Tone is Like Identity

Why do Alexander, Tan, Alexie, and Angelou use different tones in their pieces? Alexander’s tone is bitter, as she describes herself as “fractured” and “a mass of faults”. Tan sounds desperate as she recounts her “terrible disappointment” of a Christmas. Alexie uses humor to talk about his childhood as a “goofy reservation mixed drink”. Angelou is very anticipatory in her illustration of the “near-sacred quiet” during the boxing match. Ultimately, each author’s choice of tone is to support the purpose of the piece. Alexander’s bitterness is used to show the thoughts of a conflicted woman who is having an identity crisis. She expresses all of her harsh self-judgments to show just how troubled and confused she is about herself and her background. Tan’s desperation echoes the anxiety her teenage self must have felt during this specific event. It shows how embarrassed one little girl became solely because she was ashamed of her own culture and just wanted to fit in. Alexie’s humor masks all the pain he felt all the times when his father became obliviously drunk and when he left the family. He is hurt by his father’s actions, but he still wants to accurately portray the sort of meaningful relationship they did have. Angelou’s anticipation exemplifies the raw tension everybody in her piece felt. This event was clearly a significant event to all who were there, as its outcome would determine everybody’s status and fate in the world. All of these pieces have one thing in common: the characters are confused about their identities. However, there are many ways that this message is portrayed through to maintain another underlying purpose. The authors’ tone is just like their identities, all are different but in the end, everyone is trying to say the same thing.

Analyzing Amy's Ashamedness

I had just finished reading Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks”, and I must say- it is basically my life. I can definitely relate to Tan’s teenage life because I am a teenager, and I am an ABC (American Born Chinese) with parents from Asia. The tofu and squid that she oh-so-eloquently described as “stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges” and “bicycle tires” (Tan 95) are common dishes in my household, so I don’t think of them as described. However, Tan’s description is only depicting how outsiders like Robert and his family would see them. As a result, it is quite interesting how quick Tan is to criticize “all [her] favorite foods” like this (95). Having grown up eating these foods, she must have never really thought about them in this manner until she wanted to think and be like Americans.

Unlike Tan, I never really grew up ashamed of my culture. My family still maintains many traditional customs, and I never think twice about letting people see them. I think a part of the reason why Tan wanted to be “the same as Americans girls” is the environment she grew up in. Oakland, California in the 1960s (when Tan was 14 years old) had a 2.1% Asian population, and Troy, Michigan in the 2010s (when I was 14 years old) had a 13.3% Asian population. Conclusively, growing up in areas with different Asian population densities plays a role in ethnicity acceptance. I became more accepting of my culture, as it was more prevalent in the environment I lived in, unlike Tan's. But at least Tan eventually embraces her Chinese heritage. It's better than her letting go of it all. Kudos to her mother for instilling this sense of pride in her.

This is supposed to look like bicycle tires.

Enabling Disabled Mannequins

The mannequin business is really tricky. After watching the Pro Infirmis video, I began to question why stores don’t just use a variety of mannequins in their shops. After all, a Cambridge University study found that “women prefer brands whose advertising reflects their own identities” (Amed, Imran). If this is the case, retailers should just begin making their mannequins more varied and different. However, I soon found out that there are mass-producing mannequin factories. Although each mannequin is hand-crafted through a series of processes, they are all shaped by the same molds. Having a mold restricts the variety of figures mannequins can be modeled after. So the reason why mannequins all look whole, perfect, and the same is not because retailers truly want to discriminate people with disabilities from being commercialized, but because it would take more time and effort. It’s true that molds could be created to have different body shapes (i.e. curved torso or missing limbs) but that will still limit the options for body shapes that mannequins could have. Consumers would be seeing the same disabled figures, and still not be able to experience the whole scope of disabled peoples’ physique. We even saw in the video that the artist crafted the new mannequins from already-made mannequins kind rather than from new molds. If some stores truly care about incorporating disabled people in their advertising, they could create different molds or alter their current mannequins to have them look different. As of now, all flawed mannequins with missing parts and damages are thrown out, but if enough people are concerned about this topic, this could change. 

Resources: 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25319920 

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/03/the-fashion-industry-still-has-an-image-problem.html

As you can see, the mannequins all look the same because they are made from the same molds. This is a look inside the mannequin factory.