About Charlene Wong
The birth of this website and of Coloured Glasses in particular stems from my embodied experience as a left-handed, Chinese-Canadian, female in a relationship with another girl who is still in the midst of her transition. I wanted a place where I could assemble all of the links potentially usable to me as a teacher. Perhaps they will be useful for someone else too.
I have only three glasses on this website because some aspects of my identity encounter more inequity than others, which reflects the intersectionality of the various biological, social and cultural categories that interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels. I could have more glasses on than I can count on my fingers, but that would be too much work for the time-frame I have to put this website together. I hope I am not spreading myself too wide, too thinly. I just couldn't separate which topic I am most passionate about. I am rarely discriminated against for being left-handed, though I can count on certain annoyances such as moving my utensils every time I eat because my parents never care to place my chopsticks on the left side when they set the table despite several reminders that it matters to me; the only person who listened is my sister, bless her. If I make a 'big deal' out of my handed-ness at home, I'm being too sensitive.
I have only three glasses on this website because some aspects of my identity encounter more inequity than others, which reflects the intersectionality of the various biological, social and cultural categories that interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels. I could have more glasses on than I can count on my fingers, but that would be too much work for the time-frame I have to put this website together. I hope I am not spreading myself too wide, too thinly. I just couldn't separate which topic I am most passionate about. I am rarely discriminated against for being left-handed, though I can count on certain annoyances such as moving my utensils every time I eat because my parents never care to place my chopsticks on the left side when they set the table despite several reminders that it matters to me; the only person who listened is my sister, bless her. If I make a 'big deal' out of my handed-ness at home, I'm being too sensitive.
Coloured Glasses and Me
The first pair of glasses deals with the gender binary because I have been profoundly influenced by the gendered expectations from my family, schooling experiences, cultural community, media and society. I was keenly aware that to be a "good" girl, you had to be quiet, meek, shy, submissive, obedient, conservative, pure, virgin, wait for Prince Charming to determine or raise your social status, etc. I had to navigate which associations I liked, and which I didn't agree with. My sister was a tomboy and shunned all things girly, so sometimes I would tone down my girlishness to avoid her teasing. My average height and size gives me the privilege to fit into mainstream clothing; my girlfriend has trouble finding fashionable clothes that aren't too short on her tall frame and must be tailored or specially ordered. Door frames and car ceilings frequently hit her head and she cannot hide in the crowd without squatting. Girls come in all shapes and sizes, but the media rarely reflects this. I am aware of how fat-shaming can be brutal to any girl or woman's self-esteem. I am aware of how images of females, both young girls and women, are constantly sexualized and used to sell just about anything and everything. I know that these messages can have dangerous consequences: media tell girls to be gorgeous and sexy to be attractive and worth anything, then also blame them for giving mixed messages and "getting" themselves raped. Both my girlfriend and I are unreported statistics of that rape culture.
The second pair of glasses deals with Queerness or LGBT support because I have several characters in my stories that don't fit the gender binary and aren't exclusively heterosexual. I learned quite a bit from being there with my characters as they show anger, resentment, annoyance or humour when faced with ignorant comments, teasing and frequently asked questions to them or about them online. It saddens me that there's such a high suicide and hate murder rate for queer and people perceived to be or identify as trans*. My girlfriend is a super talented person on many fronts, athletically, intellectually, technologically-savvy and it pains my heart to know some of the hardships she endures. It hurts to be rejected by family, receive disapproving looks on the street, be given disrespectful stares and comments on this "alternative lifestyle," despite her spending tremendous amounts of time and effort to change her appearance so that she would fit in with the mainstream of societal expectations to those who judge her. My demisexuality left me invisible during my junior and senior high school years, as I was never attracted to anyone so I was spared any gossip and didn't care to hear any.
The third pair of glasses deals with white-washing, as I found (and still find) it extremely insulting that Hollywood took the popular manga and anime series Dragonball and cast Justin Chatwin as Goku in Dragonball Evolution. Even though the entire setting is science fiction and Goku is an alien, I have always imagined that most of the cast is Chinese, given that Goku has black hair, dresses, eats and lives in an Asian-inspired world, in a story based on Chinese legend, despite being written by a Japanese mangaka (comic artist). Similarly with Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as in Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, I was also insulted by some of the white-washed casting choices for the live-action versions. Even within the Asian community, I am aware that I receive praise for my lighter skin tone, and that darker skin is deemed less beautiful historically. It is incredibly unfair because what does the level of melanin in one's skin have to do with anything other than their ancestors survived in warmer climates thanks to that melanin? When a writer chooses to write a character as black, brown or olive-skinned, they are trying to tell the story of a character with darker skin. Picking the lightest-skinned actor of that race or ethnicity, or of another race entirely (that's more "universal" to audiences) just continues to invalidate their right to representation, and continues to further the danger of a single story (Adichie 2009). There is so much to unlearn.
The second pair of glasses deals with Queerness or LGBT support because I have several characters in my stories that don't fit the gender binary and aren't exclusively heterosexual. I learned quite a bit from being there with my characters as they show anger, resentment, annoyance or humour when faced with ignorant comments, teasing and frequently asked questions to them or about them online. It saddens me that there's such a high suicide and hate murder rate for queer and people perceived to be or identify as trans*. My girlfriend is a super talented person on many fronts, athletically, intellectually, technologically-savvy and it pains my heart to know some of the hardships she endures. It hurts to be rejected by family, receive disapproving looks on the street, be given disrespectful stares and comments on this "alternative lifestyle," despite her spending tremendous amounts of time and effort to change her appearance so that she would fit in with the mainstream of societal expectations to those who judge her. My demisexuality left me invisible during my junior and senior high school years, as I was never attracted to anyone so I was spared any gossip and didn't care to hear any.
The third pair of glasses deals with white-washing, as I found (and still find) it extremely insulting that Hollywood took the popular manga and anime series Dragonball and cast Justin Chatwin as Goku in Dragonball Evolution. Even though the entire setting is science fiction and Goku is an alien, I have always imagined that most of the cast is Chinese, given that Goku has black hair, dresses, eats and lives in an Asian-inspired world, in a story based on Chinese legend, despite being written by a Japanese mangaka (comic artist). Similarly with Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as in Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, I was also insulted by some of the white-washed casting choices for the live-action versions. Even within the Asian community, I am aware that I receive praise for my lighter skin tone, and that darker skin is deemed less beautiful historically. It is incredibly unfair because what does the level of melanin in one's skin have to do with anything other than their ancestors survived in warmer climates thanks to that melanin? When a writer chooses to write a character as black, brown or olive-skinned, they are trying to tell the story of a character with darker skin. Picking the lightest-skinned actor of that race or ethnicity, or of another race entirely (that's more "universal" to audiences) just continues to invalidate their right to representation, and continues to further the danger of a single story (Adichie 2009). There is so much to unlearn.