Programme
Jennifer Yim
Graduate Student
Women's Studies
University of Michigan
E/ jyim@umich.edu
Brown Masculinities and the Contours of Resistance to Hegemonic White
Masculinities: Implications for Psychological Well- being
(w/ Ram Mahalingam)
Indian Americans have been considered a "model minority" group due to their visible appearance academic and financial success in the United States. The stereotype of the model minority is in fact demographically misleading and has resulted in both negative and positive outcomes for Asian Americans (Mahalingam, 2006; Takaki, 1999). Historically, social representations of Asian Americans have been negative and the marginalized status of Asian Americans has contributed to the need to construct a positive self identity. The model minority myth is a variant of an idealized cultural identity that helps Asian Americans maintain a positive self identity, but while this stereotype may help them to cope with the racial discrimination, ironically it may also contribute to negative psychological, physical, and academic outcomes (Inman & Yeh, 2007; Mahalingam, 2006). One byproduct of the model minority stereotype is a notion of a feminized South Asian man who focuses energy into academic and financial success at the expense of personal sacrifices and denied sexuality. Notions of masculinity are an important theoretical framework in which to examine the experiences of second generation Tamil men who construct a discourse of brown masculinities that challenges, resists and redefines the unidimensional image of brown masculinities. By triangulating Kolywood images of men in Tamil movies and second generation Tamil college students' discourse of brown masculinities, our paper delineates the complex dimensions of brown masculinities that freely appropriates images of men in Tamil and Hindi movies to challenge the hegemony of white masculinities. Using interviews of second generation Tamil male students in college and their perceptions of white and brown masculinities and representations of men in Tamil/ Hindi movies, we examine the positive and negative mental health consequences of internalizing the idealized image of brown masculinities.
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Ms. Yim's doctoral dissertation research focuses on Asian American men,
masculinity, coping, and well-being. A recent publication, "Culture,
masculinity, and psychological well-being in Punjab, India", was issued in the
2006 Sex Roles special issue on masculinities with Ram Mahalingam.