Feminist Writing Portfolio

Framing Essay

Target audience: Asian American diaspora, feminist activists, college academics

There is a sense of hope, connection, and solidarity that readers can identify with just through language and storytelling about the struggles and triumphs of existing in a world where patriarchy and white supremacy consumes all, and this is what feminist writing aims to do—provide visibility, uplift minoritized voices, and ensure that the silenced are never alone. My Feminist Writing Portfolio encapsulates this very sentiment, and contains in total seven pieces of writing: four drafts covering fiction, poetry, movement journalism, and theater, while the three revised pieces includes a children’s book, a zine, and a memoir chapter.

My fiction draft recounts a time where I was invited to go camping and my two friends and I got stuck for an extended amount of time on the lake while rowing our inflatable raft. Without a doubt, this caused some panic between the three of us. But the two brothers had the natural ability to make anyone laugh even during the most serious of moments, which is what I believe finally led us back to shore. After retelling this story, I switched the genders of everybody involved to see how much would change. While the rewritten version is the same story, the dynamic is much less chaotic with two girls and one boy instead.

In the poetry draft, I listed a number of negative physical feelings to describe what my adrenaline levels were like that week. I thought it would be interesting to use grotesque visuals, like seeping eczema waiting to be soothed and healed, and a festering open wound begging for a scalpel’s mercifulness to express the dire desperation I felt at the time of writing. Then, I did the same with positive feelings to represent my joy in being so close to graduating and discovered that my list all carried themes of relief and relaxation, such as finally being able to let go of a stifled breath and feeling purified by a hot shower after a long day of work to indicate the gratitude that comes with letting go and knowing that everything will be alright.

The AANHPI community is centered in my movement journalism draft in light of May being AANHPI Heritage Month, and I pitched the idea of bringing awareness about women and queer individuals within the community facing mental health issues as a result of institutional barriers and cultural values. Inspired by the psychology journals I have read in my Asian American Psychology class, I also added that different psychology journals would be cited in my pitch to show that data has been collected throughout recent years, meaning that it is still an ongoing issue that many may not know of. In short, my magazine pitch would serve to teach others about a marginalized population that I am a part of, and it would be meaningful journalism to me and my community as another queer individual of the Asian American diaspora.

The fourth and last draft is a monologue for the theater genre, and the given prompt was to reflect on relationships we have had in life and choose one raw anecdote that exhibits the complexity and power in severing a relationship. Wanting to explore the themes of generational differences between immigrant parents and their children who were born and raised in America, I wrote a monologue from the perspective of an eldest daughter that has finally had enough of her family dictating her life. My goal in writing the piece was to emphasize the contrast between collectivist and individualistic mindsets that many American children of color may be familiar with in their own family dynamic, and acknowledge the frustration that comes with it.

The first revised piece is a children’s book titled, “Mei Li & The Moon Bunny” and follows the story of a young Chinese American girl who is eager to make friends at her new school, but fails to make any after her first day which causes her great sadness. At night, Mei Li is visited by The Moon Bunny—a prominent figure in East Asian folklore, and offers to help her make friends. This piece accurately conveys the values of feminist writing in multiple ways: the main character is a person of color, the book depicts cultural items from China, and the plot point is driven by a folktale character exclusive to East Asia. Concisely put, this book is representation for kids of color, namely Chinese kids, who do not often see themselves in children’s stories and shows that positive portrayals in media is a form of platforming minoritized groups.

Coven Hunt! is a zine and serves as the second revised piece. It is seven pages in total: a cover page, a page that defines what a feminist is and another that answers why someone should be one, a spread dedicated to honoring pioneers of the LGBTQ+ movement, a two-paged comic strip about how to deal with catcalling, and the last page discusses the perks of being a feminist. All pages were written in a tongue-in-cheek style of voice to attract a large audience in general, particularly feminist activists, but the cheeky texts were inspired by zines made during the Riot Grrrl Movement. My zine reflects feminist writing because its objective is to educate readers about feminism in an entertaining and informational format that highlights disempowered voices.

The third and last revised piece, “Costco”, is a chapter out of an abridged memoir. I narrate my real experience of my childhood being robbed from me at nine years old due to my father getting detained by ICE on my sister’s fifth birthday. With that, I mourned my innocence, learned of cruelty, and was radicalized that day. Writing the memoir chapter was the most difficult out of all the pieces because of how personal and painful it is, but I think for all the same reasons, it is exactly what makes it feminist writing—it provides visibility, is empowering, and instills the profound beauty in being able to make someone else feel less alone in the world.