Pitch Perfect And Its Far-From-Perfect Portrayal of Asian-American Women

By Guest Contributor Nisha H.

Cast poster for the film “Pitch Perfect.” Via mockingjay.net.

Pitch Perfect is a film that tells the underdog tale of a nearly-defunct a capella group, the Barden Bellas, rising through the collegiate ranks again and reclaiming former glory. It also features not one, but two East Asian female characters, providing writers with ample “Asians and music” stereotypes to riff off of, such as the piano-playing prodigy or Asians with perfect pitch (this movie is called Pitch Perfect; would this not have been the most perfect stereotype to use?).

But instead of the brilliant Asian musicians that I thought might grace the screen, I instead found myself looking not at two characters but two caricatures, with a world of missed opportunities to draw on positive stereotypes. This isn’t to say that the usage of positive racial stereotypes is much better than the negative ones; it’s just that if writers are going to insist on reducing ethnic characters to easily digestible, tired tropes, I’d rather have them draw on one of the “positive” stock stereotypes over the negative ones. With limited visibility of Asian Americans in the media, you want the few instances where you do get represented to be positive.

Hana Mae Lee as Lilly in “Pitch Perfect.” Via 8asians.com.

Unfortunately, this was not the case with this movie. Far and away the film’s most offensive Asian character was Lilly (Hana Mae Lee). It’s not clear how Lilly got the stamp of approval to join the Barden Bellas, as her defining characteristic is that she cannot speak or sing above a whisper. She may have other personality traits, but it’s impossible to discern as we are unable to hear her 99 percent of the time.

The “quiet Asian who is too meek to talk normally” joke wasn’t funny initially and yet was still repeated. I went from rolling my eyes the first time it was brought it up to being legitimately upset by the fifth or so time Lilly says something and everyone’s response is, “What?! I can’t hear you!” Sometimes her character is just flat-out ignored because no one can hear her.

Remember how The Little Mermaid got all that criticism because Ariel gives up her voice to Ursula just for a man? Yeah, just switch the two films and use Ursula as a metaphor for film companies, filmmakers, and screenwriters who snatch away ethnic characters’ voices in exchange for allowing them a small part in their films.

Page 1 of 3 | Next page