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CHAPTER III
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, I will explain the result in my analysis. The discussion in
this chapter is divided into two sub chapters. The first sub chapter is the
description of what happens in Ryan‟s video. It explains the story and mise-en-
scene of each video. The second sub chapter is the stereotypes he presents in the
video. It explains how Ryan Higa represents himself as Japanese American and
what stereotype of Japanese American man being challenged in his video.
„How-to‟ is one of the series in Ryan Higa‟s YouTube channel, „nigahiga.‟
In this series, the story is about telling the viewers how to do something and Ryan
presents some steps to do it. His role is presenting some steps related to the theme.
There are 8 „how-to‟ videos in 2012-2014. The duration of the videos are varied
from 3 to 8 minutes. These videos present some stereotypes challenging of
Japanese American man.
There are 8 „how-to‟ videos uploaded in 2012-2014, as follows:
How to Spot a Pothead
How to Sing Like Your Favorite Artists
5 Steps to Be Badass
How to Get Girls
How to Survive a Horror Movie
How You Know If You Had ADHD
How to Stay Positive
How to Be Rapper commit to user
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I analyze all of the videos except for “How to Survive a Horror Movie”
because it has different format from the other videos (it is made in cartoon format,
so we cannot see Ryan‟s expression in delivering the story). The series always
begin with an introduction about the theme. After the introduction, he presents the
step one by one by giving an example act. Ryan usually plays the main role of the
act with the some other supporting roles. The ending is about the conclusion of
the theme. It is not always succeed, but it is always entertaining. He has great
words to conclude the video and seems to be very serious about it. But he covers
it with jokes and being comedic again.
A. The descriptions of what happens in Ryan‟s “how-to” videos
I will start the discussion in this chapter by briefly sharing the main story
of each video first.
How to Spot a Pothead tells us whether someone is pothead or not.
Pothead is someone who believes any problem can be fixed by smoking
marijuana (as cited in
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pothead). Ryan acts as
someone who is addicted to marijuana with long thick hair, sleeveless top
and jeans as seen in the figure 1. He is helped by another actor who acts as
someone who is treated from smoking marijuana as seen in figure 2.
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Figure 1
Ryan acts as a pothead.
Figure 2
The extra acts as a pothead.
How to Sing Like Your Favorite Artist a tip for the viewers to sing like
some famous artist. Ryan acts as a professional singer who teaches the
viewers by mimicking the artists. The artists who are being mimicked in
this video are famous artists in America such as, Justin Bieber, Nicky
Minaj, Justin Timberlake, etc. He wears jacket and sits on a sofa. He
speaks like he hosts an entertainment show with soft tone and friendly
aura. The figure 3 below shows Ryan character as professional singer.
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Figure 3
Ryan acts as a professional singer.
5 Steps to Be Badass tells about someone who was left out by his friends,
changed into someone who is rough and rude. In this video, Ryan wears a
leather jacket and jeans. He makes his tone voice lower and tougher. He
presents the video by standing with his arm crossed, makes a tough
expression in his face and speaks with stressing in his words, indicating
that he is really a badass. The figure 4 below shows his character as badass
in this video.
Figure 4
Ryan acts as badass.
How to Get Girls presents some steps to be acquainted with girls. This
video is about his life experience. He shares some tips he found to the
viewers. He does not act to be different character because it is his personal
story. The point in this video is on the example scenes. The scene takes
place in a café with darkcommit background. to user The lighting is not that light and
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there is a table, plants and painting to match the real café as we can see in
figure 5. For the costume, Ryan wears shirt and acts with an actress in a
red dress.
Figure 5
Ryan approaches a girl in a cafe.
How You Know If You Had ADHD is a about how to know if someone
has ADHD or not. ADHD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
This video is like personal vlog, sharing his personal experience. He acts
as himself, so there is not necessary to put any specific outfit and make up.
He sits down and talks to the screen like he talks to the viewers in front of
him. He gives some example in many scenes. It is like showing to what he
imagines in his head, so that the viewers are easier to understand the
meaning of the story.
How to Stay Positive is giving out some steps to always have positive
thinking. It is also a video about his owns experience. The example scenes
are played with other actors with varied situations.
