Why Margaret Cho, Sexting, and Gaysians Matter
Author Junot Diaz writes, “If you want to make a human being a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.” We talk a lot about “the frame” in IMJ: who and what is considered beautiful, valuable, and noteworthy against who and what is unrepresented, tokenized, and seen as dispensable or ugly. Mentors and mentees alike have heard me voice my frustration with the invisibility of LGBTQ+ Asians and Asian Americans (as I like to say, “gaysians”) in mainstream media.
I recently posed a challenge to several friends: name five recognizable celebrities that are gaysians. After minutes of trying to remember the names of people they’d glimpsed on the silver screen and repeated attempts of fishing faces out of the rarely-visited parts of their memory, they stopped defeated. If I’d asked about heterosexual celebrities or white
cisgendered male celebrities the disparity in representation would have been even more obvious.
That’s why, as someone who identifies as a gaysian and media-maker, I appreciate Margaret Cho’s presence and the work she’s done. From starring in the first sitcom to feature an Asian-American family as the main cast to speaking against racism, sexism, and homophobia in her stand up comedy, Margaret Cho is a role model that I regrettably didn’t know existed until after I was through with high school.
To me, IMJ is the kind of program I also wish I’d been exposed to earlier. Being a part of IMJ and being aware of gaysians that I could look up to in high school would have significantly helped me connect to a larger community of people with resources and support to meet the questions and frustration I experienced. Therefore, I was excited to learn that Margaret would be offering a three day special deal called the Sexting Bundle. For a minimum of $7 up to however much a person wished to spend, they could buy Margaret’s Grammy nominated album “Cho Dependent” and two bonus unreleased tracks. The best part? 20% of the proceeds are going to IMJ to support young women and LGBTQ+ youth of color making radical media!
As if this weren’t wonderful enough Tani Ikeda, the director and co-founder of ImMEDIAte Justice, was the director of Margaret’s up and coming music video “Asian Adjacent”. Through this connection, several girls had the opportunity to come onto the set, help with art production, participate as paparazzi in a scene, and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the movie-making process.
While we wanted the girls to have the opportunity to ask Margaret questions, they had to leave early for transportation reasons. It wasn’t until we were setting up the last scene, an hour later, that Tani called out my name and told me we finally had an opening and I would be asking Margaret questions. Minutes later I was in a surreal world with Margaret looking directly at me as I asked about sex education, consent, and her music video. Rather than have me attempt to summarize her responses, I hope to attach a video of the interview to this post in the near future.
I’d like to once more express my thanks to Margaret for her generous donation through the Sexting Bundle to help sustain and expand ImMEDIAte Justice. It was an honor and joy to work on a project challenging Asian stereotypes in a sexy, self-affirming, and comedic way. It’s through programs like IMJ and experiences like working on the set of a music video that LGBTQ+ youth of color and young women of color can realize their strength as media-makers and continue to expand the frame to include their own stories.
*This blog was brought to you by ImMEDIAte Justice mentor, Mel Mel!
