Oh Tila Tequila…
Nearly every day or so, in addition to regular posts, Racialicious posts a list of links to online articles. Each link is tagged with related words and topics of interest. One link from the list on 12-18-07 was tagged “asianamerican” and “realitytv” for a JournalStar.com article: MTV dating show starring Tila Tequila a breakout hit. Apparently, “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” is among the top 15 cable shows and has become MTV’s 2nd most popular series. Tila Tequila, whose last name is really Nguyen, is a bisexual Internet celebrity. In the article, it mentions how AfterEllen.com questions whether Tequila was the ideal representative for bisexuals. But why does she have to be representative? The series doesn’t seem to bring up the fact that Tila is Vietnamese too often. Although I do recall one incident where one of the contestants’ mothers said she looked exotic, but MTV just showed an awkward silence and moved on. Having a main character on an MTV series be Asian American is quite rare. So it would be interesting to hear people’s opinions on the show’s overcoming or reinforcement of stereotypes.
hi sarah,
my name is wendi muse, and i am special correspondent for racialicious. i appreciate your having mentioned us here. i just wanted to point you to some of the articles racialicious has featured on tila (written by me, latoya, and a featured guest blogger) (re: her show, representations of bisexuals, and representations of asian american women). they can be found below:
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/26/third-shot-and-im-starting-to-feel-it-shot-at-love-recap/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/18/a-shot-at-love-second-recap/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/16/a-shot-atdiversity-tila-tequila-and-reality-tv/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/09/21/no-tequila-for-me-thanks/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/03/11/avril-lavigne-tila-tequila-and-asian-america/
i agree with you that having an apia woman on mtv with her own show is pretty rare, but i wonder is this the best way to start (with a fake matchmaking show)?
Hi Sarah,
Both Wendi Muse and I both blogged about Tila before the show came out:
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/09/21/no-tequila-for-me-thanks/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/16/a-shot-atdiversity-tila-tequila-and-reality-tv/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/18/a-shot-at-love-second-recap/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/10/26/third-shot-and-im-starting-to-feel-it-shot-at-love-recap/