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mama tu is my biggest role model. her resolve, resilience, and resourcefulness is unmatched. i will forever look up to my mom. 

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Being the first born daughter, I was my mom's pride and joy. As a matter of fact, as the only daughter in our Chinese family, my mom instilled in me the classic constructed, societal norms that was placed on women from a very young age. As Judith Lorber has mentioned in "The Social Construction of Gender", gender, sex, and sexuality are all socially constructed with the purpose of subordinating women as a group. These so-called gender arrangements have been maintained by social institutions, such as government, law, education, religion, and popular culture and media. With such a huge influence, the social construct of gender has successfully impacted the way my mom raised me growing up.

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navigating through life as the typical ABC: american born chinese.

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Growing up, I've always heard the term "ABC" being whispered around me at family gatherings. Although I am fluent in Cantonese, most older relatives would almost always diss me saying I was "too American" and not a "true Chinese". However, kids at school would say I was "too Chinese" and not a "true American". As a woman of color, I felt that there were many stereotypes brought on to me from an early age. I agree with Judy Tzu-Chun Wu in that what I had experienced is not normal and we should challenge the "model minority" stereotype put onto Asian American women. This messed with me a lot growing up because I would feel proud to be Chinese in some social settings, and proud to be American in other settings.

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people will always find a reason to justify racist stereotypes. but what i'm going to do is just live my truth.

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I've always been fond of cute things, such as plushies, characters, and feminine little knickknacks. Whenever a camera would point at me, I would always throw up peace signs and make "cute" faces. It wasn't until I entered middle school where I met a few individuals who essentially fetishized my existence as an Asian girl who liked cute things. It was the first time in my life I didn't want to be a feminine woman because of the stereotypes imposed on my group of people. It was also a moment in my life where I stopped photographing myself because I didn't like what I was seeing. I started resenting myself for liking cute things of similar nature. It wasn't until college where I was fully able to accept myself for what I like.

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the first sign of entering adulthood and becoming a lady. some women celebrate achieving your menstrual cycle for the wrong reasons.

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I had never given much thought to getting my period or what a menstrual cycle essentially does for the human body, until I got my period for the first time. Naturally, my mom taught me that my body was a temple and that it should be protected; it is sacred and special. Now, I had the ability to reproduce and suddenly the responsibility of reproduction became real. I never understood why women were tasked with the responsibility to reproduce and carry on babies; it had always seemed a bit forced. The documentary, La Operacion, talked about women in the capitalist patriarchy where women's lives and bodies were under men's control and for their advantage, with some assisted by women. I feel that my mom is assisting in that aspect not knowing that the patriarchy is antifeminist.

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something as trivial as putting the toilet seat down can have a much deeper meaning than it may seem. 

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I have a father and a younger brother. I never had a problem putting down the toilet seat until I got to high school and realized how disrespectful it was on their part. And it wasn't until I got to college where I realized something this small actually conveys the heart of patriarchy. It's like Allan Johnson said, "patriarchal culture is about the core value of control and domination". My brother and father have been subconsciously leaving the toilet seat up as a sign of their dominance and control, which is considerate to the women of the household that is me and my mom. For once I felt in power as a woman. Of course, since bringing it to their attention the toilet seat has been up 2% of the time. However, it is important to note that this won't be the same case for everyone; acknowledging oppression doesn't mean that everyone within a group suffers/benefits equally.