FEMSLASH FANFICTION AND LESBIANISM: EFFORTS TO EMPOWER AND EXPRESS ASIAN AMERICAN WOMAN SEXUALITY

The existence of fan fiction nowadays shows more progressive development especially in this digital era when people does not only use internet for communicating and socializing across time and space but they also show their creativity, one of them is by writing a fan fiction. By writing fan fiction in online platforms, people get the opportunity to express their interests and their identities. This opportunity is also obtained by minority groups such as LGBTQ+ where they can express their identity through fan fiction. LGBTQ+ community utilizes online platform as the tool that brings benefit for them. In this case, writing fan fiction in online platforms allows people to create the preferable representation of minority groups and empower them as the part of LGBTQ+ community. This phenomenon can be seen through a website named Asianfanfics.com which shows an increasing number of fan fictions especially the ones with lesbian related tags such as girl x girl, lesbian, and femslash. Particularly, through the femslash subgenre, people use fan fiction to question the heteronormativity. Regarding to this phenomenon, an interview was conducted by choosing three Asian American fan fiction writers from Asianfanfics.com as the interviewees. Furthermore, by using gender theory and intersectionality, this article focuses on how fan fiction becomes a safe space to express their sexual identities and how lesbian relationship is viewed by Asian families.

MORE THAN A HOUSE: A GENDER ANALYSIS OF LAHSA’S THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT (VAWA) HOUSING POLICY

Homelessness is a chronic problem worldwide, including in the United States. The country’s biggest homeless population occupies major cities like New York and Los Angeles. The fight against homelessness in L.A. has been going on for years, with the homeless population flooding places like Venice Beach, Echo Park, Hollywood, and its most famous homeless encampment, Skid Row. One of the groups constantly vulnerable to the threat of homelessness are women, and the intersection between women's homelessness and domestic violence remains to be a challenging subject. Enriching previous scholarship, this paper critically analyzes housing programs targeting female domestic violence survivors in Los Angeles. In order to get an in-depth examination, the focus is directed to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Housing Policy managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). The paper employs gender theory to examine the program’s shortcomings. Using Jeff Hearn’s conception of the ‘public men,’ this paper proposes that the program’s limitations stem from the prevailing patriarchy, which cultivates from home and extends to public policy through the domination of men. Furthermore, the policy is insufficient in combatting women's homelessness due to the absence of programs such as trauma centers, financial security & education program, and childcare unit that are vital to address the unique experience of domestic violence survivors. Thus, evaluation of the housing policy is immediately needed to overcome the problem of homelessness due to domestic violence.

Editorial

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RACISM TOWARDS AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY AS REFLECTED IN MAYA ANGELOU’S I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS: BLACK AESTHETIC CRITICISM

The study of the African American community always circulates among the issues of race, racism, discrimination, slavery, and oppression. All these issues become the grand themes of African American literature. These literary works could be studied and covered under the scope of Black Aesthetic criticism. One of the prominent works of African American literature is an autobiography of Maya Angelou entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This autobiography portrays Angelou’s childhood experiences which brings up the issues of race, racism, and oppression. This paper aims to analyze the kinds of racism experienced by the African American community and their struggle against it as depicted in the book. To provide a thorough discussion of the matter, critical race theory was employed as the method of analysis. The result is drawn based on the basic tenets of critical race theory proposed by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (2001); everyday racism, interest convergence, the social construction of race, differential realization, intersectionality, and voice of Color. The findings show the struggle of African American community against racism which are expressed through the act of ignorance, promoting intelligence, communal efforts, resistance, promoting social movement, and stepping forward to voice their experience through African American literature.

RETHINKING THE ‘TRUTH’ OF IDENTITY: DISSECTING QUEERNESS AND EMO SUBCULTURE IN NETFLIX’S THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

Over the years, the presence of LGBTQ+ community in the media has gone through noticeable change. It is a challenge for online streaming services like Netflix to represent as many communities and subcultures as they can, because accessibility comes with more diverse audience. While many LGBTQ+ characters have been put in the spotlight, those who identify beyond binaries are still arguably underrepresented, especially the ones that belong to socially degraded subculture like emo. The Umbrella Academy is a TV show rooted in emo subculture that feature LGBTQ+ superhero characters, Klaus Hargreeves and Vanya Hargreeves, who do not fully associate with the label “gay”, “lesbian”, or “bisexual”. This study employs what Judith Butler asserts, that gender expressions and practices of desire go beyond binaries, to see how emo subculture engages queerness as rejection to rigid classification of gender identities and sexual practices, as well as a tool to oppose conservatism, especially of previous generations. The discussion reveals that contrary to the popular belief that perceives emo as the culture of straight middle-class white boys, the show perceives emo subculture through the characters’ rejection to absolute identification. The characters show rejection through clothing, behavior, mannerism, and verbal statements. The characters also show opposition to conservatism, which include traditional gender roles, traditional superhero narratives, masculine-feminine polarity, and the ‘truth’ of identity.