How to Be Rapper is about to be rapper. He acts as rapper in this video.
He is called R-Dizzle in this video. This is the character he always uses in
the hip-hop themed videos. He has used this character since 2007. As seen
in the figure 6 below, the setting is supposed to be in the musical studio commit to user
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with dark and blue light on the background. There are two screens behind
him with some music stuffs in it. He wears snapback and headphones and
waves his hands like a rapper every time he speaks.
Figure 6
Ryan acts as rapper.
There are 2 kinds of „how-to‟ video that Ryan made. The difference is
about the role of Ryan in the video; he acts as expert and he acts as himself. When
he acts as experts, he dresses up as the profession like what I have mentioned
above. He matches the costume and setting to the theme. It shows that he really
want to make the viewers believe that he is trusted enough to presents the steps.
When he acts as himself, he shares his personal experience and does not care
about the costume and make up. The setting of this kind of video is mostly in his
bedroom. The bed is always the background, with black or grey blanket. There are
some plastic plants in the room and contrast with the white wall in the room.
There is also a blue painting, black curtain and white night lamp which make a
point in the room. His outfit are always casual and not indicating any profession.
He just wears plain t-shirt and trousers. He is also not applying any make up on
his face. He just acts natural like what he always does in everyday life.
The video always starts with introduction to the theme. Ryan explains
what the video is about. He matches his figure behavior to the theme when commit to user
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explaining it. For example in the figure below, taken from „How to Sing Like
Your Favorite Artist,‟ he sits in a sofa with some pillows in his sides and starts the
video by:
“Welcome. I’m Ryan Higa, professional singer and vocal-stiloliger-izer-
ist. And today I’m gonna let me teaching you how to sing like some of your favorite artists. As much as you think you can’t sing, or as much as you know you
can’t, you can’t. Yet. But by the time you finish this video, with enough working effort, one day. You might, be able to sound like. Thiiiiiisss..”. And he ends it with screaming in high pitch, shuts his eyes and makes a gesture
like a singer who sings high pitched notes.
In „5 Steps to Be Badass,‟ he does not say anything in the first two seconds
in the beginning of the video. He is just standing and looking to the other way
with his arm crossed. He said “Oh, Hello there. I didn’t see you coming. My name
is Ryan Higa also known as Ryan. But you can call me Ryan Higa for sure. And
I’m professional badass.” To support the character, there is an exploding effect
after he says „professional badass‟ as we can see in figure 7. Even the setting is
just in his room, he can deliver the badass character well with his gestures.
Figure 7
The exploding effect supports the theme of the video.
The only video with different opening is „How to Spot a Pothead.‟ The
opening is a warning that no law breaking things is used in the video. And what
makes this video different is that there is no host. He presents the theme by giving
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a written explanation of it. The narrator speaks in a low voice and slower than
what Ryan usually does.
After the opening, Ryan explains the steps of the related theme. He always
put an example in each step and presents it with some comedy. He dresses up as
another character related to the example presented. The setting of the example is
also adapted to the story. For example as I explained before, in „How to Get Girls,
the setting is in a café. The other example is in „How to Spot a Pothead,‟ as seen
in the figure 8, he is smoking weed outside of the house with 2 people fighting
behind him. It indicates that a pothead lives in a rough environment because he
can smoke weed freely outside and people does not really care with the criminal
act as we can see in figure below.
Figure 8
The rough environment supports the theme of the video.
The content of the video is always funny and full of humor, and so does
the ending. Sometimes he ends it seriously with some motivating and aspiring
words. The editing on each video is always great. There are many effects and pop-
up words in the scene. The background music also supports the scenes. Ryan has a
specific background music that he uses in mostly of his videos to indicate a
changing scene.
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B. The stereotypes that are presented by Ryan Higa in the videos
It could be argued that Hollywood rarely claims that the characters in its
films are meant to be taken literally (and therefore seriously), or ever meant to be
representative of entire social groups (Ramirez-Berg, 2002). Asian character often
represented as “alien” to American (cannot be assimilated to American culture).
