Never Perfect By Mai-Anh

Mai-Anh Tran’s transition is to try to better herself as a reflection of society. She sees a problem with her real self, that she would like to alter. One of the main causes of her need for the transformation is her view of society and how she should mirror what features they find desirable, otherwise known as her looking glass self. An excellent example that comes from the video “Never Perfect”, is when one of the guest speakers brings up the point that people try to emulate the rich, in order to try to be like them and live the way they do. Mai-Anh admires other famous oriental models and actresses, although majority of them have had work done cosmetically to alter themselves in order to try to increase their overall appeal. Not only does
In many foreign culture families, it is normal for them to be tight knit and stay in a relatively close location. Example of this can be seen when Mai-Anh and her mom were discussing moving back home after a certain amount of time, but Mai-Anh expresses to her mother that she does not want to go back with constant berating of excuses. In Mai-Anh’s explanation she nonchalantly tells her mother that she wants to start her business in LA, then which she conveys tones that she never wants to go back, further abandoning her ethnic roots. This displays that Mai-Anh does not care much about her ethnic identity, which makes it easier for her to go along with the altercation surgeries. Mai-Anh does describe herself of being part of both Asian and American cultures. However, she will never deny that she is originally Vietnamese. From “Never Perfect,” we can also conclude that Mai-Anh and her mother do not have a great relationship. She states that she and her mother are business partners, because of this her mother has very high expectations for her. It is known that Asian parents seek absolute perfection from their children, her mother challenges everything she says and does in hope to push her to succeed. She describes her mother as “the typical Asian mom.” Mai-Anh also says that as she grew up, her mother would exaggerate how important ones beauty is, that “beauty makes or
It happens every day in society, which is why those around the country are getting more and more work done to try to keep up with what everyone else thinks one should look like. Self-esteem is a struggle and when one is not satisfied with how they look it brings them down. Society sets a high standard on how one should look and that is what people believe is ideal. Instead, nobody is getting the chance to be unique, different, and flawed in their own way. The entertainment industry is another example of catering to this mindset. Movies and media portray different races as certain stereotypical beings. For example when you see a Chinese or Asian women in a movie there’s a large chance that they will be doing kung-Fu or karate. When you see an African American in a movie they will most likely be using slang and act as if they’re from the hood. Of course we know many Asian, Chinese, and African Americans who do not fall into those stereotypes. That being said, this is how the media depicts the different races, which is why ethnic stereotyping is still evolving