FASHION AND COMMODIFICATION: AN ANALYSIS ON THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON OF SUPREME

Globalization is the global information spread and people interconnectivity. It is driven by technological developments in transportation and communication, removing cultural boundaries among nations. Cultural differences are increasingly less tangible and visible in all cultural products, including in fashion. Due to globalization, fashion brands that originate in a certain country can open stores across multiple continents. The invention of the Internet further widens their accessibility by consumers in any part of the world. However, globalization also brings an affordability gap between the upper and the lower classes. Nonetheless, fashion brands can also take advantage of this economic difference in appealing to their consumers. One of those brands is Supreme. Founded in 1994, it became the most sought-after hypebeast brand among street-fashion enthusiasts worldwide. How do they do it in less than 30 years is interesting to analyze. To answer this objective, this article is conducted from the cultural studies standpoint and the case study method. There are three formulas of positioning it adopts in order to grow globally: (1) the commodification African-American community, (2) the use of celebrity endorsement, and (3) the hype of limited-edition releases. Supreme sells oversized streetwear, heavily influenced by Hip-hop culture, a music genre rooted in the lives of African Americans. The brand makes use of celebrities, especially rappers, to endorse its clothes and accessories. It also continually makes headlines by releasing limited-edition products as well as collaborating with well-known figures and brands.

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM AS IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN AMERICAN DYSTOPIAN NOVELS

Literature reflects the history of people's lives, which includes lifestyle, culture, language, desires, and important events in people's lives. Dystopia novels cannot be separated from discussions about authoritarian government, restraints on people's freedom, criticism of the development of technology and information, exploitation and the class system, and the arbitrariness of the rulers. Despite telling a bad world, Dystopian novels proved popular in America, a country that promised freedom, equality, and freedom to its citizens. The possibility of different realities captured by American popular novelists who differ from their imaginations gave birth to dystopian novels that are popular in American society. Thus, this study is important to analyse Capitalism and Socialism as ideological constructions in American dystopian novels through Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, Uglies, and The Hunger Games. This research will formulate an understanding of whether or not American dystopian novels confirm or negate the ideology of Capitalism and the ideology of Socialism.

THE PORTRAYAL OF A KOREAN ADOPTEE’S EXPERIENCE IN NICOLE CHUNG’S ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW: A MEMOIR OF ADOPTION

Transnational adoption has become one of the factors of transnational migration to Western countries, including America. Transnational adoption can be viewed from at least two perspectives, South Korea as the origin country and America as the targeted country. From the birth country, transnational adoption becomes a way to help the children from poverty, have a better future, and contribute to the birth country when they return. From the adoption-targeted country, this adoption is a humanitarian way to save the children from poverty, primitive way of life, and God’s blessing. One of the countries which regularly “send” the children to Western countries is South Korea. The children become Korean adoptees and mostly living in white American neighborhoods. Living with white Americans has shaped the Korean adoptees’ behavior and way of thinking same as Americans. Korean adoptees face various problems, starting from adjusting themselves in new environment, finding their cultural roots and identity, and struggling to find their biological parents. This study employed Phinnes’ ethnic identity development to make sense of the experience of a Korean adoptee called Nicole Chung in her memoir, All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir of Adoption. Through the discussion, it can be understood how transnational adoption programs become national agenda and big business field since it is not expensive to have children from other countries. There is also an assumption that the children will have better and happier life when they are taken to America and other western countries. However, throughout their life as adopted children in America, the children also find difficulties, especially in finding their identity.

POSTCOLONIAL TRANSLATION STUDIES: FOREIGNIZATION AND DOMESTICATION OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN OF MICE AND MEN’S INDONESIAN TRANSLATED VERSIONS

Resistance to Western Culture can be seen through translator’s strategy of translating novels. This research aims to analyze the translation of culture-specific items in Indonesian translated versions of Of Mice and Men, originally written by John Steinbeck. The selected translated versions belong to the work of Pramoedya Ananta Toer (2003) and Ariyantri E. Tarman (2017). The translations of culture-specific items are analyzed under Transnational American Studies paradigm to find out the dominant translation principle applied in both translated versions and the results are discussed from the perspective of postcolonial translation studies. From the data, it is found out that the domestication principle is more dominant than foreignization strategy. Analyzed from postcolonial translation studies, the tendency to use the domestication principle in translated novels show the efforts of the target culture to fight against Western culture as the source culture. Although both Indonesian versions of Of Mice and Men mostly apply the domestication principle, the recent translated version (T2) shows an increase in the use of foreignization principle in which English loanwords are frequently used. From a postcolonial translation studies’ perspective, it can be concluded that target culture is against Western culture; however, the signs of cultural imperialism, especially linguistic imperialism, have grown in the recent years.

NETFLIX: CULTURAL DIVERSITY OR CULTURAL IMPERIALISM?

The global rise of Netflix as subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) has emerged along with its capitalization of film, television, and technology industry for the audience's convenience. It replaces the interest of local television with its claim of 'a global TV network' with cultural diversity in its contents. However, the term cultural diversity itself should be questioned whether it means to leave the American cultural power or it is only to claim themselves as a global company where global identity is represented in their identity to attract a wider audience. By using transnational approach, this study finds the use of cultural diversity merely to fulfill the demand of the American audience, with several globalization consequences in Netflix Original series, especially in non-American series. Those consequences are the homogenization in European-made Netflix series, where they appear to be fully Americanized with American lifestyle or American perspective, and heterogenization in Asian-made Netflix series with its collaboration of Asian culture and American popular culture. The claim of a 'global TV network' itself does not leave the American cultural power. Instead, they are taking advantage of the cultural power to retain the existing audiences and to fascinate more audiences. Therefore, the dependency of non-American producers in relying on Netflix platform as a way to reach global audience, even the use of Americanization to their works for global audience's satisfaction, confirms the cultural power of America in its ability to bring economic advancement to other countries.