The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

[deleriumd]

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I actually read the vapid sequel to the equally vapid 'Girl in a Steel Corset'. The sequel is titled 'Girl in the Clockwork Collar' and the biggest hint that this was going to be bad was the model on the cover was East Asian. The reason I felt my stomach sink was because this is a steampunk novel and East Asians

Comments

[ljlee]

I've never liked the Plucky Girl trope because too often it's set up to create artificial divisions between the plucky and the non-plucky, and it tends to degenerate into an overly simplistic and cringe-inducing "solution" to sexism as in: if only all women were as awesome as Plucky Girl, sexism wouldn't be a problem anymore! Or worse: Plucky Girl is too awesome to be discriminated against, it's not like she's these other run-of-the-mill girls.

It sounds like this series falls into the Plucky Girl trap, at least the part where the non-plucky girls unjustifiably persecute her for not conforming to feminine ideals, for being too different, or for getting the attention of the men they desire for themselves. Ugh. Here's another sexist thing about a lot of Plucky Girl writings: It's mostly only male characters who recognize her true value, while female characters will be jealous of her or hate her. The male gaze becomes the standard of goodness, while the female gaze is devalued and seen as petty, envious, and self-serving. Yeah, because we don't get enough of that in real life.

Evidently the sexist flavor was too subtle for the author's tastes, though, if she felt the need to add a nice big dollop of unmistakable racism. I'm an East Asian woman and I feel like I should be angry about this, but mostly I'm just tired of these overworked cliches. You nicely pointed out all the many things that are wrong about the characterization of Mei Xin, thanks for calling it out. And I suppose "Mei Xin" could sound like 'mazing--if the person saying it is a moron who can't be bothered to pronounce other people's names correctly. ("Xin" in Chinese has a sound between "Shin" and "Sin," NOT "Zin." #didnotdotheresearch) I now have a theory that the money thing was a front and Mei Xin got murderous urges from the mangling of her name. Thanks for nothing, Finley!

[deleriumd]

I speak a little bit of Mandarin and Cantonese, I can't read or write though. Mei Xing's name is very pretty but the racism of "she's EXOTIC" "PEKING" "martial arts" and "china doll" just left me pissed off.

I would have left the book alone if the author had explored her 'accent' by throwing in the nasty 'r and l' accent joke.

My partner is biracial, Mainland Chinese and white and raised in Singapore and when I mentioned how much this bothered me, he zeroed on in the racism and cultural appropriation... but now he has the WORST craving for Peking duck.