This is reflected in the media by the disproportionate number of unacculturated
Asian characters speaking with foreign accents (as cited in
http://manaa.org/?page_id=543). In Ryan‟s videos, the stereotype of Asian
American is also presented, but in opposite way. He challenges the stereotypes of
Asian American man, especially Japanese American. One thing that we can catch
quickly in the video is that, he does not speak broken English. He speaks fluent
and fast English. It shows that he has adjusted to the American culture. He does
not even use Japanese language at all. It breaks the mainstream stereotype of
Japanese American.
The setting of his room which he usually uses in the video also does not
contain any Japanese culture there. As we can see in figure 9 and 10, every
cushion in the room is all American style. The bed, properties, and even the white
wall are American style. We cannot find such things like futon (Japanese
traditional bed), wooden wall and paper door. Ryan is not showing any Japanese
culture even in his room.
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Figure 9
Ryan’s bedroom shows a regular American room (1).
Figure 10
Ryan’s bedroom shows a regular American room (2).
Another Asian American YouTuber also portrays the American room
design and do not show their descent culture in their videos, for example, Kevin
Wu (a Taiwanese in his YouTube channel „kevjumba‟) as seen in figure 11 and
Jun Sung Ahn (a Korean in his YouTube channel „JunCurryAhn‟) as seen in
figure 12.
Figure 11
Kevin’s room shows a regular American room.
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Figure 12
Jun Sung’s bedroom shows a regular American room.
Ryan Higa lives in an American neighborhood as we can see in the figure
13 and 14 below. We cannot find any Japanese style house in the videos. He has
been comfortable with the American culture and been adapted well in the culture.
A research of Japanese American society shows that in general, about three
fourths of the Japanese American sample reported that they lived in the
communities where “none” or “less than 5” Japanese American families lived
(Asakura, Murata, Kawamoto, Nakayama, & Asakura, 2004).
Figure 13
Ryan’s neighborhood shows a regular American neighborhood (1).
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Figure 14
Ryan’s neighborhood shows a regular American neighborhood (2).
As I stated before, I use Brian Cortes‟ research to help me analyze that
Ryan Higa is trying to challenge the Japanese American stereotypes. There are 5
stereotypes that Brian explained as I mentioned it on the previous chapter. I will
only use 4 stereotypes in my analysis that is Perpetual Foreigner, Model Minority,
Asexual Man and Nice Guys. I will not use Generational Rift because it does not
present in this „how-to‟ series. In each video, it does not only contain 1 stereotype.
There may be some stereotypes presented in a video. I will share my findings one
by one.
Perpetual Foreigner
The perpetual foreigner stereotypes can be found in Ryan‟s video easily.
Perpetual foreigner is an inability to assimilate which leads to the view that no
matter how long the Asian American has been in America they are still perceived
as “foreigner” (Cosette, 2013).
According to Brian Cortes‟ characteristic of perpetual foreigner, we can
see that Ryan has been adapted to the American culture. For example, in figure
15, Ryan is trying to be a country singer. As we know that „country‟ is a music
genre originally from the American cowboy life, means that he has adapted well commit to user
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with the culture. This scene can be found in „How to Sing like Your Favorite
Artists.‟ He wears sleeveless, jeans and a cowboy hat and of course a guitar as
property. In the scene, he teaches us how to sing like a country singer. He says,
“Think of the sound when you’re trying to imitate the shot clock buzzer for
basketball team. And now make the sound of your voice crack like when you’re
going to puberty. With those all together, you got country.” this scene shows that
Ryan has been adapted to American culture. He can even act as country musician
well. It is different from what people expected of him as Asian American. An
Asian American write in a website that “the problem in my lived experience is
that these few portrayals end up being what people expect of me, and other
Asian/Americans, too, and they create a kind of cultural identity erasure. When
people look at me, they expect something that I am not — they expect an exotic
other that doesn‟t “belong here” (that is, in the United States)” (Whitney, 2012).
Figure 15
Ryan sings country song in a country outfit.
In terms of American culture, Japanese American has some contributions
to adapt in the culture. Shoji Tabuchi is a famous musician in country music field.
