fuckmywholeactuallife:

my family watched the early release screening of Crazy Rich Asians tonight and my 40+ year old first gen Chinese American dad literally lasted 10 minutes before he started crying. After the movie he was talking about how he didn’t think the movie would affect him, now that he’s a grown up with a family, but he hadn’t realized how formative growing up without representation was. Everyone who looked like him as a sidekick, or had to know some martial art to train the white lead. Seeing someone who looked like him being seen as unquestionably handsome, desirable, as a rom-com lead made him realize that for his whole life, he felt invisible.

Representation is so important. It’s so insidious what media does to us— if you’re not represented, or if you’re represented poorly, that seeps into you and affects your self-image without you realizing.

Even “imperfect” representation, things people think “perpetuate Asian stereotypes” or are inaccurate, can make people feel SEEN. Maybe some things weren’t perfect, but I saw so much honesty in it, and I saw so much of my family in it.

Please watch Crazy Rich Asians. Please. It’s so important.