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00:00We are so excited to announce that we now have a line of Weird Girl merchandise.
00:05Which Weird Girl are you?
00:06The nature of power is that it belongs to no one until it is taken through sex.
00:11Violence.
00:12East Asian women on screen have long been haunted by the figure of the Dragon Lady,
00:17a violent seductress who will do anything to achieve her goals.
00:21The fierce Dragon Lady is the flip side to the passive Lotus Blossom,
00:25also known as the China Doll or Geisha Girl.
00:28Both are highly sexualized, but the Lotus Blossom is depicted as submissive
00:32and eager to please a white male protagonist.
00:35She says she's very happy to belong to a handsome captain.
00:38She says she's gonna serve you well.
00:40While the Dragon Lady is sexually aggressive and even weaponizes her sexuality.
00:45Sex is a weapon.
00:46The Dragon Lady is exoticized and mysterious,
00:49making her feel like an unknowable other,
00:52instead of encouraging the audience to empathize with her.
00:55She's typically framed as a ruthless antagonist,
00:58to be overcome or killed in battle by the end of the story.
01:03And in light of the recent increase in violence against East Asian women in America,
01:08we can see how stereotypical tropes like these can have damaging real-life consequences.
01:13At the same time, a number of characters who have been called Dragon Ladies
01:16have also contributed a lot of dramatic and representational value.
01:20The Dragon Lady is unapologetically driven, ultra-assertive, and has agency,
01:26disproving the widespread assumption fueled by both the Lotus Blossom
01:29and the model minority myth that Asian people must be meek.
01:33She's also in control of her sexuality, using it as she chooses.
01:47Some elements of the Dragon Lady trope are even contributing to more
01:50multi-dimensional East Asian characters today.
01:53Here's our take on why modern media is thankfully moving beyond
01:57one-dimensional Dragon Lady caricatures, but can draw on her power as a blueprint
02:02for more nuanced representation of East Asian women.
02:05If you're new here, be sure to subscribe and click the bell
02:24to get notified about all our new videos.
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03:46The Dragon Lady trope grew out of long-standing prejudices and legislation
03:56that painted Asian Americans as a violent threat
03:59and associated Asian women with excessive sexuality and sexual diseases.
04:04In 1875, U.S. Congress passed the Page Act,
04:07which explicitly forbid the importation of women for the purposes of prostitution.
04:12This was used to prevent the immigration of Asian women,
04:15who were stereotyped as sex workers, perceived as a sexual threat,
04:19and used as a scapegoat for the spread of sexual diseases.
04:22Legislation in the United States, such as the Page Act,
04:25discriminated and barred Asian women.
04:27They've been stereotyped as a seductress, as subservient.
04:31More generally, an influx of Chinese immigrants to the West Coast
04:34in the later 19th century led to Yellow Peril,
04:37a racist fear that Chinese workers would steal jobs
04:41and threaten the American way of life.
04:43In response, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
04:46greatly restricted Chinese immigration to the United States.
04:50A letter appeared in the pages of the New York Sun,
04:53written by a young Chinese immigrant.
04:56This country is the land of liberty for all men of all nations,
05:00except the Chinese.
05:02These fears and stereotypes manifested in early Hollywood portrayals of Asian women,
05:07especially through the career of Chinese-American actor Anna May Wong.
05:11Wong starred in 1924's The Thief of Baghdad,
05:14as a devious female villain who wears exotic outfits and headpieces
05:18while using her sexuality to undermine the protagonist.
05:21In 1931's Daughter of the Dragon,
05:23she starred as the villainous daughter of Fu Manchu,
05:26in a role that also exemplified dragon lady tropes.
05:29You will first have the torture of seeing her beauty
05:31eaten slowly away by this hungry acid.
05:35Throughout her career, Wong was frustrated with a Hollywood
05:38that offered her stereotypical roles,
05:40rarely let her be a romantic leading lady
05:42due to anti-miscegenation laws
05:45that said she couldn't kiss a white actor on screen,
05:48and sometimes even rejected her for Asian roles
05:50in favor of white actors in Yellow Face.
