Summary Of Miliann Kang's Managed Hand
Miliann Kang’s Managed Hand talks about Korean nail salons and how intersectionality plays a role in domestic service. Intersectionality is the intersections between gender, class, and race. To examine the oppression of the women in the Korean nail salons, you must look at their gender, race, and class. Kang states that “gender, as enacted through the body labor in the feminized niche of nail salon, can both disrupt ideologies of race and immigration as well reinforce discrimination and exclusion” (17). You cannot talk at one of those things without mentioning the others, as they are all interconnected. Domestic service refers to people working in private homes, doing housework and taking care of their children. For example, many upper class white Americans have nannies to take care of their children and clean up around the home.
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The Korean nail technicians engage in body labor in order to make their money.
Body labor according to Kang is “the process of assigning market value to bodies-their appearance, functions, and the forms of contact between them-generates new forms of work” (36). An example of this shows that you can easily just pay for a massage from a place on your way home, instead of just getting one from a family member. Many of these nails salons are in white middle and upper class neighborhoods because they want to cater to them and make more money. The white women that go to these nail salons do not realize what they are doing. “Gendered service practices intersect with dominant representations of the Asian model minority in ways that uphold the racial and class privilege of white middle-class and upper-class customers white reinforcing notions of Asians as a laudable but still marginalized group” (Kang, 30). They say that they go to these nail salons because they assume that Koreans are good and skilled at dealing with nails. They see them as the model minority because they do their job well and they expect a nice attitude from the nail
technicians.
People assume that all Asian women are good at nails because they are all submissive. “Gendered stereotypes of Asian women as docile, subservient, and well suited to detailed handiwork as an easy but erroneous explanation of their clustering in service work generally and nail salons in particular” (Kang, 47). Many Korean women do not go further than being nail technicians because they do not know English. They are stopped by the racial barriers because they are seen as submissive and unassertive. The interactions between the customers and the nail technicians can be differ depending on the race of the customer. Nail technicians have learned that black people are not what they thought they were, lazy people. They learned that they are just regular people like them, because of the racial discrimination. Some even prefer working with them than with white people because they are usually more demanding. Other nail technicians think that working with them is harder and they prefer white customers because black customers “hands are much dirtier and their nails are harder to cut” (176). White women often think that the nail technicians love their job and actually want to work there.
The women doing domestic work are in that field because it is what they know to do. They cannot find any other jobs that will take them. It is also a stereotype that many of these women come from their countries to work as a maids and nannies because they love it. They have no choice to leave their families behind in order to make money to help them survive. In the case of Filipino and West Indian mothers, they have to mother from a distance. These mothers are to be maternal to both their employers’ children and their own biological children. They are essentially getting paid to be mother to their employers’ children without actually being considered a mother. If they have their family near them, they are not able to spend as much time as they would like to with their families because they spend all of their time with their employer’s family. Because of their race and gender, it is expected of these women to be good at these jobs.
The social construction of race and gender is shown through the role the women play in society. Some play into the stereotype and the rules society placed upon them. Minority women are seen as docile and submissive. They are meant to do body labor and household work. They are supposed to work with children because it is natural of them to do so. White women believe that the Korean women, the Latina women and the West Indian women love working for them and their families. They want to work at their day jobs and have their children taken well care of by women who know what they are doing. They are mothering other people’s children and become their second mothers, while their real mothers are working full time.
The intersections between gender, class, and race is called intersectionality. It shown in many ways throughout the Korean nail salons and the domestic service done by other minority women. They are gendered jobs that have very much to do with the race and class of these women.
The Korean nail technicians engage in body labor in order to make their money.
Body labor according to Kang is “the process of assigning market value to bodies-their appearance, functions, and the forms of contact between them-generates new forms of work” (36). An example of this shows that you can easily just pay for a massage from a place on your way home, instead of just getting one from a family member. Many of these nails salons are in white middle and upper class neighborhoods because they want to cater to them and make more money. The white women that go to these nail salons do not realize what they are doing. “Gendered service practices intersect with dominant representations of the Asian model minority in ways that uphold the racial and class privilege of white middle-class and upper-class customers white reinforcing notions of Asians as a laudable but still marginalized group” (Kang, 30). They say that they go to these nail salons because they assume that Koreans are good and skilled at dealing with nails. They see them as the model minority because they do their job well and they expect a nice attitude from the nail
technicians.
People assume that all Asian women are good at nails because they are all submissive. “Gendered stereotypes of Asian women as docile, subservient, and well suited to detailed handiwork as an easy but erroneous explanation of their clustering in service work generally and nail salons in particular” (Kang, 47). Many Korean women do not go further than being nail technicians because they do not know English. They are stopped by the racial barriers because they are seen as submissive and unassertive. The interactions between the customers and the nail technicians can be differ depending on the race of the customer. Nail technicians have learned that black people are not what they thought they were, lazy people. They learned that they are just regular people like them, because of the racial discrimination. Some even prefer working with them than with white people because they are usually more demanding. Other nail technicians think that working with them is harder and they prefer white customers because black customers “hands are much dirtier and their nails are harder to cut” (176). White women often think that the nail technicians love their job and actually want to work there.
The women doing domestic work are in that field because it is what they know to do. They cannot find any other jobs that will take them. It is also a stereotype that many of these women come from their countries to work as a maids and nannies because they love it. They have no choice to leave their families behind in order to make money to help them survive. In the case of Filipino and West Indian mothers, they have to mother from a distance. These mothers are to be maternal to both their employers’ children and their own biological children. They are essentially getting paid to be mother to their employers’ children without actually being considered a mother. If they have their family near them, they are not able to spend as much time as they would like to with their families because they spend all of their time with their employer’s family. Because of their race and gender, it is expected of these women to be good at these jobs.
The social construction of race and gender is shown through the role the women play in society. Some play into the stereotype and the rules society placed upon them. Minority women are seen as docile and submissive. They are meant to do body labor and household work. They are supposed to work with children because it is natural of them to do so. White women believe that the Korean women, the Latina women and the West Indian women love working for them and their families. They want to work at their day jobs and have their children taken well care of by women who know what they are doing. They are mothering other people’s children and become their second mothers, while their real mothers are working full time.
The intersections between gender, class, and race is called intersectionality. It shown in many ways throughout the Korean nail salons and the domestic service done by other minority women. They are gendered jobs that have very much to do with the race and class of these women.