Down with Galinda!

Good news of the week: my friend just got two tickets for us to see Wicked when they come to Los Angeles!

I have wanted to see Wicked since my high school graduating class sang For Good during the finale of our senior Variety Show. And I am finally getting my chance!

Being the prepared person that I am (but mostly due to the fact that I’m so excited to see this famous Broadway show), I found myself searching through YouTube’s vast library for clips of Wicked on Broadway. Defying Gravity and For Good were obvious musical selections, and I listened to each more than five times. Yes, they are THAT amazing.

I decided to broaden my horizons and search for other Stephen Schwartz pieces in Wicked, when I came across Popular. As in the other two songs, these singers had amazing voices. I was mesmerized to the point where I could only focus on the clarity of their sound rather than the lyrics of the song. But during round two of Popular, I began to key in on Galinda’s arrogant and egotistical attitude.

At this point in the plot, Galinda is trying to get Elphaba to be her “new project”. And just what does this entail?

Galinda wants to change Elphaba’s look and personality in an attempt to make Elphaba as popular as she is. According the Galinda, Elphaba is “less fortunate”, which of naturally triggers Galinda’s good-natured self to give Elphaba a complete makeover.

But this is no ordinary makeover – not like the ones you see on the Style channel.

Galinda sings, “Don’t be offended by my frank analysis. Think of it as a personality dialysis.”

A PERSONALITY DIALYSIS?!?

What kind of blunt, insensitive jargon is this?

Dialysis, from what I know as an undergraduate biology major, involves removing toxins and other unwanted macromolecules from a medium, such as blood. A “personality dialysis” seems to imply that Galinda wants to rid Elphaba’s personality of toxins, brining her one step closer to becoming popular.

Not only does this sound unethical and downright rude, but also Elphaba’s personality is what makes her such an interesting character! She is unique and still likable as a character in Wicked because her personality is so different from Galinda’s. But in Galinda’s world, Elphaba is merely an outsider, someone who yearns to be popular in the same context and within the same guidelines as Galinda.

Galinda further clarifies that “it’s not about aptitude, it’s the way you’re viewed” that determines one’s popularity. So not only does Elphaba have to change her personality, she has to change her appearance as well.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Galinda should join Big Bird in their similar attempts to make everyone the same.

Sadly, even in mythical worlds, like the Land of Oz, influential characters promote conformity to a norm that is more accepted and admired. Now I wait the next two months to see Wicked, which were previously overflowing with anxious excitement, but are now filled with tainted images of Wicked’s characters. 

It's not all that Glamorous

Social media is out there. Everywhere. It will attract you and it will trap you. There will be no means of escape. It has the ability to dictate what is appropriate. And for some reason, many of us cannot help but conform to these unwritten rules.

Today I will take a new angle on the issue of conformity. Instead of focusing on how ethnic culture impacts our decision to conform, I will look at how social culture seems to control us like puppets, making us bend our unique styles toward an ideal beauty that is sometimes too extravagant and unrealistic to obtain.

In one Huffington post article, Celebrity Fit: Hollywood Skinny and Sample Sizes, Leona Palmer writes about the challenges that our present day A-list actresses face. The happy, beautiful women we see gracing the covers of Lucky, Vogue, and Marie Claire are not all glitz and glamour. They had to work hard to get into those tiny, thousand dollar dresses.

Why don’t they just make a bigger size for these rich and famous celebs, you ask?

Palmer explains that most of these dresses are one-of-a-kind – the designer makes one dress and fits it to a runway model. So when celebs try to sport it for a magazine cover, often times, it just won’t fit. Dresses have to be tailored, seams ripped, panels of fabric added. All in all, the whole process is just embarrassing!

But it shouldn’t be.

Why should these celebrities, already known amongst the public for their beautiful faces and hot bodies, have to feel the need to fit into a Barbie doll sized dress? On top of everything going on in their busy lives, it seems unnecessary for those in the fashion industry to expect these actresses to be “fashion-model skinny”. I mean, is slimming down going to improve the public’s perception of their already perfect bodies?

And where does that leave us – the normal folk? If we expect celebrities to be even skinnier than they already are, does that mean society will also feel the stress of slimming down even further? Is this what is takes to be successful in the fashion and entertainment industries?

Granted, America, as a nation, is battling obesity, but eating disorders are still extremely prevalent. I’m not trying to say that all eating disorders stem from the desire to mimic Hollywood’s best and brightest stars. But social media has a way of impacting our society like no other. The newest fashion trends spread quickly and we always know the latest celebrity gossip whether we want to or not. We just so happen to live in a world that idolizes these people, and their image is constantly forced upon us so much so that sometimes it seems as if there is no way to escape the desire to conform to this image.

In a world that is gradually shifting toward sameness, I hope we find a way to escape. 

My Attempt to “Think Different”

Since the death of Steve Jobs exactly one week ago, thousands of people have written about his amazing accomplishments. Many of these articles focus on Jobs’ business success as the CEO of Apple, Inc., but one Canadian news article asks us to think of him not as a corporate visionary, but instead, remember Jobs as a cultural visionary.