05:53In a 1933 interview, Wong asked,
05:55While the comparison to a dragon was already in vague use,
06:07the dragon lady trope name was coined in 1934
06:11when the comic strip Terry and the Pirates
06:13introduced a villain literally called Dragon Lady,
06:16who was beautiful, seductive,
06:17and dedicated to making herself rich.
06:19The archetype stuck and prevailed on screen for decades.
06:23You know how many people have said to me
06:24he's doing his lawyer, the Chinese dragon lady?
06:32The dragon lady is almost always the villain of her story.
06:43Unlike the vulnerable Lotus Blossom
06:45who takes on the role of object to be won or saved,
06:48she aims to thwart the typically white male character
06:51in order to fulfill her own selfish agenda.
06:53But her evilness is usually only explored at surface level.
06:57Instead of getting a fulfilling backstory
06:59or clear motivation,
07:00she's reduced to a plot device
07:02or a dehumanized obstacle for the protagonist.
07:05Her weapon of choice is her sexuality,
07:07which she uses to trick those around her,
07:10in many cases seducing the white male protagonist
07:12before betraying him.
07:14And while there are many one-dimensional white female villains
07:29who fulfill a similar narrative purpose,
07:31they're not universally exoticized or mystified
07:34the way that East Asian women are.
07:36Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?
07:43You think we better, huh?
07:45The dragon lady's exoticism is expressed
07:47through elaborate headpieces,
07:49traditional seeming Asian clothing,
07:51and strong makeup to emphasize her otherness.
07:53I wish I could find a word to describe her.
07:59Exotic, that's the word.
08:01This is depicted as both desirable and dangerous on screen,
08:04as if she is a sexy but lethal creature
08:07rather than a woman.
08:08We don't see any humanity reflected in her character,
08:11as her makeup and dress literally serve as a mask
08:14to prevent us from seeing anything other than a caricature.
08:17Chinese actor Joan Chen has spoken
08:19on how unrealistic the Hollywood Asian aesthetic is
08:21to actual East Asian women,
08:23stating in a 2012 interview,
08:25I didn't fit in that mode
08:28of what they feel the Chinese girl should look.
08:30The image is a little unfamiliar
08:32to what, you know, all these concubines
08:35or dragon women should appear to them.
08:38The dragon lady is also characterized by her cruelty.
08:51Her stoic discipline and disregard for morals
08:54make her a formidable opponent,
08:55and while her ruthlessness is often pragmatic
08:58in the pursuit of her goals,
09:00she's sometimes even shown delighting
09:02in the pain of others.
09:03Faster, faster!
09:05In Pirates of the Caribbean,
09:06At World's End,
09:07Mistress Ching is infamous for being the leader
09:09of an exceptionally brutal army of pirates.
09:12They do not just steal to gain wealth,
09:14but pillage, behead, and take body parts
09:16as souvenirs after defeating an enemy.
09:18She also capitalizes on other women's sexuality
09:21by running a brothel.
09:22Much like her Asian male counterparts,
09:24the dragon lady often exercises her physical power
09:27through martial arts
09:28or other traditionally Asian fighting styles.
09:31Echoing her exoticized makeup and costuming,
09:33the dragon lady's connection to martial arts,
09:36a strange, unknowable art for Westerners,
09:38implies that she has some otherworldly knowledge
09:40and strength,
09:41adding to the feeling she's less human
09:43and more intrinsically evil.
09:46Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords.
09:50This dehumanization has real-world consequences.
09:54When Anna May Wong was confronted by disappointed audiences
09:57on her first trip to China in 1936,
10:00she realized that even she had internalized Hollywood's tendency
10:03to treat all of Asia as a cartoonish monoculture.
10:06She confessed that she had been thinking of China
10:08as a place where the people always sipped tea
10:11and philosophized about life.
10:13The Chinese heart is very constant, Ronan.
10:16It might be sadly wounded
10:18in one of your Western affairs.
10:20In 2020, we saw the rise in hate crimes
10:23against Asian Americans, immigrants, and tourists
10:25as they were once again scapegoated
10:27for the spread of disease.
