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Asian fetish refers to objectifying people of Asian descent, typically females, who are "objectified and valued not for who they are as people, but for their race or perceptions of their culture." The objectification, typically by white men, is usually sexual in nature.

Asian fetish, used in a more benign context, has been used to indicate "a harmless preference for specific physical characteristics, such as narrow eyes and flatter noses, as harmless as some people's preference for dating, say, fatter partners."

Stereotyping of Asian personality traits

During the periods of yellow peril in the United States during the late 1800s, the image of Chinese women emerged as sexually corrupt, immoral, and threatening to the white population. During World War II when American soldiers directly interacted with East Asian and Southeast Asian women, the women were portrayed as obedient, passive, and exotic. Babysan, a cartoon character sketched as an exotic, curvaceous, slanted eyed woman, was published in the East Asian edition of the Navy Times.

In the afterword to the 1988 play M. Butterfly, the writer, David Henry Hwang, using the term "yellow fever," a pun on the disease of the same name, discusses white men with a "fetish" for Asian women. Hwang argues that this phenomenon is caused by stereotyping of Asians in Western society. Darrell Hamamoto, a professor at University of California Davis, have stated that the stereotypes are a result of colonialism of Asian countries and increased interaction between different races in the United States after immigration laws have been relaxed since the 1960s. Hamamoto said American soldiers' contact with Vietnamese prostitutes during the Vietnam War have further contributed to reinforcing the images of Asian women.

Phoebe Eng wrote in her book Warrior Lessons,

While hypersexualized, commodifying images exist for all women, and especially women of color, the image of the Asian woman combines with this the notion of ultrapassivity. Sexuality for an Asian woman is so tightly wound up in issues of power and global economic order that it is virtually impossible to address the spector of an Asian woman's sexuality without examining the subtle roles of governments and enterprise in perpetuating this situation, especially in developing countries.

In an article published in San Francisco Examiner, "Asian Women, Caucasian Men", Joan Walsh wrote that some non-Asian men pursued Asian females for "their appearance - and stereotypes about how they treat men." The article referred to a "feminist backlash" that drove Caucasian men away from Caucasian women. Some non-Asian women referred to Asian fetish as a result of "inability of men to have intimate relationships with women they see as equals." Practices of marrying mail-order brides from Asian countries is also sustained by sexual stereotypes of Asian women.

Studies related to Asian fetish

In 2002, Jennifer Lynn Gossett and Sarah Byrne conducted a content-analysis study of 31 pornographic Web sites that advertised scenes depicting the rape or torture of women, and found that nearly half of the sites used depictions of Asian women as the rape victim.

Association with sex crimes against Asian women

Some Asian American authors and activists claim that the proclivity has dangerous implications .

In an article in AsianWeek, author Lisa Wong writes,

Asian American women across the country are outraged and disgusted by the arrest of a Princeton student two weeks ago for harassing fellow Asian women students. Many believe the incident is symptomatic of larger problems, including stereotypes and the exotification of Asian women.

Sex tourism

According to Sheridan Prasso, prostitution in Thailand and prostitution in the Philippines is largely supported by men with Asian fetish.

Phoebe Eng believes that the sex tourism industry has a significant impact on the perception of Asian females in the United States and that Asian American females should be aware of this. She finds that some Asian females ignore such notions as they believe the lives of prostitutes overseas have no bearing on their lives. Eng wrote,

a legacy of prostitution that began in the servicing of American and European soldiers has since flourished into a sex industry that has grown into a major source of foreign exchange that rivals the gross national product of many developing nations.

Mail-order brides

Phoebe Eng claims that Asian fetish largely drives the mail-order bride industry in America.

Shannon Stockdale, co-chair of NAPAWF’s (National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum) Yale chapter InSight, said,

It’s like a benign thing and there’s no stigma. People are very open about it. It remarks on society’s acceptance of it. It goes so deep. We have to end the militarization of the sex industry, the proliferation of porn, and the marketing of Asian women as mail order brides and the Internet catalog industry. We have huge work to do.

Controversy

In 2006, Rumpus Magazine published an article entitled "Me Love You Long Time: Yale's Case of Yellow Fever." The satire featured picture of a naked white male student covered with uncooked rice. It reported that Yale students were "building...intimate bridges between the Occident and the Orient in the privacy of their own bedrooms," and that white male students are seeking Asian females based for their beauty and submissiveness. The article was panned for emasculating Asian males while portraying Asian women as promiscuous. After protests from Asian American Students Alliance at Yale University, Rumpus co-Editor in Chief Sam Heller responded, "We weren't necessarily about it, but I think that you have to have a sense of humor. You shouldn't take it so seriously. We're not trying to tear down the Asian community here."

University of Virginia students were criticized for their Facebook group "Americans for the Increased Importation of Asian Women." Initially stating that the group was intended to be a joke, the creators renamed the group to "Americans Who Value Females of Asian Descent" after pressure from the university.

