English 101
3/17/15
Professor St. Clair
Synthesis essay
Don’t Judge Books By The Cover
Through everyday life stereotypes exist wither we want them to or not and there’s not much
anyone can do about it. In part, from the piece “Paper Tigers”, by Wesley yang and “Ghetto Bitches,
China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas”, by Jennifer Pozner the realities of these stereotypes come to life. It has
always been examined of how racial stereotypes play out in popular media and life, specifically by TV
shows like Americas next top model, Ru pauls drag show and many other reality shows and the effects
they have on men and women. However these stereotypes aren’t just in TV, they exist all over the place,
but to be specific in this essay, what are the impacts that are made on individuals and on society.
To begin “Paper Tigers, “Wesley Yang's unrestricted, cultural analysis/personal rant in
the newest Issue of New York magazine, is supposedly about the "Bamboo Ceiling." That's the Asian-
American result to the glass ceiling that’s kept women out of Corridors of power and kept them in the
dark. Yang's thesis is that Asian-Americans are lacking a certain many things but it’s vague at first. But it
boils down to being a certain white something. We're too reserved and too dedicated to the straight-
and-narrow path, too reluctant to honk our own horns and not looking to make any ripples in the pond
of life, where in pozners piece there a tidal waves going on.
To add additional power and point, headshots of Yang, recent college grad, Jefferson Mao,
restaurateur Eddie Huang, and "pickup artist" J.T. Tran make vibrant, this essay gazes up at that woody
canopy from a decidedly male perspective and gives face to the stories. The lengthy but to the point
piece profiles several young Asian-American men but there is only one woman, a marketer for IBM,
though she's less richly drawn than any of the males and not really a...