It’s not that I’m against Sunny Leone (NSFW). I am totally pro desi woman in any non-mainstream industry. I even blogged about her on Sepia Mutiny previously as a ‘cool desi woman under 30.’ I like her, you know, for a porn star.
But at work today, I was researching voting public service announcement (PSA) targeted toward the Asian American community. There was the bikini-clad Korean one, the kung fu epic one, the Kelly Hu bowing to George Takai one. There are even several PSAs put out by the non-profit APIA Vote that have a stream of famous Asian American actors talking about voting. But of course, none of the PSAs had a desi face.
SAJA Forum‘s Sree Sreenivasan had brought this issue up earlier this year…
…I am writing today to bring attention to the fact that to some (just some) Asian Americans, South Asians still don’t count as Asian Americans…How else to interpret these two political public service ads, created by and starring Asian Americans and aimed at Asian Americans? Take a look at each and see neither bothers to put in any South Asian faces. John Cho, one half of the “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” team is featured in both ads, but you won’t find his at-least-as-equally-famous partner, Kal Penn, in either ad… I am glad there are such efforts out there to get Asian Americans to vote. But I am struck by how ridiculous it is not to have even a token brown face in these ads. [SAJAForum]
Sree, I found the token brown face amongst the sea of voting PSAs!!! I found the one! The youth vote organization Declare Yourself has a stream of quirky/sexual PSAs targeted directly to the youth demographics (at least “quirky/sexual” is what comes to mind when I watch McLovin teaching me how to pull the lever.) Declare Yourself partnered with Vivid Entertainment to create the following PSA, starring our gal, the sole desi starring in a voting PSA, Sunny Leone.
“As an immigrant who is thrilled to exercise her right to vote in a presidential election for the first time, I wanted to do what I could to get other young people to participate,” said Leone who only recently became an American citizen. “There’s no excuse not to register -DeclareYourself.com makes it so easy.” [LVTSG]
I could go on and on about the innovation behind a voting non-profit partnering with an adult entertainment company… but I’m sure you just want to get to the video already, don’t you?
Did Sunny get you excited…to vote?
Go to Rock the Vote and register to vote online today. We have less then 45 days till Election Day on November 4th. You’ll need to re-register if you moved, changed names, or changed political parties. In most states the last day to register to vote is 30 days before Election Day.
So here’s my personal request. Though it’s great Sunny is the first desi face in a voting PSA, I think there should be more. And since the boys have Sunny, how about we gals get some brown sugar like Sendhil Ramamurthy, Naveen Andrews or Kal Penn to make a voting PSA? That would definitely rock my vote. 😉
Someone like sunny leone asking you to vote makes the whole political process a joke….
They used sex to sell everything from shampoo to soap … that you need a pornstar to get people to vote is a mockery of the political process..
when you close the curtian and pull that lever, think of sunny
I was originally a bit intimidated by her “Scythian” skin-tone, but I read on Wikipedia that her father is from Tibet, so I can now at least get a well-deserved sleep without too much self-hatred.
I dunno about that wiki, Rob. This interview with her in Desi Life says she’s a Punjabi Sikh and this other article says her original name is Karen Malhotra – neither of which sound Tibetan (but I could be wrong).
If you haven’t seen it yet: (watch it!)
Craig Ferguson, “If you don’t vote, you’re a moron” (Youtube)
Followup to the above:
Craig Ferguson:”Do me the honor of being my fellow Americans and vote” (Youtube)
damn, that rocked my vote.
There’s a lot of prostitution in the motherland, it’s kind of a desi specialty. I live 5 minutes away from Heera Mandi in Lahore. A girl’s gotta eat, right? Let her make that money on her own terms.
Thread tangent. @BasimKominas: TV Chimro’s farking capital.
that you need a pornstar to get people to vote is a mockery of the political process..
That ship has sailed. I really dont know who this sort of thing is targeted at, not only that the transition from “I believe in personal freedom” to “so get out and vote” is a bit of a stretch
So here’s my personal request. Though it’s great Sunny is the first desi face in a voting PSA, I think there should be more. And since the boys have Sunny, how about we gals get some brown sugar like Sendhil Ramamurthy, Naveen Andrews or Kal Penn to make a voting PSA? That would definitely rock my vote.
it’s especially heart-string-twanging when it comes from a person whose prior primary source of income was an industry highly vulnerable to the tyrannic community decency standards of a few owl-eyed districts in the bible belt.
If they get Priya Rai to do a commercial I’m voting and I’m not even American.
Now that’s a way to get the Schwing Vote !
I’ve never really been that in to politics. But this ad moved me. I will vote now.
1 · bangalore serviced apartment said
The “political process” and its expression in the mainstream media is a mockery of professional wrestling.
2 · Bangalore said
Yes, let’s keep it in the sock drawer, shall we?
Hear hear, Taz. 😉
I have a feeling some people will vote more than once.
