Annotation 1

In the past few years, the demand of show girls was on the rise. Show girls originally came from Las Vegas, they are a bunch of girls dressed up in pretty and glamorous clothes dancing and performing on stage. But now in Asia, show girls are more like models, they show up in commercial events to attract customers, man, for most. And whenever there is an exhibition for cars or video games, there will be tons of show girls in it. I’ve seen a lot of news headlines that says something like ”Sexy show girls exposed themselves makes the business blooming”. The news emphasized on how hot and beautiful the show girls are, and put some matching photos beside the content of the news. I’m against being show girl as a career; there are some problems about it.

I found a piece of news on the internet; it came out at February this year. At the international video game exhibition, a model was forced by her agent to take off her bra when there were a lot of eyes watching. The agent told the show girl she was going to wear something like an office lady’s suit, but when she got to the exhibition, the agent made her wear something that wasn’t what they agreed on, and insist her to take off her bra to fit the outfit. Show girls don’t really have their privacy. When they go on auditions, companies will see them as merchandise instead of living people. They look at show girls’ bodies as if they are picking out a good pig to make pork. And when they’re at work, there’s always press that tries to shoot their underwear and their breasts. They have to obey every demand that company asks them, or they won’t get a chance to success in this career. They want to protect themselves, but there are a lot of times when they just can’t say no. Companies want them to be puppets; exquisitely made and easy to control. If they refuse to wear what the companies want them to wear; they’re jeopardizing their future career.  And after they become famous, those photos or what they did before they were famous will be used against them. People will call them slutty and desperate, these are all bad image for a girl. Even if they stop being show girl after a while, bad reputation isn’t something that can be taken back easily. For the above reasons, I think being show girl as a formal career isn’t a really bad idea.

Source: http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20130203/34811959/

Annotation I

In my last article “If one of the lesbian dress like man, can they still be considered lesbian?” I mentioned that, in Taiwan, when two girls are together, there was always one dresses like men. I found this article online from Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan. This article is discussing a special clothing that lesbians wear, which can flatten their breast. And this article also shows that the reason why most of the lesbians in Taiwan dress like man is that they want to separate themselves from straight women and feminine lesbians.

In Taiwan, we call the masculine lesbian “T”. The society we’re living in is not such a friendly place, there will always be people judging and discriminating. These lesbians are trying hard to fit in with this kind of environment, and struggle to find their own position in the meantime. They “reconstruct their body to a different kind of masculinity”, and this is “very crucial to their self-recognition”. Most of the Ts feel uncomfortable if they didn’t press their breast flat. They trying to hide their female trait means that they don’t see themselves as normal girls, not because they’re trying to be men. This is the way they can get rid of the constraint and start living as they are.

source:

http://gsrat.net/news/newsclipDetail.php?ncdata_id=2440

If one of the lesbian dress like man, can they still be considered lesbian?

I studied in a girls’ junior high school, so I’ve seen quite a lot of lesbian at that time. What I saw, mostly, when two girls are together, there was always one dresses like men- baggy pants, over-sized t-shirt and short hair. I didn’t pay much attention to this phenomenon until when I saw lesbian couples in American TV show; they were both feminine on the outside.

In previous centuries, dress code is a very crucial part in the society. Those who wanted to fit in must always follow the code, if not; they’ll be criticized as rude and inappropriate. Nowadays in our society, individual differences are highly valued by most of the people; we gradually learn to accept others even if their appearances and how they dress are not what we called “normal”. But they’re still some who discriminate against those who dress discrepant to their identity. They can’t stand when men dress like women and women dress like men. They think everyone should know their own character in this society, and dress accordingly. But, it is just because they know who they are that they dress like the way they did. Dressing as they want when knowing they’re different needs courage because they will be notice and criticize. So I think lesbian dress like men only means that’s the identity they have for themselves, and that they’re more comfortable that way.

Some would say that lesbian dress like man because in every relationship, there has to have a man. So even if there are two girls being in a relationship, there will be one that represents the role “man”. This kind of statement makes me realize that a lot of people are idealizing the word “man”. No one ever doubts that if a homosexual dress like women, he is trying to “be” a woman. It is clear that their argument isn’t about the clothes they wear or how they look, it’s about men is necessary, and, can’t be missing in a relationship. Just because men are (mostly) physically stronger, they think man should dominate everything. They think, in a relationship, women cannot live without them, and that women should be protected by them. In fact, women can easily take care of themselves, and two women together are definitely capable of doing anything that the relationship between a man and a woman can do.

Gay or lesbian, they’re just being with the one they love the most, just like regular couples. Being called lesbian isn’t a bad thing because they know exactly who they are and what they love, and they are proud of it.