''When I Was Growing Up'' is an autobiographical poem written by revolutionary feminist activist, Nellie Wong in 1973, describing her struggle to identify as an Asian-American girl growing up in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Wong reflects on the universal representations of Western ideals of beauty advertised in

American popular culture The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...

; from which, Wong expresses her desire to be white, to be normal. She states "...to become/a woman, a desirable woman, I began to wear/imaginary pale skin." Nellie Wong, "This Bridge Called My Back", ''Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press'', 1981, accessed 27 February 2013. The lack of and negative stereotypical representations of Asian-American women in Western popular culture denied Nellie Wong the agency to privilege her

intersectional Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adv ...

identity. The result of this patriarchal tool made Wong shameful of her Chinese heritage: "when I was growing up, I felt/dirty. I thought that god/made white people clean/and no matter how much I bathed/I could not change, I could not shed/my skin in the gray water." Nellie Wong's piece identifies the invisibilization of racial issues in the

second-wave feminist Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. W ...

movement. Her work, particularly this piece, is often cited in the works of feminists or advocates of feminisms with intersectional frameworks like ''

This Bridge Called My Back ''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color'' is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, first published in 1981 by Persephone Press. The second edition was published in 1983 by Kitchen Tabl ...

''. Although some argue that we live in a post-feminist society, that women have achieved equality, today this poem still speaks great volumes regarding the ways in which hegemonic femininity is still perceived and the tokenism people of various racial, sexual, religious, class, socio-economic status are portrayed as in Western

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

and media. The last section of the poem, :"I know now that once I longed to be white. :How many more ways? you ask. :Haven't I told you enough?" has its last line indicated in the ''Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies''. The poem has been frequently anthologized in educational curricula.

References

{{Reflist 1973 poems Feminist works American autobiographies San Francisco Bay Area literature