Thread by @miheekimkort

Last thoughts. [Procrastinating from diss writing.]

How #BEEFnetflix demonstrates the entanglement of purity culture, race, and masculinity, and why religion is a helpful analytic (or, what keeps tripping me up besides feeling disillusioned about it all): 1/

In light of all that’s resurfaced about David Ch*e it’s impossible to think or talk about this show now apart from the violence and trauma of sexual assault. @reappropriate talked about his disgusting behavior here back in 2014. reappropriate.co/2014/04/did-ko… 2/

Others are talking about the irresponsibility of his recent casting, the despicable backtracking and scrubbing, the absent response from producers, actors, directors, and more: @kimmythepooh
nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame… and @karenkho
artnews.com/art-news/news/… 3/

I was moved by the range of representation. Ch*e’s is not the only masculinity. We have meaningful ones in each character as well as in a variety of settings (home, church, basketball court, art studio, kitchen). I loved Young Mazino, Joseph Lee, Steve Yuen, Justin Min. 4/

But that representation throughout the series is now inseparable from the masculinity David Ch*e performed on that podcast. @angiekayhong talks about the significance of Korean American manhood beautifully here.

https://twitter.com/angiekayhong/status/1648143598720876547

5/

Now what about religion? These scenes are an opportunity to think about evangelicalism, esp as a project of Americanness, of whiteness—and critique its homogenizing effects, its universalizing structures, its minoritizing procedures, all of which creates hierarchies. 6/

The Korean American church doesn’t only assimilate or replicate whiteness, it has its own recipe for patriarchy, misogyny, racism. Like a lot of religious institutions it has systems of purity embedded in its scaffolding. That purity guides what is upheld, worshiped, valued. 7/

The thing about purity culture is that it is twinned with rape culture: it’s about regulating all bodies, and subjecting all bodies to the hegemony of (hetero)normative sexuality, gender, and intimacy. It’s esp about the coercion of specific bodies to uphold those in power. 8/

This requires a certain kind of masculinity and so we see it—from the weeping Danny to the Danny fighting with his brother to the Danny who leads worship to the Danny who attempts to jerk off to a photo on his brother’s phone. And all of it is normalized. All of it. 9/

The inclusion of the Korean American church now read through a culture not only of assimilation, but of purity—normalizing forces—grounds all these masculinities, on AND off-screen, and the silence from those in power speaks volumes about what is ultimately worshipped— 10/

Again. The art is not worth it.

I’ll flag other folks who help my thinking: on evangelicalism and whiteness @BradleyOnishi @StraightWhiteJC and @MoslenerSara and I’m looking forward more to @MinjungNoh on transnational Korean Christianity and gender. 11/

Maybe instead watch these:
Saving Face, an oldie but a beautiful goodie: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Fa… and the stunning Happy Cleaners, koreanamericanstory.org/happy-cleaners/ Thank goodness we still have #EEAAO. 12/

[Thoughts are still not quite formed—muddling through these themes that seem to come up over and over. Thanks to @Sacred_Writes @themodsisyphus for helping me think through this for this medium.] 13/13