Monday, May 25, 2015

Badass Femmes: Lane Kim of 'Gilmore Girls'

Badass Femmes is a bi-weekly column that I write on Crome Yellow about all the Badass Females in pop culture that has shaped my life.

I was lucky enough to have grown up in Los Angeles’ K-town, a city where Asians were one of the most dominant races. Eventually moving to the suburb of Torrance, I enjoyed the same type of cultural balance, a city filled with either white or Asian people. But despite being amongst flourishing Asian cultures, I still had my own run-ins with casual or unconscious racism, stemming from ethnicities who clearly had no knowledge of the political incorrectness that plagued such a so-called “diverse” environment. Though it was unbearable at times, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if I were the ONLY Asian girl in small town just like Stars Hollow, from the TV show, Gilmore Girls. It was a perspective that actress Keiko Agena brought so well to her character, Lane Kim, who played the titular Rory Gilmore’s best friend. Agena’s Kim would become a powerful representation of an all Korean-American girl living in the states; and despite the fact we were in polar opposite environments, Lane was the epitome of that archetypal bi-cultural lifestyle that so many of us second generation kids have lived and breathed.

Continue reading on Crome Yellow...