre their stories to those women who so desperately need to hear them. We are thrilled that so many women have already come forward are are into the project.
Ok, having said that, let me answer a few questions:
1. The project, as I have mentioned, is in two parts. The first is an anthology of stories of women from Asian backgrounds who have grown up the North America. If this sounds limiting, it is because editing a volume is very different from editing a blog, column, etc. I felt I had to restrict the categories for the book to South or East Asian women’s stories from North America because I honestly believe that Asians in North America have a very particular experience, and it is that very experience that I am trying to document. HOWEVER, since I’m well aware that there are obviously many women from potentially every race on earth who have had this sort of experience with their parents,the project also has a blog and website, which may be viewed at http://www.goodgirlsmarrydoctors.webs.com. The whole idea behind the blog (and Josephine can write about this at greater length, if you’d like to get in touch with her at goodgirlsmarrydoctors@gmail.com) is that it can be a space where women and feminists of any background might come and share and discuss their experiences. So if you’d like to write a blog post for us, please write to goodgirlsmarrydoctors@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.
2. The issue of this book being biased and furthering stereotypes: I think that with a project like this, it’s very easy to look at it and think that it demonizes Asian or any other race of parents. That is absolutely not that we are trying to sell. Both Josephine and I are extremely close to our parents. I, personally, am living at home again for the first time in 7 years and loving it! My parents have been the most loving, caring and supportive people in my life and I never forget the sacrifices they made for me as immigrants to the States. However, when I brought home a partner they didn’t think was ideal, we hit a rough patch in our parent-daughter relationship, even though my partner is also Indian! But because of our incrdibly loving relationship, all of us made sacrifices and spilled a lot of tears in order to resolve the issue. Every single one of us, including my father and my (now) fiance, worked on building relationships with everyone else. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. I share my personal story here as a testament to the fact that this is NOT a collection that assumes parents are evil. In fact, it is PRECISELY because we love our parents so much that writing this volume and helping them to understand us is, I believe, critical. We love our parents and they’d do anything for us. But this volume is about what happens when men and women who have been raised a certain way in the “home” country try to replicate those models of behavior for their daughters growing up in a different location and time, and what happens when “love” crosses the boundary into “control.” To that end, I cannot say what kind of submissions we will or will not include because I don’t know what kind of subs we’ll get! I do hope though, that women who have been through rough patches with their parwnts decide to share their stories in order to get the message to other diasporic feminists that it’s ok to disagree with your parents! You are not the only one who has (which is what it can feel like at times) nor do you love them any less for having a differing opinion from theirs! It may sound silly now, but if you’ve been through it, you know how isolating and terrifying it can feel. What I can say is that I will certainly write a lengthy forward to make sure these points are made clearly, and make sure the volume is born out of a place of parental love and respect.
3. The issue of mixed-race: Mixed-race women are welcome to write for the collection as long as at least part of their parentage is South or East Asian. Again, I’d like to emphasize that there are NO restrictions to write for our blog and I encourage everybody to please check our websiteN comment, discuss, and post away! Goodgirlsmarrydoctors.webs.com
Thanks so much again for your interest in the volume, ladies! Please please don’t hesitate to write to us with ANY issue or question you may have at our website, goodgirlsmarrydoctors.webs.com or our email address, goodgirlsmarrydoctors@gmail.com.
Many thanks, and keep writing!
Posted 01 Mar 2010 at 12:11 pm ¶
lunanoire wrote:
@ Restructure!
I was wondering something similar. Does this “controlling Asian parent” stereotype comes from ideas about first generation immigrant parents (who may be more likely to be industrious b/c lazy people are less likely to go through the arduous immigration process) who are immigrating for greater opportunities (rather than people seeking asylum) extrapolated to encompass a larger group?
Posted 01 Mar 2010 at 1:31 pm ¶