Sunny’s right. During these tumultuous times, we need to get a grip on ourselves. No matter for whom we are thinking of pulling that lever come November, its important to remember, as Americans, we are masters of our own domain. This is no time to drop the ball.
Ugh, the triad above (Sendhil Ramamurthy, Naveen Andrews or Kal Penn) would NEVER get me to vote. Sendhil never partakes in South Asian events (unless he gets top billing), NA refuses to ackowledge his Indian side, and KP? Enuf said. I’d pick Sunny’s endorsement over these three stooges any day.
Isnt it amazing how fast pornstars have evolved? Pornstars used to look like toll both workers, but holy shit to hell Sunny Leone is hot.
18 · Manju said
LOL
Wasn’t there a porn star in Italy who won a parliament seat in the 80s ? Sunny could have a future in politics.
Porn is a complicated thing (comments more lucid than the article), but it’s sad that this kind of $hit that’s an explicit ad for Vivid passes for mainstream – it’s this kind of blurring that allows people like Sarah Palin to claim that she’s a feminist.
Honestly, doesn’t it get tiresome to argue about cultural politics without any sense of agency or power? It lacks substance. In some places, there are enough South Asians to take over Asian American spaces; in most places they’re relegated to minority status or invisible or form their own groups. Now replace the words South Asian and Asian American with Sri Lankan-American and South Asian American. Endless until you start thinking about the actual issues that are being argued about through these identity lenses – labor, power, community, mobility, etc. I’m sure you could do this in virtually every “community” with this style of primarily cultural politics. (yes, yes, i know, “you don’t have to listen to Sree, etcetc”)
She’s not even a token South Asian, because I don’t think she’s been chosen for being South Asian as far as I can tell – she’s been chosen for being a Vivid Girl. Maybe a token foreigner for “diversity’s” sake. Who knows. If you wanted to reach South Asian voters or even acknowledge them in a token way, wouldn’t you go with a seedy industry that exploited women like Bollywood rather than the porn industry? And if you want someone American, how about Kamala Harris? Jhumpa Lahiri? Or if you want someone American with mainstream star power, Parminder Nagra? Norah Jones? maybe they turned it down…who knows. Anyway, it seems like the salient fact about her isn’t that she’s South Asian here.
Gender parity good. But, How are you all going to fully escape your parents’ beliefs and experiment with your identities properly if you keep being so heteronormative? You’ll miss out on all the fun and become terribly boring people when you’re middle aged. I like girls who like boys who like girls who like girls who like boys who like boys who like girls who like transgender people
she’s bisexual.
23 · Dr Amonymous said
Agreed
23 · Dr Amonymous said
Yeah, the salient factor is that she’s hot and ethnicity probably adds something to that for better or worse, although she could pass for white so that throws a whole wrench into things.
Kal Penn? Seriously? I’ve had this conversation with my friends (teh lady ones) and they honestly have themselves convinced that he’s such a hottie. To be frank, I don’t think he’d get a second look walking down the street if he weren’t famous. Love him as an actor, but seriously, hype’s lame. I’d check Sunny walking down the street, regardless of who she is.
Hey now! I did say that I liked her, for a porn star…. 😉
Turned it down? I think that’s more like never been approached… And that’s my issue with mainstream voter mobilization efforts – they target the mainstream crowd – when research shows (The report on my campaign efforts is being released next week so I can’t link to a URL just yet) that targeted ethnic groups in their own languages and cultures has a through the roof proven effect rate. We just need to get the people with money in the mainstream to throw it this way – so that we can have Norah Jones rocking the vote, for desis.
Hey! A quick google image search reveals Sunny as a Fake Porn Star. The critical threshold has yet to be crossed. She’s maybe one notch above Sharon Stone at this point. If she’s a pornstar Clarence Thomas is black, Rigoberta Menchu is oppressed, and Sarah Palin is a feminist. I’m outraged!
Regards,
Manju PornStar Veterans for Truth
Where are the titties?
I am excited to see that Sunny Leone has a proper shrine bearing photos of her ancestors on the Christmas-lighted mantle in her boxing gym, although it could stand to be spruced up with some garlands of marigolds.
And the way she pumps her fist (forearm) when she says “firm believer”…hawt! I would have “exercised” my right to register if the camera had zoomed in on her licking her lips right before she says “do it now.” Yeah.
Manju, she is not a fake pornstar and she has done it on film with both men and women. At least that’s what I hear from my friends and I think on NPR. cough cough.
Stop trying to swift boat sunny leone.
shallowthinker, i did some research on google images. you might be right, but i don’t discount doctored photos…there’s hardly anything where sunny is with a dude.
I did see recently a Sunny Leone movie in which she has two scenes with a dude, and one includes a girl as part of a threesome.
…and yet you don’t name the movie.
34 · razib said
Ok silly boys. Sunny Loves Matt is the name of her first hetero movie, filmed with her then fiance Matt Erickson.
I didn’t watch it.
It was in an article I stumbled across doing research for this post.
Honestly.