10:29Asian women were the victims of 68%
10:31of anti-Asian hate crimes in 2021,
10:34and there's undoubtedly a link between the hate
10:36and the long-standing hyper-sexualization
10:38of Asian women on screen.
10:40As Lucy Liu wrote,
10:41Chinese women have been depicted
10:42as either the submissive Lotus Blossom
10:44or the aggressive Dragon Lady.
10:46And the key difference between the two
10:48is that the Dragon Lady has agency
10:50over her sexual power.
10:51The fact that this makes her a villain
10:53sends the message that Asian women
10:55who don't exist to passively please white men
10:58are a social threat.
10:59And did it break his heart?
11:01I do that sort of thing.
11:06Despite the Dragon Lady's limitations,
11:10it's important to recognize
11:11that we don't have to completely eliminate
11:12all aspects of this trope.
11:14After all, there are East Asian women
11:16who are ambitious, sexually in control,
11:19and at times even ruthless.
11:21Bambi, don't say another word
11:22till after the hunter shoots your mother.
11:24There's just more to them than that.
11:26And similarly to the femme fatale trope,
11:28the Dragon Lady is now being reclaimed
11:30by many as a symbol of power.
11:32Lucy Liu, who has played a number of characters
11:34which have since been deemed Dragon Ladies,
11:36such as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill,
11:39Alex Munday in Charlie's Angels,
11:40and Ling Wu in Ally McBeal,
11:42wrote a Washington Post op-ed
11:44discussing how the Dragon Lady label
11:46and critiques can be limiting
11:47to Asian American actors,
11:49cutting them off from potential roles,
11:51and dismissing the value of their characters.
11:53Liu argues that many of her characters
11:55have been called Dragon Ladies
11:56simply because she's Asian.
11:58Quote,
11:58Why not call Uma Thurman,
12:00Vivica A. Fox,
12:01or Daryl Hannah a Dragon Lady?
12:02I can only conclude
12:03that it's because they are not Asian.
12:05I could have been wearing a tuxedo
12:06and a blonde wig,
12:08but I still would have been labeled
12:09a Dragon Lady because of my ethnicity.
12:11The price you pay
12:12for bringing up either my Chinese
12:14or American heritage as a negative is,
12:17I collect your f***ing head.
12:20In Kill Bill,
12:20it's true that like a stereotypical Dragon Lady,
12:23O-Ren Ishii dresses
12:24in a traditionally Asian manner,
12:26fights with a samurai sword,
12:28and is a cruel antagonist.
12:30But as Liu is getting at,
12:31almost all of the featured female characters
12:33are ruthlessly violent and mysterious,
12:35and O-Ren Ishii is given
12:37a well-developed backstory
12:38which illuminates why she uses violence
12:40to pursue her goals.
12:41The half-Japanese,
12:43half-Chinese American army brat
12:44made her first acquaintance with death
12:47at the age of nine.
12:48Do her Dragon Lady-like traits
12:50negate the value
12:51we can otherwise find in her character?
12:53Liu's words highlight
12:54the importance of context
12:55in these discussions.
12:56If a supposed Dragon Lady
12:58isn't presented any differently
12:59than other characters in her narrative,
13:01is the issue of othering still present?
13:04Josie Packard from Twin Peaks
13:05sounds like she could potentially
13:07fit the Dragon Lady label
13:08because she has her husband murdered
13:10and shoots Agent Dale Cooper
13:12to ensure her escape.
13:13The show also leaves it up to interpretation
13:15as to whether she seduces Sheriff Truman
13:18to help hide her crimes,
13:19or if she actually has feelings for him.
13:21I miss you.
13:23I need to talk to you.
13:24I want to talk to you too.
13:26Josie, were you at the Timber Falls Motel
13:29this afternoon?
13:30Yeah, I have to go.
13:33Yet in the context of noirish Twin Peaks,
13:35which is filled with sexualized,
13:37double-crossing, and violent characters,
13:39all of these behaviors fit right in.
13:41Josie's race seems to have little to do
13:43with how her story plays out.
