By Meera Dear
Monkey Man, a John Wick-inspired ultra-violent action film, has received abundant praise and criticism for its commentary on India’s current state of affairs. The majority of the film’s commentary has focused on Hindu nationalists and the increase of sectarian violence towards Muslims and other marginalized groups under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration (Sharma, 2024). However, the realistic depiction of the horrors women in India endure in Monkey Man has been overlooked. Although the movie Monkey Man shines a light on ongoing violence towards women in India, there is a corresponding epidemic of such violence within the South Asian community in the United States.
The main character in Monkey Man is haunted by the memory of himself as a child, powerless to witness his mother being raped, verbally degraded, whipped with a belt, and burned alive by a corrupt and perverted police officer. The film integrates actual footage of women being beaten in the middle of the streets of India, both realities that persist. Global attention was brought to the plight of women in India in 2012 when national outrage was sparked after the gang rape of Juti Sigh. As a result, the Nirbhaya movement was born, an revolt from Indian women about the rape generations of Indian women have been subjected to (Mehra, 2023).
Despite the myth that this treatment is confined to women residing in India, immigrant South Asian women continue to experience these forms of violence. A 2021 study across all fifty states found that forty-eight percent of South Asians residing in the U.S. have experienced physical violence in a relationship, and thirty-eight percent have experienced emotional violence (Rai & Choi, 2021). Sixty-four percent of Indian and Pakistani women had experienced sexual violence from an intimate partner (Yoshihama et al., 2010). The research shows that while the violence within South Asian communities is hidden in the United States, the phenomenon is alive and well.
When I think about this issue, my heart breaks not only at the reality for women in my community but at the fact that the model minority myth enables blindness to the suffering of South Asian women. The model minority myth is a tool of white supremacy that utilizes Asian Americans’ success through assimilation to create a divide between them and other minorities (Horton, 2021). A central premise of the model minority myth is that the key to overcoming American racism is simply through strong values and hard work, with the implication being that groups that have not succeeded simply have not tried hard enough (Horton, 2021). With so many Asians buying into this racist fantasy, it perpetuates another myth that breaking out of the image of perfection is a personal failure. Maintaining an image of perfectionism is common for many different Asian ethnic groups; South Asians face unique challenges since the culture promotes a neverending search for perfectionism, which has resulted in individuals hyper-fixating on their external perception and image (Ragavan et al., 2018). This poses an additional obstacle for women who are in abusive relationships because divorce is seen as a personal failure and is in direct contrast to what was instilled in them since birth. The shame surrounding divorce is particularly suffocating for these women because not only do they have to break free from the brainwashing from their abuser, but they also have to deal with the shame from the community and, often, family members (Ragavan et al., 2018).
There are multiple women I know from my community who were the epitome of the wealthy, ultra-successful Asian “model minority.” They were young immigrants with Ivy League educations, and many have worked their way to executive officer positions at leading companies in the nation. Their hidden reality is that these women have only known abuse in their personal relationships. From their father to their current spouse, these women equated abuse with love and have never experienced unconditional love from a man. These individuals are painted as images of the “perfect immigrant” and the example for other minorities to strive towards, but nobody understands what they truly endure. To make matters worse, nobody cares to see what is under the surface of these women’s lives. When these women are seen by the public, the only thing that matters is that their success is weaponized against other minorities to show that if you “do it the right way,” you can achieve the American Dream.
The mental health struggles immigrants face in adapting to another culture, also known as acculturative stress, instill the idea that they must do anything to provide for their family, even if that comes at a cost (Siddiqui, 2022). The model minority myth can create an intense fear in individuals, causing them to believe that if they break their image of perfection or leave their relationship and speak out about their abuse, their job, status, and ability to provide for their family could be jeopardized. This can be incredibly isolating for women who see their own abuse and want to leave, but the shame of being seen as a failure not only by their own community but also by society keeps them stuck. These examples do not mean every woman who presents as the epitome of the model monitory myth is being abused. Still, the prevalence in the South Asian community is large enough that it is vital to examine the systemic inequalities that have allowed this issue to persist. Highlighting these women’s suffering, abuse, and acculturative stress endured would have gone against the premise of the model minority myth and shown that “working hard to gain the American Dream” is a facade and synonymous with silent suffering.
The main character in Monkey Man, seeking out pain his entire life after witnessing the violent injustice committed against his mother, can be seen as an analogy for how witnessing violence in childhood corrupts a child’s value system. Constance Chapple hypothesizes that there is an intergenerational transmission of a corrupted value system from parents who are in violent intimate relationships to their children. In this value system, parents teach children that violence, in intimate and perhaps other relationships, is normal and, at times, desirable (Chapple, 2003). This corrupted values system can occur to any child who witnesses it, but people pay less attention to South Asian victims due to the model minority myth. A survey of South Asian adults born abroad and in the US found that forty-one percent of survey respondents witnessed parental violence in their homes (Robertson et al., 2015). Another study found that Indian and Pakistani victims born in the U.S. or who had immigrated to the U.S. pre-adolescence were more likely to experience physical violence, sexual assault, and stalking compared to those born outside the U.S. and those who immigrated post-adolescence (Yoshihama et al., 2010). This research shows that while the violence within South Asian communities is hidden in the United States, the phenomenon is not only alive, it results in increased violence in the community, laying fertile seeds for the cycle of generational trauma to continue.
After decades of South Asian women suffering in silence behind the iron-clad gates of the model minority myth, change must come. Without it, the cycle continues, putting South Asian youth at risk of relationship violence and priming them to be victims of exploitation. South Asian women do not deserve to suffer in silence
References
Chapple, C. L. (2003). Examining intergenerational violence: Violent role modeling or weak parental controls? Violence & Victims, 18(2), 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1891/vivi.2003.18.2.143
Horton, A. (2021, June 7). John Oliver: ‘The model minority myth is a tool of white supremacy and a trap.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/07/john-oliver-the-model-minority-myth-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy-and-a-trap
Mehra, P. (2023, May 18). Nirbhaya, #MeToo & Orientalism in transnational gender politics. E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/2023/05/18/nirbhaya-metoo-orientalism-in-transnational-gender-politics/#_ftn1
Ragavan, M. I., Syed-Swift, Y., Elwy, A. R., Fikre, T., & Bair‐Merritt, M. (2018). The influence of culture on healthy relationship formation and teen dating Violence: A Qualitative analysis of South Asian female youth residing in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(7–8), NP4336–NP4362. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518787815
Rai, A., & Choi, Y. J. (2021). Domestic Violence Victimization among South Asian Immigrant Men and Women in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(17–18), NP15532–NP15567. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211015262
Robertson, H. A., Nagaraj, N., & Vyas, A. (2015). Family violence and child sexual abuse among South Asians in the US. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 18(4), 921–927. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0227-8
Sharma, S. (2024, April 18). Why a third term for Modi could be ‘catastrophic’ for India’s 200 million Muslims. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/india-elections-muslims-violence-hindus-modi-b2521576.html
Siddiqui, S. M. (2022). Acculturative stress, everyday racism, and mental health among a community sample of South Asians in Texas. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.954105
Yoshihama, M., Bybee, D., Chic Dabby, & Blazevski, J. (2010). Lifecourse Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence and Help-Seeking among Filipina, Indian, and Pakistani Women: Implications for Justice System Responses. https://api-gbv.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Lifecourse-IPV-help-seeking-2010.pdf
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