Raymond Fisman authored a controversial article on Salon that claimed that the existence of Asian fetish is a myth. Raymond used the results of a study, "Racial Preferences in Dating," that he helped to conduct to come to this conclusion. A managing editor at Hyphen found the study to be flawed.

Other views

Phoebe Eng wrote:

Not all of us, for instance, agree that the current trend of "Asian fetish" is bad. In fact, for some of us, the new visibility of Asian women, even though stereotyped, can actually be liberating.

Erika Kim and Tracy Quan believe that the concept of "Asian fetish" is used to condemn interracial relationships between white men and Asian women. Quan has written that terms such as "yellow fever" or "Asian fetish" are meaningless as she feels that personal attraction is a complex result of many factors "some of which are too mysterious for words." The controversy surrounding the term has been criticized as a notion that preference for a minority and portrayal of a minority as an attractive group is abnormal.

References

1. ^ Prasso, Sheridan (2005). "'Race-ism,' Fetish, and Fever". The Asian Mystique. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books. pp. 132–164, 141. ISBN 9781586483944. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors=, |chapterl=, and |month= (help)
2. ^ Walsh, Joan. San Francisco Examiner. Asian Women, Caucasian Men modelminority.com (2002-04-22)
3. Deconstructing 'Asian fetish' - the appeal of physical appearance and/or cultural traits
4. Okamura, Raymond. 1976. Iva Ikuko Toguri: Victim of an American fantasy. In EmmaGee (Ed.), Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America (p. 86-96). Los Angeles: Asian American Studies Center, University of California.
5. ^ Uchida, Aki (1998). "The Orientalization of Asian women in America". Women’s Studies International Forum. 21 (2): 161–174. doi:10.1016/S0277-5395(98)00004-1. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. Hume, Bill (1953). Babysan: A private look at the Japanese occupation. Tokyo: Kasuga Bokkei. ISBN 0804800499.
7. Hwang, David Henry (1988). "Afterward". M. Butterfly. New York: Plume Books. pp. p. 98. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
8. ^ Sung, Helen E. "Dating Outside the Color Lines". Audrey magazine. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
9. ^ Eng, Phoebe (2000). "She Takes Back Desire". Warrior Lessons : An Asian American Woman's Journey into Power. New York: Atria. pp. 115–142. ISBN 0671009575.
10. Gossett, Jennifer Lynn (2002). ""Click Here": A Content Analysis of Internet Rape Sites". Gender & Society. 16 (5): 689–709. doi:10.1177/089124302236992. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
11. ^ Wong Macabasco, Lisa (Apr 29, 2005). "Princeton Incident Shows Extreme Case of Asian Fetish". Asian Week. pp. 115–142.
12. Princeton Incident Shows Extreme Case of Asian Fetish
13. Prasso, Sheridan (2005). "'Race-ism,' Fetish, and Fever". The Asian Mystique. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Books. pp. 262–295, 307–317. ISBN 9781586483944. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors=, |chapterl=, and |month= (help)
14. Hauss, Brian (April 2006). "Me Love You Long Time: Cases of Yellow Fever" (pdf). New Haven, Connecticut: Rumpus Magazine. p. 10. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
15. Macbeth, Cullen. "AASA accuses publications of racismYale Daily News (2006-04-17).
16. Rao, Mythili. "Facing Up to Facebook Racism Campusprogress.org (2005-05-24).
17. Fisman, Raymond. "The Myth of the Asian Fetish: An Economist Goes to a BarSlate magazine (2007-11-07). Retrieved on 2007-11-09.
18. Fisman, Raymond; Iyengar, Sheena S.; Kamenica, Emir; Simonson, Itamar. "Racial Preferences in Dating". 2007-05-11. Retrieved on 2007-11-09
19. Banerjee, Neelanjana. "Asian Fetish Myth: Not Debunked". 2007-11-08. Retrieved on 2007-12-26
20. Nam, Vicky (2001). YELL-oh Girls!. Harper Paperbacks. p. 207. ISBN 0060959444.
21. ^ Quan, Tracy (2003). "Asian fetish?". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-05-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
22. Chan, Elizabeth. "Fetish or Forever?". Audrey magazine. Retrieved 2007-12-26.

See also

• Asiaphile
• Rice queen
• Asian American contemporary issues
• Yellow cab (stereotype)

External links

• Asian Fetish
• "The Asian America That Can Say 'No'", Modelminority.com. (Originally published in The Daily Californian, September 9, 1991) Accessed February 17, 2006.
• "The Yellow Fever Pages", Zukazuka.com, 2002. Accessed February 17, 2006.
• "The Myth Of The Rice King", Vancouver Sun, February 14, 2004.
• "Racial preferences in the dating world", Seacoast Online, May 11, 2007. Accessed May 25, 2007.

• Asian American issues
• Race
• Sexual fetishism