13:45There's also nothing inherently bad
13:46about some of the Dragon Lady's signature traits.
13:49In fact, they can be pretty essential
13:51in successful people.
13:52The Expanse's Christian of Asarala,
13:54a UN official of Indian descent,
13:56played by Iranian-American actress
13:58Shoray Agdashloo,
13:59is ruthless and manipulative,
14:01not to mention always dressed
14:03in the most beautiful fineries of her culture.
14:05And her dragon-esque ferocity
14:07makes her an outstanding leader
14:09who's confronting a time full of challenging wars
14:11while attempting to hold on
14:13to a humanistic vision of the future
14:15she's fighting for.
14:16More generally, the figure of the dragon,
14:18a key figure in Chinese mythology and legends,
14:21is an appealing, inspirational spirit to many.
14:24In the 2010s, white character Daenerys Targaryen
14:27on Game of Thrones set off a craze
14:29for viewers who wanted to channel the power
14:31of a fire-breathing dragon.
14:32I am the dragon's daughter.
14:36In recent years, Hollywood has allowed
14:37for more nuanced characters
14:39who may initially be perceived as dragon ladies,
14:41but who subvert our expectations
14:44and prove that Asian women
14:45can check some of these boxes
14:47while still having depth and relatability.
14:50Sometimes that's the price
14:51of doing the right thing.
14:54No one will understand.
14:57And it hurts like hell.
14:59While Melinda May in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
15:01has a proficiency in martial arts
15:03and initially presents a cold
15:04and emotionless exterior,
15:06her behavior is shaped by trauma in her past,
15:08and we watch her become fiercely loyal
15:10to her teammates,
15:12eventually comfortable enough
15:13to reveal her more emotional side.
15:15That pain is love.
15:18I know because I was afraid of it too.
15:23But you let me feel it.
15:25Similarly, Christina Yang
15:27might appear to be a typical,
15:28high-powered dragon lady
15:29in her relentless pursuit of medical excellence.
15:32Colleagues aren't friends or competitors.
15:33But she's a complicated character
15:35who cares deeply about the people she's closest to,
15:39and her platonic relationship with Meredith Grey
15:41is one of the most central relationships
15:43throughout the entire show.
15:45You are my person.
15:46You will always be my person.
15:49Lucy Liu's character, Kirsten Stevens,
15:51in Set It Up,
15:52at first presenting as a harsh boss
15:54with no compassion,
15:55has adopted her tough exterior
15:57as a defense mechanism
15:58in response to a cutthroat corporate environment
16:01and a broader society that's judgmental
16:03of women like her.
16:05But you have to have a tough skin.
16:07So if I am the most awful person
16:09when this shitstorm of an industry is hard on you,
16:11I know that you will be prepared.
16:13As these stories progress,
16:15characters like Christina and Kirsten
16:16ultimately make us think about
16:18how acting nice is less important
16:20than offering authentic inspiration
16:22and meaningful support to other women.
16:25I learned so much from you.
16:29You're my hero.
16:31Gia, in Lovecraft Country,
16:32seems at first to be a submissive Lotus Blossom
16:35who is then revealed to be a Dragon Lady,
16:37and at times she is manipulative and dangerous.
16:40And you killed a hundred men.
16:41It is my nature.
16:42But the series also humanizes her
16:44by making her character complex,
16:46showing the internal conflict she experiences
16:48between her own desires
16:49and those of the Kumiho Fox spirit possessing her.
16:52Paralleling our expectations of Dragon Ladies,
16:55Gia initially believes herself undeserving of love
16:58because she isn't human,
16:59but eventually finds both platonic
17:01and romantic companions who care for her
17:03and allow her to reclaim her own humanity.
17:06We've both done monstrous things,
17:08but that does not make us monsters.
17:13We could be the people we see in each other.
17:16In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,
17:18Xia Ling, who is both a kick-ass martial artist
17:21and potential future antagonist,
17:23avoids falling into the Dragon Lady trope
17:25through her concrete and relatable motivations,
17:27as well as the stories questioning the gender roles
17:30society has forced her into.
