How Stereotypes Hurt Asian Women
The sexualization of Asian women is often veiled under the pretense of a “compliment”. I am in no way comparing the struggles of Asian women to other groups of people or diminishing other minority groups' experiences. I want to talk about the different ways the discourse about Asian women affects the way we see ourselves.
In James Paul Gee’s What is Literacy, he defines discourse as,
“how you are in the world. It influences and determines what you say, how you say it; it constrains how you gesture and whether you use emojis in a text message.” (Gee).
In my experience as an Asian girl growing up in America (18 now), I had small instances where the way either I or other Asian girls I know were treated strangely. Like grown men commenting about our appearances despite the fact that we’re obviously young or the guy in my freshman year Algebra class who for some odd reason liked to audibly say multiple times,
“how hot Asian girls are”
while multiple Asian girls were in the same room. There are ways that Asian women are spoken about that overlap with how Asian people, in general, are spoken about. However, the discourse about Asian women still differs and has separate impacts.
Eleanor & Park
Whenever I would go and look for books to add to my reading list, one book I would see recommended pretty often was Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
The main male character is Park (even though Park is a Korean surname and not a first name.) being half Korean half white, but I’ll be focusing on how his mother Min-Dae was treated by the main girl Eleanor. Eleanor would often refer to Min-Dae as “exactly like a doll” and she would even imagine
“Park’s dad… tucking his Dainty China person into his flak jacket and sneaking her out of Korea.” (Rowell).
This example emulates a common perception that Asian women are “dainty” and delicate like a “doll”. This adds to the narrative that all Asian women are weak and obedient. Rowell also describes Min-Dae as “his” when leaving Korea. Like her husband was taking home a souvenir, making her out to be an object and not an actual person. She even refers to her as Chinese even though she is clearly Korean, which can also show how Asian people are reduced into only being Chinese or Japanese. When in reality, there are so many diverse countries within Asia.
This book may have been criticized but I have also seen many people have high praises for this book. The author shut down criticisms, ignorant or straight up ignoring the problems it poses. Not to mention that there’s also a movie adaptation in the works as well. It shows how there’s still a large number of people who overlook and normalize these stereotypes.
Asian Women are Invisible in American Media
Most of the American movies and TV shows I would watch growing up would either only have female Asian side characters who are highly stereotyped or no Asian women at all in the main cast. I remember that I would often like the girl with the darkest hair and tan skin because they’d be the ones who looked most like me even though they weren’t actually Asian and usually white.
Despite my pride in the growth of Asian representation today, growing up it felt as though Asian women were quite invisible in American media. Hollywood has had a long history of whitewashing. It’s bad enough when we barely get representation, but then when the opportunity shows itself, it’s gets taken by a white actress. I’m sure we’re all familiar with Emma Stone playing a Hawaiian-Chinese character in Aloha or Scarlette Johansen in Ghost in The Shell. I respect both actresses for their work (especially since I love Scarlette as Blackwidow). However, it still hurts when I hear people trying to say things like:
“They needed well-known actresses so that they could make the movie more marketable”
“They’re actors. That’s what they do.”
So you’re telling me that there aren’t any well-known or capable Asian female actresses in Hollywood who could fill those roles?
One could argue that those controversies happened a long time ago. Well, a very new example of whitewashing is the Netflix reboot of one of my favorite childhood shows, Fate: The Winx Saga. Winx Club and a particular character named Musa were important to a lot of Asian girls including me. Musa was created in inspiration of Lucy Liu and her character styling was based on East Asian visuals. Her culture was often expressed in her clothing and an important part of her character. When the Netflix reboot came out, Musa and another POC character Flora were completely whitewashed. The actress who plays her is caucasian and Musa’s East Asian background felt completely erased.
The Sexualization of Asian Women
The shooting in Atlanta where 6 Asian women and 2 other women were killed at a massage parlor sparked a lot of discourse about not only the Asian hate crimes happening in the time of coronavirus but also the discourse of the infantilization and sexualization of Asian women. The shooter defined the women as (sexual) temptations that he needs to eliminate and the fact that he chose a massage parlor that is mainly run by Asian women says a lot. A podcast episode from the Try Guys on YouTube highlighted the voices of their Asian female employees in response to the shooting. A prominent talking point between the group was the fetishization of Asian women. Alexandria specifically says:
“I don’t know if it was the time. It was like ten years ago but something that white guys would proudly say is ‘Oh I have an Asian fetish’ and they would say it to you… Anatomy of Asian women is talked about a lot and it’s been brought up to me like it’s a compliment which is horrifying… (Misogyny Against Asian Women, 33:20–34:40)
“Being mixed and being — I’ve always kind of been naturally curvy. Even in middle school, I developed early so I always had this weird relationship — unhealthy relationship with my body where I was hypersexualized by people around me…and not treated appropriately by older men and teachers.” (Misogyny Against Asian Women, 56:30–56:54)
The way that we’re spoken about puts us in a lot of uncomfortable situations like confusion or loathing of our bodies because we either don’t align with beauty standards or people fetishize us for it. It also makes us even greater targets of sexual harassment and sexual violence. When we’re being portrayed as small and submissive both physically and non-physically, we’re made to be seen as objects to be easily obtained and controlled.
Minor Feelings
An Asian BookTuber that I watch regularly named withcindy did a book review on Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong where she discusses the Asian American experience. I found myself relating significantly. She refers to a quote saying,
“What if my cannibalizing ego is not a racial phenomenon but my own damn problem?” (Hong)
To which Cindy talked about how she is often accused of using negativity for views on YouTube in a subcommunity of predominately white creators who don’t receive the same kind of criticism.
“Whenever I see something like that, do people assume that being myself which is a loud brash annoying Asian girl is considered being not like other girls because…I have exhibited qualities not usually associated with Asian girls? Or am I just annoying? It’s hard to tell.” (withcindy 13:40–19:39)
This was something that I could really relate to. Even as I was preparing to write this essay, I constantly worried about whether or not I should write about this.
“Maybe I’m being excessive.”
“What if people think I’m being entitled or selfish talking about this?”
“What if people think I’m making a big deal out of nothing?”
“Maybe I’m not the right person to speak on this.”
“What if I don’t do this well?”
It would have been so much easier for me to write about something else. I was gaslighting myself into thinking I couldn’t do it. Asian women are seen and told to be submissive. So, when we don’t fit into that narrative, we can get met with pushback for not fitting into the “China doll” stereotypes. We’re told it’s a “compliment” or a “joke”. If we’re upset with it, we’re “too sensitive”. It can make it so much more difficult for us to realize and acknowledge when we’re being mistreated because of our race.
What encouraged me to write about this topic despite my invasive thoughts is that I remembered how important it was for me to have strong Asian women in the media that I could look up to who called out these issues. I realized that if it’s so hard for me to just talk about it openly on a public platform, it means I should.
This only scrapes the surface on misogyny against Asian women, but I hope that this helps some people understand a little more.
I want to end this article with a powerful video made by Anna Akana in response to the Atlanta shooting.
Other videos highlighting Asian women/Stop Asian Hate:
How Purity Culture Lead to Murder in Atlanta | God is Grey
Get ready with me (and let’s talk Asian hate)