He has his own theater and being one of the respected Japanese American
musicians in America. Asian American also contributed in hip hop dance culture.
What Asian Americans saw in their community for years was not represented on commit to user
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television until recently with dance competition TV shows where predominantly
Asian American urban dancers exploded into mainstream media. This not only
breaks traditional American stereotypes of Asians being either martial artists or
nerds (Lee, 2013). The other Asian American who has been recognized in
America is Jeremy Lin. He is the first Asian American to play in NBA. #Linsanity
even becomes trending topic in twitter for days portraying that his appearance in
NBA leaves great impact among NBA fans. It shows that Asian American is able
to adapt American culture well. A research of Japanese American society have
result that Japanese American are accepted well in the society. “Concerning self-
evaluation for acceptance by other American neighbors, 92.3% of all generation
subgroups were accepted subjectively, so that we conceived that almost of all
Japanese American adapt very well to the dominant American society” (Asakura,
Murata, Kawamoto, Nakayama, & Asakura, 2004).
Ryan does not portray occupation like what Brian had described. We
cannot see occupation like delivery boy, or a launderer like what we often see in
Hollywood movies. An example of movie which portrays Asian American as
delivery boy is „Finishing the Game.‟ The story follows the struggles faces by
Asian-American actors of the time to meet ethnic stereotypes, and the film
specifically takes aim at the “chop socky” characterizations of Asians and the
“delivery-boy” role carved out for Asian actors (Karim, 2008, p. 2). Asian
launderer character can be found in the movie „The Warrior‟s Way.‟ To challenge
the mainstream stereotype, Ryan acts as a professional. In this „how-to‟ series,
like what I have said earlier, he acts as professional singer, badass and rapper. He
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even acts as dentist on „How to Be Rapper‟ as an example scene like what we can
see in figure 16 below.
Figure 16
Ryan acts as a dentist.
These occupations give a different feeling to what we see in the
mainstream media. Even mostly in this series he just becomes himself, not
portraying a special occupation, but he is able to show that there is no mainstream
stereotype that exists in his video. What Ryan shows in the video is in accordance
with the survey of U.S. Department of Labor in 2011. Asians are similarly well
represented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations —
accounting for nine percent or more of jobs — in math and science related
occupations, such as computer and mathematical occupations (16.1 percent), life,
physical, and social science occupations (10.8 percent), and architecture and
engineering occupations (9.0 percent) (U.S. Department of Labor, 2011). It is also
match with the research of C.N. Le, 49.1% of employed Asians 16 and older who
work in management, professional and related occupations, such as financial
managers, engineers, teachers and registered nurses (Le, 2015).
Another characteristic of perpetual foreigner stereotype is that Asians
understand Eastern Wisdom. Weick and Putnam explain about Eastern Wisdom in
their article. Generally, Eastern mental development proceeds from an emphasis commit to user
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on virtue to concentration to mindfulness; from grosser to more subtle levels of
mind. Virtue involves changing unskillful states of mind to skillful states and then
maintaining the skillful states. Actions that are motivated by one of the three
mental toxins—greed, hatred, or delusions—are unskillful. Actions motivated by
generosity, loving kindness, or clarity of mind are the skillful antidotes to the
three toxins (Weick & Putnam, 2006, p. 277). According to this, we can expect
Ryan to be considerate to other people.
In „How to Stay Positive,‟ Ryan explain the example to have positive
minds in his own way. As what the title stated, viewers will think that the video is
about wisdom, which will support the stereotype of Asians. But it is not full of
wisdom. He just tells the viewers about the reality. He says even the people close
to him often said that he is pessimistic or having negative thought. For example,
when he is comforting his friend who had been cheated by the girlfriend, he is not
really comforting. He “comforts” his friend with big smile on his face and looks
very happy. And the friends‟ face looks so disappointed and confused. The dialog
is transcribed below.
Friend: “I just found my girl had been cheating on me.”
Ryan: “Hey, that’s wonderful bro. you don’t have to waste anymore time wondering if she’s the one.”
