(disclaimer this was an essay for my english class)
The Network of Society
“Man has will, but woman has her way.”
-- Unknown
In The Social Network, the vision of a college undergraduate’s aspirations are shown in a dramatic revelation of the birth of Facebook. However, not only does this film capture the creation of the notorious Facebook website, it also sheds light on the Harvard student life as well as sexist racism towards the Asian female population. The Social Network is known to have a fetish towards Asian women and the issue of sexism in the overall movie. Even though the movie is set in Harvard, the number one school in the country, it shows that Harvard is no exception for discrimination against women.
In the very first scene of the movie, Zuckerman and his girlfriend, Erica Albright, have a heated conversation over drinks. Then, during the latter stages of the conversation, Zuckerman said:“If I get in [to the finals club] I’ll be taking you...to the events, and the gatherings...and you’ll be meeting a lot of people you wouldn’t normally get to meet.” Whereas Zuckerman suspected he was doing his girlfriend a favor, in actuality it was an insult to women as he had undermined his girlfriend as a person of equal opportunity. When Albright asks Zuckerman what he meant, he mentions that the only reason they can be in that bar is because Albright allegedly slept with the doorman. This is an unfair judgement on Zuckerman’s part because not only did he wrongfully accuse her of sleeping with the doorman for benefits such as being allowed into the bar, but he also implied that without him, Albright was nothing.
Implications that women are merely props to a man’s life and ambition are littered throughout society’s ideals. Whereas men are being portrayed to be the dominating and more successful figures in society, women are still being held back in opportunities. Even in such films as The Social Network, women are being portrayed as mere sexual subjects who are the men’s trinkets. Adrienne Rich states, in her feminist essay Claiming an Education, that “many [people] tend to eroticize their women students--to treat them as sexual objects--instead of demanding the best of their minds.” Rich writes on the issue of how the expectations for women and their rights are being revoked by society’s standings on women’s stereotyped issues. Females, no matter what race, are being discriminated and slammed into stereotyped cages labeled by society. When the two Asian female students are introduced to Zuckerman and his friend Eduardo Saverin, Christy, Saverin’s love interest, is dressed in revealing clothing. Not only does this demoralize the female population, but creates an image of Asian women being superficial and concerned with outward appearances.
However, in this film, Asian women are not given enough acknowledgement--if any at all--of their abilities and strength. Asian women are being portrayed as nothing more than man-hungry girls who are dependant on men for support. In a party scene, Saverin said, “It’s not that guys like me are generally attracted to Asian girls. It’s that Asian girls are generally attracted to guys like me.” The implications that this statement stamps on Asian women is wrongly stereotyped. In the original script for The Social Network, the introduction of the two Asian women is described as such:
In the row behind them and a few seats over are two beautiful Asian students--Alice and Christy. They’re a little overly made-up for a lecture. Christy, the one sitting closest to Eduardo, is wearing a short skirt with a white shirt open one button too far down the front and we can see a hint of the red bra she’s wearing underneath.
This is an inaccurate depiction of Asian women and is an offensive stereotyping from a biased point of view. Perhaps society has not been given much to work with on this subject matter. Maybe there were not enough factors that had played into Asian women being just as successful as any other human being. Then how would society take into account the numerous Asian women who have impacted the world internationally with their talents and success?
One of the many successful Asian women in history would be the writer Amy Tan who has written numerous novels and won various awards for her work. She has been awarded the New York Times Bestseller award as well as several others including the American Library Association ‘s Best Young Adult Award. Then there is the famous and glamorous Yuna Kim who currently holds the world record for the women’s figure skating short program. Not only did Kim shatter the world record score, but she also beat her world record breaking score again, thus beating the record twice. Kim is a talented skater but her skills don’t just stop there; she was also named the international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for her reputation as one of the top most influential people in the world (as named by Time magazine). These are only two of the world’s many Asian women who are widely known and successful.
The stereotypes of Asian women and women in general have never been inspiring, much less encouraging. Society does not help lift women’s standards up either as in media productions, such as The Social Network, there are major assumptions and wrongfully labeled stereotypes for women of all race. This is a widespread issue that must be changed to adhere to the first article of the Rights of Women that states, “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights.”
