{"id":1064,"date":"2022-11-15T16:23:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T21:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2022-11-15T16:23:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T21:23:15","slug":"bee-and-meis-connection-to-bette-and-tina-from-the-l-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2022\/11\/15\/bee-and-meis-connection-to-bette-and-tina-from-the-l-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Bee and Mei’s connection to Bette and Tina from the L word"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Mr. Anderson gets fired, Bee asks Mei how she\u2019s feeling (Kohr, 113). Mei is frustrated and explains that her father \u201cspent weeks on a boat to come here [to the logging camp]. He said my life will be better than his. He said we are a people that endure.\u201d Mei and Bee have come from different backgrounds, \u2018people.\u2019 Even though Bee and Mei are friends (with some romantic tension as well) there is a clear power imbalance between them since Mei\u2019s dad worked under Bee\u2019s dad, who fired him for not being white. Even though a part of Bee and Mei\u2019s\u00a0identities is centered around their relationship, layers of their identity relating to race and class are more prevalent when people make judgements about them, as individuals. Mei\u00a0finally asks Bee, \u201cdoes your family have to endure too, or is it just us?\u201d While Bee can empathize with her friend and her family, she does not share the same experiences as Mei. When Bee doesn\u2019t respond, this gives Mei a newfound perspective\u00a0about Bee\u2019s life experience and identity (it is not\u00a0remotely like hers) which makes her\u00a0feel very isolated because this is her only friend.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bee and Mei\u2019s relationship reminds me of Bette and Tina\u2019s relationship from the L word. When Bette and Tina were talking about sperm donors, Tina was confused why Bette wanted an African American sperm donor. Bette was hurt because her partner, Tina, forgot a very important part of her identity. Even though Bette is biracial and might not present as \u2018black\u2019 to some people, including her own partner, her identity as a black woman is valid, and has always existed. Even though Bee never questioned her friendship with Mei because she was Chinese, as other people in the logging community might, Mei\u2019s Chinese identity has always existed too. Mei and Bee will never share the same identity, no matter how much time they spend together and that it is an essential part of their coming to age story.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Mr. Anderson gets fired, Bee asks Mei how she\u2019s feeling (Kohr, 113). Mei is frustrated and explains that her father \u201cspent weeks on a boat to come here [to the logging camp]. He said my life will be better than his. He said we are a people that endure.\u201d Mei and Bee have come … Continue reading Bee and Mei’s connection to Bette and Tina from the L word<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}