35 · Taz said
Oh yeah, sure, I look at The Eye for the articles, too. 😉
29 · HitlerWasACommunityOrganizer said
Running from your comment.
27 · Taz said
Yeah but you didn’t show that you realized that some girls might like her more than they do Kal Penn 😉 Or just as much. Or only on Tuesdays. Sex is complicated 🙂
Turned it down? I think that’s more like never been approached… And that’s my issue with mainstream voter mobilization efforts – they target the mainstream crowd – when research shows (The report on my campaign efforts is being released next week so I can’t link to a URL just yet) that targeted ethnic groups in their own languages and cultures has a through the roof proven effect rate. We just need to get the people with money in the mainstream to throw it this way – so that we can have Norah Jones rocking the vote, for desis.
Mainstream = “white”? Or Mainstream = “straight”? Or Mainstream = “middle class”? Usually ads are targeted, no, like this one at “the youth” as my chachas would say. Anyway, my ethnographic research (i.e. life) shows that first generation South Asians who emigrated in the 60s-80s, working class South Asians, etc. have better politics on many areas than most upper middle class ABDs and you should target them (language is a good way, but so are cultural norms…a bollywood-style video would be great…and not the singh is kingg horseshitt kind).
Probably because they actually dealt with segregation and wahtnot. There has to be some kind of politics behind the identity stuff or else it’s not as useful (for this particular kind of activity). Quite frankly, I’m happy that my cousin is a non-voting Republican rather than a voting one, despite that he’s South Asian. And I’m happy that my mom, in her most honest moments, is a sincere progressive in many ways 🙂 Much more rootedly than I am, I’d say.
hey dr. anonymous, i was think, “this sounds like pass-the-roti-more-progressive-than-thou” talk, and yeah, you are associated. funny.
39 · razib said
Shocking. That’s because I think I am 🙂 The same way that Taz probably thinks she’s more practical and effective than me or something 🙂 That doesn’t mean I don’t think she’s one of the good ones. On the other hand, it’s good that you made this comment because I’m not interested in playing “who has more street cred” so I probably should have written my comment differently to be more explicit about differences in worldview. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, but I could have done a better job.
On the other hand, whatever you might say about me or this comment, I’m not going to let you diss the blog I write for without a defense. As you have said in the past, metacommentary is usually not well received by bloggers 😉 but I do think the characterization is inapt regardless. I hope it is anyway. If there’s some highhandedness and chaff there, there’s also some really amazing substantive posts there about Sri Lankan politics, about Pakistan during Mushrraf’s emergency, about violence in India, etc. So I’m quite proud of my affiliation with it and the characterization of “more progressive than thou” is not really a good description of what it’s been about in its short life imnsho – at least in my experience of it.
Anyway, this is not the place for an extensive conversation about the merits and demerits of ptr, but feel free to drop me a line and I will, like a good
Republicanfascist, “correct” your attitude about ptr on e-mail.Since you guys have appropriated ‘saddi pind dee kudi’ [our village belle] for your amreekan elections, p’aps I feel i can chime in on your elections – nyah.
I question why southasian americans need to be highlighted in the political scene as some kind of an exotic creature (the tawny charms of sunnyji notwithstanding). penn is doing a fine job as a grassroots organizer. kelly hu also made an appearance at some political rally as i remember [the eyes do remember what warms the cockles, intellectual posturing as a detached eunuch not withstanding]. ergo – vy the token brown face. indeed – should a mizo-american appear in such an ad, would it count for yu.
I have not and we will not question Sunny Leone’s service in Porm.
40 · Dr Amonymous said
Yes please, let’s not derail this thread! (Just trying to be PRACTICAL and EFFECTIVE here 😛 ).
I never knew about Sunny…can’t say I think much of her career choice. IMO I find it difficult to believe someone can do porn and be happy about it, though she certainly does look peppy in her psa.
As far as APIvote psas – I think that’s too bad that they don’t have South Asian faces. We have so many high profile actors, writers, models – unless they all turned the API voters down, they really should be using them. If API vote wants to represent and mobilize all Asians, than they should be aware that they are forgetting a large segment of their popualtion.
I talked to one of my friends who helps organize APIvote activities and sent her the SAJA article…she said she’d bring it up to someone who works on the psas; it’s funny but she agreed wholeheartedly with me, but she didn’t really notice. It’s not about throwing in a token South asian, it’s reaching out to a large population that APIvote represents.
has anyone seen “sunny side up”?
why’d she change her name from reema bhatt?
” I’m not going to let you diss the blog I write for without a defense. “
i wasn’t dissing d00d. you guys just all have that same style. not like i’m one to talk.
sunny leone’s career is proof that you can 80 million glass sealings in the crack. take that, palin!
5 · taz said
jindal is another punjabi who changed his name and has gotten ahead in his line of work.
if you thought this ad was hot, you should really see her box.
Taz sez
I’m not so sure about that old frooti. Her pic on her site doesnt have any evidence of a kaccha,… or kesh for that matter.