Kultura Highlights: @angryasianwomxn and Sarinya's guide to keeping women safe

Using her experiences as a firefighter in the FDNY, Sarinya Srisakul created a platform to share her tips and advice in surviving New York City as a woman and gives free self-defense kits.

After the tragic deaths of Christina Yuna Lee and Michelle Go, a surge of hate crimes and violence rose towards Asian-American women - so did the fear amongst Asian-American women for their lives. Since the pandemic, anti-Asian hate crimes have surged over 300% higher, NBC reported, with the highest rate found in major cities such as Los Angeles and New York City. 

For Sarinya Srisakul, she wanted to do something to help her community. “I started mailing out self-defense kits when the spa shooting happened in Atlanta. I did it out of my [personal] Instagram account.” Sarinya told me via Zoom. On March 16 2021, Robert Aaron Long entered Gold Spa in Atlanta and shot and killed eight people - six of which were women of Asian descent. When her initiative of giving out free self-defense kits blew up, Sarinya decided to create @angryasianwomxn, an Instagram account and project where she sends out free self-defense kits and provides self-defense knowledge to Asian-American and Pacific Islander-identifying women in New York City. 

I managed to have received a self-defense kit myself, which included a kubotan, rape whistle, personal alarm, and a small collection of stickers, a calm strip, a “Stop Asian Hate Crimes” postcard, tea and ginger candy. Additionally, Sarinya’s @angryasianwomxn gives out other free self-defense tools such as knuckle keychains and pepper spray and has partnered with Dragon Combat Club to teach the Asian-American community in New York how to defend themselves and stay safe.

Sarinya has been a firefighter since 2005 and has become the first Asian-American woman to be the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Lieutenant in North Queens, according to WMC SheSource. For 6 years, she was the former President of the United Women Firefighters and, through her experience and influence, continues to fight for gender equality and inform the public on women’s safety. Through her Instagram platform, she has created and shared tips and advice, including what to do when you get shot and a TikTok video on how to survive when you’re pushed on the subway tracks - a video she created in response to the incident of Michelle Go. “Part of my job is operating safely on live subway tracks; and I’ve been to countless [incidents] of people who died on a subway platform.” she explained. 

Having lived in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood deep in Queens that is known for its vast diversity, Sarinya has experienced the harassment of living in New York City as a woman. “I got assaulted twice in my neighborhood maybe ten years ago. And that’s why I really started [@angryasianwomxn] because I knew how scary it was to be a woman and alone and get attacked by a random man.” Sarinya was walking home one night, when a man ambushed her. “It took me a second to understand what was going on because I was completely shocked when he started choking me. And I started fighting with him. But I took a self-defense class before and one of the first things they teach you is to scream really loudly. And so when I got my bearings, I just started screaming.” 

The root of the issue of women’s safety, not just Asian-American women but women of color, is the misogynistic perception of women. There is a lack of representation of Asian-American women’s experiences, and are most likely subjected to stereotypes and sexual objectification and fetishization with films such as “Full Metal Jacket” and the broadway show “Miss Saigon”. According to the Stop AAPI Hate report, 65% of the people who reported hate crime related incidents are female-identifying. 

“I feel like [Gen-Z] is more progressive than when I was in my teens or twenties. So I just feel like the more we talk about these things, the more we uplift the voices, the more the media landscape is not just straight white guys. There will be more diversity and understanding, like where we came from and our stories. I feel like that, little by little, will make a difference.”

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