come fly with me: a pan am raceswapped dreamcast
Note: Historically, one of the big things that Pan Am Airlines did was try to expand the cosmopolitan international image of their company by hiring Asian-American women. They called them Nisei stewardesses, although they certainly didn't unilaterally hire Japanese-American women and opted to avoid California for Hawaii because they were trying to dodge any controversy with the recent internments. I don't that much about the history but the photo source is here, with interviews with original Pan Am API stewardesses, some of whom are still bffs today and continue to go to reunions and parties together.
A/N: I haven't seen Pan Am so this is less of a raceswapped dreamcast as it is "Karen's feelings: a picspam" with a dose of history.
The rest of the picspam is
KEIKO AGENA ... Anny Tsuchiya
ALLY MAKI ... Nora Tsuchiya
Anny and Nora Tsuchiya are sisters who compete over everything: grades, sports, clothes, everything. So when Nora gets scouted to be a stewardess for Pan-Am, seeing the world and visiting the seven wonders of the world, Anny decides to sign up with her. They leave their small suburban community in Tucson, AZ, and while they're not the wide-eyed, bushy-tailed naive country girls everyone thinks they are, adjusting isn't going to be easy.
DEVON AOKI ... Nancy Arakawa
AHNEY HER ... Jacqueline Tang
ASHLEY ARGOTA ... Christina Torre
The other girls in the program aren't what the Tsuchiya girls expect to see either. There's Nancy from the Bronx, who reminds them both more than a little of Clara Bow, who doesn't seem to give a fuck what the program rules are or who she's pissing off this week. Or Jackie Tang, who came from California against her family's wishes to see the world and plans on going to college, despite her family's disapproval, with no idea on how she'd pay for it. And then there's Christina, a little too peppy and cheerleader-esque for any of them to stand being in a room with her very often, who talks about everything except herself, her family, where she came from, and why she's running.
JULIA LING ... Lisa Zhang
CARLIE CASEY ... Francine ("Fancy") Edmonton
LYNN CHEN ... Florence Jiang
NAOKO MORI ... Narumi Ito
The veteran stewardesses know a lot, but share little. There's Lisa, who spends their pre-flight time chain smoking, rolls her eyes at the girls trying to flirt with the captains, and seems to hate her job, but never seems like she wants to leave it. Florence is a little nicer, but gives no more answers or advice; she and Lisa seem to have an unlikely friendship going on, even though Lisa works coach and Florence works first-class. Fancy can't help but feel like her neck is on the chopping block with all this increased focus on... this new cosmopolitan look and as much as she tries to be friendly, there isn't much to reconcile except that she still has a job to do (right now) and she'll do it. Narumi is the den mother of the group more than anyone else, but she's insistent on the old-school approach to doing things, to learning by fire rather than being coached through everything. And besides, the vets know there's more to the job than can ever be told through advice and artificial teaching situations - there's more to life in the air than just smiling and looking pretty, and there's more to the job that's seedy than glamorous.
And on a layover, who knows what could happen or who you could pick up?
BRENDA SONG ... Gia An
LA THANH HUYEN ... Linh Truong
Two of their new pick-ups don't seem to like each other or anyone else. Gia signs up for the program, convinced she's going to hit bigger and better things in her life. And Linh seems to mistakenly think this is a fast-track program to a modeling contract or Hollywood. And there's a fair share of bad blood brewing between all of the girls already from deeply ingrained inter-Asian prejudices and too little cabin space and colorism and short tempers.
When the Vietnam War is escalated in the mid-1960s, Linh starts to worry less about her job and more about her family and how to get them out, and Gia stops talking altogether. And the other girls try to figure out what to do or say when they know that nothing will suffice; Narumi and the others already know the cons that come with the job - the accusations of espionage, the slurs, the harassment - but this is something else entirely.
Those are the girls... and this? This is the life.
And these are some of the boys that love them. Well, eventually.
[LEE THOMPSON YOUNG; BEE VANG; JAMES KYSON LEE; ARCHIE KAO]
And because I was feeling salty today and tumblr is a predictable website,
c'est fin~