Steve Jobs’ worldwide cultural impact started with a simple slogan: “Think Different.”

Apple’s 1997 TV advertisement is simple, showing black and white images of people who need no introduction. Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammed Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, and the like grace the screen. We all know their power. We all know of their significant contributions to the world.

According to the ad, these people represent misfits and rebels. The narrator describes them as “round pegs in square holes”. According to the ad, they are neither fond of rules nor the status quo. But they cannot be ignored. These influential individuals changed the world and push the human race forward.

I think it is safe to say that, at one point or another in our lives, we have looked up to one or more of the people featured in this ad. We have glorified them, admired their accomplishments, and hoped that one day we could achieve even half of what they have. And if their success is dictated by their ability to “think different” like Apple says, then I would be crazy to not follow suit!

Obviously, none of the influential icons shown in the ad used Apple products to garner their power. Einstein didn’t use a Macintosh to come up with the theory of relativity. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t write his “I have a dream” speech on his iPad. Yet, Apple is essentially saying that if you want to amazing human beings be like Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King Jr., buy Apple products!

And we did.

We succumbed to Apple consumerism in an effort to “think different.” If you purchased and flaunted an Apple product, you embraced “different”. You labeled yourself as unique.

But how unique are you, when 99% of the people around you are also using Apple products? I personally do not know of anyone in my generation who has never listened to music on an iPod, never organized their growing music library on iTunes, never typed an email or Word document on a Mac.

I won’t lie. I, too, am a consumer of Apple – I am typing this blog post on my MacBook while listening to music on my iTunes library (and my iPod Touch is less than twelve inches away). I am all for different and unique, yet by purchasing these products, I have somehow conformed to the norm of Apple consumerism.

How did this happen?

In our quest to think different, have we all become the same? This does not only apply to our love of Apple technology, but all cultural icons that make us all want to be a certain way.

We think of ourselves as belonging to an individualist culture. We refuse to conform and try to be as independent as possible. Uniqueness is embraced. Sameness is boring. You get the picture. Yet in terms of technology, by striving to be different, we have somehow all arrived at the same point.

A point of sameness. 

フラガール Hula Girls!!

As I looked through Google News to find my source of inspiration for this post, I saw an article announcing Steve Jobs’ unfortunate death, one regarding Sarah Palin’s decision to bow out of the presidential race, and (under more specific search constraints) an article about a group of Japanese women who just completed a national tour of 125 cities throughout Japan. Because of the recent earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, I assumed this tour was aimed at disaster relief. You know, the standard raising awareness, bringing the country together, etc. And I was correct. But just how these women provided belief was much to my surprise.

Instead of extending their undoubtedly warm Japanese hospitality – meek smiles, sympathetic words, nods of agreement and understanding, and of course, many bows – they danced hula.

These women represent a group hired to dance at the Spa Resort Hawaiian in Iwaki, which was closed due to damage from the earthquake. During the closure they danced their way through Japan, providing their fellow countrymen with relief at evacuation shelters and encouraging them to lend support to Fukushima. As the article describes, they were always greeted with warmly, often with tears of joy and appreciation.

That’s right, a group of Japanese nationals performing the dance of native Hawaiians in front of thousands of people in Japan – talk about going against the grain.

So how would Amy Chua, the controversial Tiger Mom representative, view these women and their hula dancing?

Her view of how Asians should act, which is a direct result of their strict upbringing, leaves no room for dancing hula. Or should I say, no dancing, in general. Maybe Chua would make an exception if the dance were traditional and race-concordant. An activity aiming to perpetuate culture would seemingly be okay in her book, as long as participation did not mean sacrificing education. But dancing hula as an Asian, or even as an Asian American, is unacceptable.

Like the Chua’s native China, Japan is supposed to represent a collectivist culture – everyone blends in with each other. No one wants to stick out and be the oddball. No one wants to be considered different. So how do these Japanese girls maintain their own cultural identity while taking on another culture’s identity so effortlessly and with such poise? How is it that they have found acceptance within themselves and from their countrymen to be unique in this one aspect?

Like them, I am a product of East Asia, passionate about an art form that doesn’t represent my culture. The difference between us is I look less “Japanese-y” than them due to my local, Asian, immigrant-working-on-the-Hawaiian-plantation relatives. Yet despite my closer tie to the Hawaiian culture, it seems I lack their confidence in performing what we both consider to be our passion.

These hula girls of Iwaki are standing out and making themselves known for doing something that is atypical. Dancing hula makes them unique, a trait some would associate with Western cultures and Americans. Thus, they are actively choosing not to conform to the stereotypes of East Asians.

Hats off to them! I am proud and comforted knowing that I am not the only hula-loving Japanese and I aim to be as confident as they are when going against the grain.

Who cares about conforming to the stereotypes of our race?!