It shows that not every Japanese American has the same thought of
wisdom. Ryan has his own thought of wisdom. He does not possess any Eastern
Wisdom. He only has „positive thought‟ even though his friends say he is always
being negative. This shows that not every Japanese American understands kind of
wisdom. an Asian American parent write in a website: “I‟m one of the few parents
who does not send their kids to Japanese schools on weekends, and I may be the commit to user
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only parent who does not teach Japanese to his child” and “We need to let go of
them, and offer our Eastern wisdom only when they ask for it” (Suematsu, 2011).
Japanese parents in America usually send their children in Japanese school every
weekend to learn about Japanese language and culture. However, some parents do
not send their children in such school because they think that they can learn the
culture anytime they want. This indicates that not every Asian American have will
to study about Japanese or Eastern wisdom.
Model Minority
The model minority stereotype is a positive stereotype. Asian Americans
are proclaimed as a model minority for academic excellence, affluence, strong
work ethic, freedom from problems and crime, and family cohesion (as cited in
Zhang, 2010). In this case, Ryan breaks what people think about Japanese
American by portraying the opposite way of model minority. The most
characteristic in model minority is academically talented. In the beginning of
„How to Spot a Pothead,‟ he presents a warning with many spelling errors.
Figure 17
The warning sign with many spelling errors.
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Figure 18
The revised warning sign with less spelling errors.
The figures above are written in red fonts with black background
indicating that this warning is something to be noticed first by viewers. The red
fonts are contrasted with the black background, so that the viewers easily notice it
as warning and read it. The Figure 17 shows the spelling errors. It is stated
“WANRING. No druhgs wore uset in teh makin of tis vido. Except fore craak,
shroomz, herowin, peeseepee, snoh, blo, angol dust, kristill methanfetamines, and
not to mention SPELL CHECK.” The revised one as we can see in figure 18 is
shown only a second in the video. He corrected everything but still making
mistake by making the correct word „spell check‟ in the previous scene to be
„speel chack‟ in the revised one. The revised one stated “WARNING. No drugs
were used in the making of this video. except for crack, shrooms, heroine, PCP,
snow, blow, angel dust, Crystal Methamphetamines, and not to mention SPEEL
CHACK.” This scene shows that Ryan tries to challenge the stereotype of
academically talented that he cannot write a warning correctly. Even after he
revised it, he still makes a mistake with simple words. Although the aim of the
scene may be for comedy purpose, he shows us that not every Japanese American
is smart. A research about Asian American in Minnesota found that only 29% of
Asian American students are proficient in reading, only 19% are proficient in commit to user
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science, and only 41% are proficient in math (as cited in
reappropriate.co/2014/08/the-culture-canard-of-the-model-minority-myth-no-
racial-gaps-in-academics-arent-due-to-cultural-pathology/). Many are not able to
conform to this unrealistic expectation and in fact, have the highest high school
dropout rates in the country (Le, The Model Minority Image, 2015).
The other scene showing about the challenge of model minority stereotype
is that he is not free from crime. He can act illegally and break the rules. The
figure 19 below, taken from „How to Spot a Pothead,‟ shows that he is being
arrested by a blue uniformed man with „police‟ nametag in his arm. Ryan‟s facial
expression shows that he is shocked. It indicates that the police arrest him because
he smokes drugs outside of his house. This scene gives us different perspective
that Japanese American is not always abiding the law. Also from the concept
itself, we can see that even Japanese American has a chance to involve with drugs.
In mainstream media, as we often see in American movie, we rarely see this
scene. Usually Japanese American crimes in movies are gangster, gambling and
jewel robbery. Ryan does not present those crimes in this „how-to‟ series. He use
drug as Japanese crime and break the model minority stereotype. In 2014, among
people ages 12 and up, the rate of illegal drug use in the last month was 4.1%
among Asian Americans and 15.6% among Native Hawaiian or other Pacific
Islanders (as cited in www.samhsa.gov/specific-populations/racial-ethnic-
minority).
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Figure 19
Ryan is arrested by the police.
