| Symbolic annihilation renders minorities invisible and powerless, which results in the promotion of a status quo and racial hierarchy that further disadvantages the group being symbolically annihilated. While many scholars have investigated symbolic annihilation, none, to my knowledge, have analyzed the symbolic annihilation of Asian American women in political cartoons. This thesis addresses the stereotypes employed by political cartoons featuring Asian American women, and argues that the result is that the women being depicted in these cartoons are symbolically annihilated. In order to investigate this process I have selected three prominent Asian American women (Michelle Rhee, Amy Chua, and Mazie Hirono) and examined how they were portrayed in political cartoons. I found evidence suggesting that the Yellow Peril and Dragon Lady stereotypes were being employed for all three women, rendering them as one-dimensional stereotypes and suggesting that they have been symbolically annihilated. |
