I’m sure many people are going to agree that this was the best assignment thus far. Margaret Cho was so entertaining and funny that she kept my attention the entire time. It was interesting how she started out by saying that she wasn’t nervous to be performing in front of so many people, she was just nervous that she had to do it in front of her parents. She had said that she could feel her parents silent disapproval. This reminded me of the symposium that we all attended because all of the students who spoke and read their papers, were doing what Cho was doing.. except the students were doing it in front of a smaller crowd, but still, it takes guts to get up and speak to a group of people.

Cho started off by discussing the differences between gay and straight men, moving on to stereotypes and adding in humor along the way. She was saying how gay men are much more attractive than straight men and it’s a lot easier to talk to gay men, claiming that she was a heterophobic. She made jokes that many people wouldn’t be comfortable with making themselves. Cho touched upon gays, lesbians, the KKK, and even mothers (or just her mother). By the way, I thought it was hilarious how she made fun of her mother. She talked like an old Korean woman, scrunched her face, and just mocked her. I know that sounds bad, but it was her own mother, so that made it funny! Cho also talked about something very important, body image. A lot of girls today are brainwashed to think that you’re only beautiful if you’re very skinny. When Cho was on television, I guess she dropped 30 pounds in 2 weeks, which is very unhealthy. She was conforming to society. She thought she looked good, but because the network didn’t agree, she had to change.

I think I saw a lot of theory throughout Margaret Cho’s stand-up. First off, I saw Foucault because he discusses sex throughout his text, and obviously Cho didn’t have a problem touching upon that subject. She shared her thoughts with the whole world and wasn’t shy to speak of it. I think Foucault believed that it should be more private, but Cho was very much more open about it (she’s not easily embarrassed). Rubin was also represented when it comes to the sex/gender system. Women are “supposed to be” seen as objects, skinny and pretty, for men. Then of course, I saw a lot of Fanon. There was a lot of racial items being covered throughout this ‘movie’. She talks about people of different races and it’s just covering the fact that a lot of people are where they are because of the place others put you in. That makes sense in my head, but now that I’m rereading it, I’m not so sure? Then of course there’s Judith Butler. When Cho talks about how her mother would call her and say “Are you gay? If you don’t pick up the phone, you’re gay” on her answering machine. Because Cho was born a woman, her whole life she has been conditioned on how to act like a woman. Being gay in her mother’s eyes would just be wrong. Her mother claims that it is ok– that there are a lot of people in the world who are gay, just not people who are Korean. Contradictory?

Either way, Margaret Cho was great and was able to make light of a lot of situations that are viewed as controversies in today’s society.