The concept video of „5 Steps to Be Badass‟ gives us impression that
Japanese American man is not always innocent, or nerd. Asians can sometime be
someone who is rough and always breaks the rules. The storyline of the video
begins with the story of Ryan being nerd and was casted out. He then tries to be a
cool man by leaving his nerdy style and becomes a badass. In the introduction of
the video as seen in the figure 20, he presents an old photo with retro effect
showing him dressing up in a suspender pants and round glasses. His smile
indicates that he is not that happy with his nerdy style and being casted out. He
says “For years I used to be that guy. That guy that people make fun of. For not
being cool enough. For not taking any chances.” The scene followed by another
old photo showing him being shunned by the society as we can see in the figure
21 below. Once again, his smile shows that he is not satisfied with the society.
The story continues with his effort to change himself from being a nerd to be
badass. He does a lot of thing to be badass and it is explained later in this section.
It shows that as a Japanese American, he wants to change his stereotype as a nerd
and even changes himself to be the badass as seen in figure 22. His portrayal in
this video challenges the media stereotype of Japanese American that Japanese
American is not always nerd like what the media represents. commit to user
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Figure 20
Ryan shows himself as nerd.
Figure 21
Ryan is being left out by the society.
Figure 22
Ryan changes himself to be badass.
In order to be badass, he has to do some works and it also breaks the
model minority stereotype. The stereotype stated that Japanese American is hard
worker. In this video, he shows that he is not a hard worker and always chooses
something simpler. In a scene, he gives example that to be badass; he had to be
able to break a brick with his hand. But instead of a brick, he changed it to tiny
wood, changed it again to a roundcommit cardboard to user and the last, he changed it into a
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piece of a paper, and end up tore the paper. In another scene, continuing to be
badass, he had to get workout, but instead of doing it, he prefers to watch people
get workout in television. These scenes do not meet people expectation that
Japanese are always hard working and prefer to choose the easy work.
In the last scene of this video, the last step to be badass is that “Badasses
never follow the rules.” The scene is about two young men who competed in
violating the rules. He presents a scene on figure 23 that he touches a big green
ball with „Do Not Touch‟ warning on it. He does not care the sign and just touch
the ball. The following scene as seen in figure 24 shows another Japanese
American man loitering under a „No Loitering‟ sign. The man in the video is
Ryan‟s partner since his first time started making videos, also a Japanese
American, and known as Sean Fujiyoshi. They represent that Japanese American
can break the rules and even competing in how they beat one and another. Figure
25 shows the scene of the explanation and the dialog transcribed below:
Sean (black t-shirt) : “Yeiyo. Now beat that.” Ryan (blue t-shirt) : “Now what more badass than touching the big green
ball?”
Sean : “You don’t even put your whole hand on it. So, yes it was.” Ryan : “Fine. Watch me, drink and drive then.”
Sean : “You are not even old enough to drive.” Ryan : “Yea. But my future self is.”
Figure 23
Ryan breaks the ‘do not touch’ sign. commit to user
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Figure 24
Sean breaks the ‘no loitering’ sign.
Figure 25
Ryan and Sean argue about who breaks the rule more.
Model minority might have right in a way. There are some Asian
American who success and having high socioeconomic level. But it is not all of
them. There are many Asian immigrants who cannot get a better job in America.
They are forced to work as janitors, waiters, busboys … (Le, The Model Minority
Image, 2015). It is supported by the research of Marlene Kim which states that
“racial bias appears to be a factor in patterns of unemployment and long-term
unemployment among Asian Americans. Compared with similar white workers,
many Asian American workers are having a harder time finding employment”
(Kim, 2012). She added that 48.7 percent of Asian Americans who were
unemployed were without work for more than half a year, compared with 48.5
percent for African Americans. Meanwhile, the rate stood at 42.7 percent for
whites and 39.3 percent for Latinos (Kim, 2012). It means that the model minority commit to user
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has been broken. Compared to other race, Asian American seems to have a hard
time finding a job and they have the longer duration of joblessness once they are
unemployed.
Asexual Man
The asexual man stereotype, like what Brian Cortes described that Asian
Americas is sexually unappealing and devoid of interest in women (Cortes, 2013,
p. 31). In „How to Get Girls,‟ there is a scene that show a girl asks Ryan to kiss
her. The girl in this video is white people. It shows that Ryan wants to break the
media stereotype of Asians as unappealing man. He shows that even he is a
Japanese American, a white woman still like him. The figure 26 below shows
when the girl asks him to kiss her. She points Ryan‟s lip and says, “Kiss me.”
