WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
By Malena Amusa
USAk524a: Eliza
Noh, whose sister committed suicide, has dedicated
herself to researching the reasons behind suicide being the second
leading cause of death among young Asian American women.
Her sister, a junior
at
Her sister underwent
cosmetic surgery to have a European bridge put in her nose and eye-widening
folds in her upper lids. Her problems didn't ease with her change in
appearance, however.
"She wrote an
essay for an English class and got a B. When she inquired to her professor, he
said he didn't give foreign students A's on English papers," recalls Noh.
Incidentally, Noh and her sister were born in the
When her sister took
her life, Noh was a sophomore at
In 1998, Noh
graduated with a doctorate in ethnic studies from the
Asian American women
between 15 and 24 had the highest number of suicides among all
The women behind
those numbers have shown up in the news. In 2000, Elizabeth Shin, a 19-year-old
Korean American, was found engulfed in flames in her dorm room at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in an apparent suicide. The death, later
ruled an accident, followed previous suicide attempts.
Like Noh's sister,
Shin began showing signs of a mental health crisis in high school. When Shin
barely missed becoming her high school's valedictorian, she contemplated taking
her life, USA Today had reported in January 2002.
Many more Asian
American women have had their private suffering exposed, including Iris Chang,
the Chinese American author of the 1997 book ‘The Rape of Nanking’, who in 2004
shot herself at the age of 36 after suffering long bouts of depression.
In
Suicide is the 11th
leading cause of death in the
The explanation for
the problem of depression and suicide among Asian American women is often tied
to a culture that health experts say pressurises Asian Americans to succeed in
all areas of life and is sometimes offered to explain why Asian Americans may
outperform other racial groups in academics.
In May 2006, for
instance, ‘New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about why Asian
American children do well in U.S. schools: "Success goes to those whose
ancestors came from the Confucian belt from Japan through Korea and China to
Vietnam. If I am right, the success of Asian Americans is mostly about culture
and there's no way to transplant culture."
Noh says the
stereotype of Asian cultures being hard-wired for success creates a dangerous
"model minority" image that can devastate Asian American women who
don't meet unrealistic expectations. In a portion of her research study Noh
argues that depression and suicide are linked to a model-minority myth that
makes it difficult for Asian American women to accept their "flaws".
Asian American women
attempt suicide more than Asian American men, Noh says. But because men use
more fatal tactics, their suicide rate is higher. Four men commit suicide for
every woman, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Historically, Noh
says, Asian American women face conflicting sexual stereotypes that force many
to juggle their identities between a seductive and treacherous dragon lady and
the soft, lotus blossom character made famous by the century-old ‘Madame
Butterfly’ story, in which a submissive Japanese woman falls for a white man
and commits suicide when she loses her love.
"Many of my
interviewees said they were affected by these dualistic images, either as
hyper-sexualised and domineering, or passive and submissive," says Noh.
According to her, these images, combined with familial expectations, narrow the
spectrum for Asian women's sense of identity and self-worth.
Several of the women
Noh interviewed, for instance, told her that daughters were expected to take
care of their families, and later, their own families, while it was assumed
that someone would care for the sons.
"The son would
be allowed to do anything," says Noh. "No curfew, no strict
supervision."
While many women
rebelled, others bottled up their feelings, never to explode but to ooze out in
creeping depression. "There was a lot of anger," she says.
Dr. Peter Yee,
assistant executive director for behavioural health services at
Hamilton-Madison House, a community agency in
He agrees that women
face special social limitations and believes that when women do enter the
clinic, their mental health problems are likely to be more severe.
Asian "women
have an extra burden to be dutiful daughters," Yee says. "If you
don't go and get a husband, then you're a loser. The whole model minority thing
is at stake."
Helen Zia, author of
the book ‘Asian American Dreams: the Emergence of an American People’ about the
history of civil rights struggles of Asians in America, says the welfare of
Asian American women is also at stake if health care providers succumb to
stereotypes of Asian women.
"We have a
phenomenon where people are actually ill," Zia says. "People are
ignoring that and using culture as an excuse not to recognise, or diagnose or
treat."
By WFS arrangement
with Women’s eNews.