Response To Leong's Living Outside The Box

In Living Outside the Box by Pandora L. Leong, she talks about how she comes from a Chinese background, was born and raised into a poor family in Alaska, and is a dyke. The people she works with believed she could pass for a fifteen year old Black or Latino boy so they wanted to place her into a juvenile centre (Leong 343). Leong doesn’t agree to this because it denies her identities. She wants to put an end to letting categories stand without the confrontation of the presumptions associated with them (344). For example, she discusses how one day she was stopped by the police because they presumed she was up to no good. They presumed she was up to no good because of the way she looked. Although she comes from a Chinese background, she was born and raised in Alaska which results in her having difficulties in explaining why she doesn’t look like an American. Grouping people in society fails “to factor in individual circumstances or experiences” (350). She is Asian in many people’s eyes even though she can’t read Chinese or participate in anything Chinese stereotypes claim Chinese people do.

Several things she mentions makes me think to myself that we (society) truly need to change our ways of thinking. Society is quick to judge; Leong, a woman of colour, is thought to be white on the phone and a man in real life because of the clothes she wears and her haircut. She chooses the clothes she wears out of comfort, however, society takes them as gender signifiers (352). The choices we make in presenting ourselves shouldn’t lead to assumptions. I remember I once told my friend I wanted to cut my hair short and he replied “are you a lesbian?” Just because someone has short hair, it doesn’t mean they are lesbian. Stereotypes and presumptions need to stop or people will always feel as if they have to look or act a certain way to fit into society’s