Another scene in this video that also shows the girl had interest in Ryan is when
the girl asks him to take selfie with her. She says, “Oh. You’re so cute. Can I take
a picture with you?” Figure 27 shows the scene of it.
Figure 26
A girl asks Ryan to kiss her.
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Figure 27
A girl asks Ryan to take a selfie with her.
It indicates that Japanese American man is also preferable for white
woman as she takes the intention to have closer relationship first. There are a lot
of white women YouTubers who talk about their preference in Asian American
man. For example, Channah Sorensen in her video “Why I Prefer Asian Men”
said that “I think the number one thing that attracts me the most to Asian man are
the you guy’s eyes.” Jessica in her channel „jinsain1‟ posted a video titled “White
girls DO like Asian guys.” She said, “They (Asian man) usually has nice smile.
Their smile is really attractive. Let’s see, like guys like KevJumba and Ryan Higa
over under freaking adorable.”
Sex appeal mainly lies on someone‟s face. According to paleontologists,
the dimensions of the region between the mouth and the eyebrows are crucial in
determining how attractive a man's face appears to the opposite sex (Clout, 2007).
The male face is shaped during puberty. Facial features are also important in
sexual attractiveness (as cited in http://www.marykatebrogan.com/male-sex-
appeal-lies-in-face-shape/). Many white women see Asian men attractive by
looking at his eyes and smile. It shows that Asian men can be appealing to white
women and breaking the stereotype of asexual man.
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Nice Guys
Asian man is portrayed in media as nice guys. It shows that Asians are
gentle towards woman and really care to them. But, Ryan often acts the opposite
of the nice guy stereotype in his video. He shows that sometimes he can be very
rude to girls. In „How to Get Girls‟ he approaches a girl by saying “What’s up,
bitch” showing that he is confidence enough in getting the girl‟s heart. Another
rude dialog such as “Hey, you got so big feet” and “Wow. This is amazing. I
cannot ask for better situation. Do you think you would like to maybe... introduce
me to your friend?” make him end up getting slapped by the girl. Another
approach he uses in this video which is transcribed below also makes the girl
irritated with him. He says before the scene that girls do not like pick up line, so
he tries to make something new. It is different from the media portrayal. When the
stereotype makes Asian man as nice guys, Ryan break the stereotype by acting the
opposite way.
Ryan : “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I will put…” Girl : “What? U and I together?
Ryan : “No. I mean I would use those letters, but it will be, U R A… B I T C...
and… H”
In „How to Stay Positive‟ he replies a girl‟s problem with not so nice
respond. The dialog is transcribed like this:
Ryan : “What happened?” Girl 1 : “Somebody stole all her clothes from Laundromat.”
Girl 2 : “Like literally, a hundred dollars worth.” Ryan : “Hey, good for you.”
Girl 2 : “What?” Ryan : “That is a compliment. That means that you really have a good taste in fashion.”
Those examples are proofs that Ryan challenging the nice guy stereotype.
He does not have any sense to becommit nice to guy. user When he tried to be one, he gets
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slapped instead. It shows that Asians are not all nice. Ryan as Japanese American
shows that he can be rude sometime. He is not gentle towards woman. He even
cannot console a woman who has problem. There is a high percentage of domestic
abuse in Asian American society towards woman. 12.8% of Asian and Pacific
Islander women reported experiencing physical assault by an intimate partner at
least once during their lifetime (as cited in
www.americanbar.org/groups/domestic_violence/resources/statistics/Race_Ethnic
ity_Statistics.html). The reason why violence towards woman in Asian American
family has a high percentage perhaps because of its tradition and legacy of male
dominance and patriarchy (Le, Health and Wellness Among Asians, 2015).
Although not every man does violence toward woman in the Asian family and
even though some men are subject to various forms of violence in society, they
can be virulent and horrible depending on the situation and their class position
(Warrier).
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