17:32I wasn't allowed to train with the boys,
17:35but I watched everything they did
17:37and taught myself to do it better.
17:39And while Crazy Rich Asian's Eleanor Young
17:42initially appears Dragon Lady-level fierce
17:44and intimidating without patience
17:46for anyone who's less elite than her uber-rich family,
17:49she's eventually sympathetic due to her underlying motive
17:52of doing what's best for her loved ones.
17:55It's nice you appreciate this house
17:57and us being here together wrapping dumplings,
18:00but all this doesn't just happen.
18:03It's because we know to put family first.
18:05The distinction underlines that ultimately
18:08what's most important in avoiding
18:10any one-dimensional stereotype
18:11is giving us a window into a human being
18:14we can feel for.
18:16While Lucy Liu's character in Charlie's Angels
18:18provoked criticism for her lack of depth,
18:21Liu wrote,
18:21as part of something so iconic,
18:23my character Alex Munday normalized Asian identity
18:26for a mainstream audience
18:27and made a piece of Americana a little more inclusive.
18:30Lucy Liu and Charlie's Angels
18:32was like the pinnacle of like everything to me.
18:37It changed the way that I looked at myself and the world.
18:41And Liu's perspective,
18:42like the history of the Dragon Lady trope as a whole,
18:45raises the complicated question
18:46of whether flawed representation
18:48is still a lot better than no representation.
18:51Undoubtedly, the cartoonish version of the Dragon Lady
18:54as in Other is limiting
18:56and risks perpetuating exoticized stereotypes
18:59about East Asian women's sexuality
19:01and linking them with violence.
19:03But looking back,
19:04we can also acknowledge
19:05how on-screen versions of the Dragon Lady
19:07carved out an important pathway
19:09to East Asian representation.
19:11And moving forward,
19:12elements of the Dragon Lady
19:13can be preserved in stories
19:14about nuanced, complex,
19:16and powerful female East Asian characters
19:19of the future.
19:19If my dad won't let me into his empire,
19:23I'm gonna build my own.
19:26This is The Take.
19:28Let's take the tropes home with us.
19:30We are so excited to announce
19:31that we now have a line of weird girl merchandise.
19:34It's not just a question of,
19:36am I the weird girl?
19:37You have to ask yourself,
19:38which weird girl am I?
19:40Are you the dreamy space cadet
19:41living on your own planet?
19:43Are you the delightfully spiraling basket case?
19:46Are you the ferocious goth?
19:47Are you the awkward misfit?
19:48Are you the smartass?
19:50I think there's power in Oni,
19:52the weird girl in all of us.
19:53You can now express it
19:55through posters,
19:56mugs,
19:57a backpack,
19:58t-shirts.
19:59Wear it on your sleeve,
20:00announce that you are the weird girl.
20:02We had so much fun
20:03conceptualizing these characters
20:05and drawing from our favorite weird girls
20:06of film and TV
20:07to create our vision of the five types.
20:09One of our favorite designs
20:10is this beautiful line art rendering
20:13of the weird girl.
20:15She's got the iconic goth visual.
20:17It just looks great
20:18whether you're doing
20:19a cute backpack,
20:20a hoodie.
20:21You can grab a tote
20:21or a poster
20:22with all of the weird girls.
20:24Or another approach
20:25is to mix and match.
20:26So you grab your space cadet
20:28water bottle,
20:29your misfit hoodie,
20:30and your basket case poster
20:32behind you.
20:33I love these shirts.
20:34It's also super soft.
20:35It's very soft.
20:36I really feel like
20:37I could live in this.
20:38It's quite lovely.
20:39Click the link
20:39in the description below
20:40to order from spring right now
20:42and get the best possible deals
20:44on your merch.
20:44Get 10% off
20:46until December 9th
20:47with the promo code
20:47GETWEIRD.
20:48To the weird girls.
20:49To the weird girls
20:50in all of us.
20:51Which weird girl are you?
20:53We'll see you next time.
20:54We'll see you next time.
20:54We'll see you next time.
20:55We'll see you next time.
20:55We'll see you next time.
20:56We'll see you next time.
20:56Transcription by CastingWords
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