Summary Of The Managed Hand By Miliann Kang

In “The Managed Hand”, author Miliann Kang, brings us into the world of the nail salons of New York in an attempt to show us the coming together of multiple layers of intersectionality, gender, class, race and immigration. Kang brings to light a new service labor (body labor), an insight into the growing Korean immigrant community, the topic of racialized and gendered stereotyping as well as the inequality between women of different races and social status.Through this reading, we see that Kang works from the notion of Hochschild’s emotional labor; Kang takes it a step further and introduces body labor. Body labor is the designated commercialized exchange in which service workers attend to the physical comfort and appearance of the customers

This concept of body labor the Kang uses shows us how and why the actions, beliefs and feelings that seem so natural and justified for one group of people can seem rude, demeaning or simply incomprehensible to another group of people. During this study in an attempt to get to know the women better and in a sense to help them assimilate into their new country. Kang offers to teach the women English; after one lessen, they choose not to continue. When asked why they tell her how they need to know how to say phrases like “‘You look like you lost weight’, this showed Kang that the manicurist understood the expectations that they attend to their customer’s needs, a task that many did consciously and often times humorously(Kang pg. 26). In the opening of Kang’s, book she writes “Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand in hand across a narrow table both intent on the same thing-the achievement of the perfect manicure”(Kang pg. 1). Throughout this book Kang, show us much

136). Many stereotype Asians as hard working, family oriented, self-sufficient academic achievers. This praise is based on their smooth assimilation into productive but passive citizens. These women often turn to owning nail salons and making low wages to owning nail salons, many do this because when they were working in salon they were gone from home for long periods of time. Owning salons gives these women flexibility in childcare needs. These new owners now understand and feel badly that they too cannot give their workers the time they need to care for their children. Many of the women that immigrate to America have dreams other than working in nail salons, but find that it is much more difficult that they first believed, and they end up back in the salons. Jinny came to America to finish school and get a job on the stock market. Jinny soon found that it was not all she thought it would be, after working for an accounting firm she realized how uncomfortable and lonely she was there went back to work in a nail salon and one day wishes to own her own liquor store (Kang