Bad Days: The Fetishization of the Asian Race and it’s Amplified Implications
On the dawn of March 16, 2021, a man by the name of Robert Aaron Long had reached the end of his rope. Quite frankly, it was looking to be quite an unfavorable, dare he say it, a particularly BAD day. If his forecast of the relative nature of the coming day were to be true, he supposed that he ought to make himself feel better in advance. After all, who wouldn’t seize upon the opportunity to ameliorate one’s predetermined sour disposition? Robert, ever the opportunist, certainly wouldn’t pass on a chance to mitigate his emotional roadblocks. A few hours later, after a bloodbath of a road-trip and quite an invigorating high speed chase down the interstate by the Atlanta PD, Robert believed that he had had his fun for the day, and had sufficiently cheered himself up. So the now cheerful man allowed for the police to stop his vehicle, he allowed for them to handcuff him, he allowed for them to take him to the police station, and he allowed them to question him. The police chief sighed as he looked at Robert.
“Mr. Long.” He said sternly.
“Yes, Sheriff?”
“What the hell were you thinking? You killed eight people today, Robert. EIGHT. And seven were Asian women. Do you understand how this looks for me Robert? I know you were having a bad day, but this is just all too much.” The chief pinched the skin between his eyes and his voice lowered to a whisper. “Robert be straight with me…is this one of those hate crimes? Whatever the media calls it.”
Robert shook his head. “No sir. No hate crime. Those Asian women are the cause of my bad day, you see. And I was only trying to make myself feel better. They’re just always so indecent. I swear its just the Asian women, I wanted to get rid of the temptation, honestly. I don’t hate them either, some might say I love them a little too much.”
“So no hate crime?”
“Nope.”
“You specifically targeted Asian women. You weren’t aiming at anybody else.”
“Yep.”
“So no hate crime?” Robert nodded at the sheriff. The chief’s troubled face cleared up as quickly as Robert’s bad day had dissipated, and he flashed a smile at the gunman. “Oh, Robert. If you say so.” And so, the police chief walked briskly out of the room, statement already prepared for the flashing cameras. After all, if Robert said that it wasn’t a hate crime, it surely couldn’t be.
“Besides,” the Sheriff thought, “He isn’t wrong. Hell, I would’ve terrorized a POC just as he did at the slightest inconvenience. Everybody has bad days. I suppose I can’t heave too much blame onto him for that.”
“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” — Sheriff Jay Baker
Throughout the entire sickening press conference, it had never become more apparent to the Asian American community that they had become entirely sidelined. The entire conference was focused on poor Robert’s “bad day”. How his porn addiction had driven him to slip up, make a few mistakes if you will. Of these included, murdering seven innocent Asian women at three different massage parlors. These women were seen as the root of his sin, how dare they exist? How dare they encroach upon his Christianity with their mere presence in society? There was not an utterance of their names, of their lives, of their identities. They were entirely swept under the rug by Robert’s “bad day”. There was no coverage of fetishization. There was no condemnation. There was not even an acknowledgement that this was a hate crime, despite his explicit targeting of marketed Asian spas. There was only the repeated branding offense of the Sheriff, “Really bad day for him”. Asian Americans across the nation were faced with the reality of the situation- the mutated Trolley problem of their existence.
The history of this Trolley problem dates back to the genesis of the Asian race. Two glittering rails stretch forevermore deep into the maw of the horizon…perfectly parallel, and lacking participation in personal bias and implicit opinion. And thus, the rails continue, stitched into the earth with no intention of ever unifying…and yet the switchman of the rail line seems to have hit the incorrect signal control, so that the symmetric parallelism of the tracks refuse to work in tandem. The two rails slowly amalgamate. At the end of the track is a seemingly cartoonish villain, with an uncannily odd resemblance to the lineman, armed with some hate, some privilege, and a whole lot of rope (that seems to disappear as soon as the lineman has a bad day). He steps back from his work, quite pleased with what lies before him — the entirety of the Asian race — awaiting the crushing blow of the Trolley wheels.
Celebration of culture, yet having one’s culture be entirely redefined by Eurocentrism. This is the very paradox of the Asian existence. It has entirely infected the Asian culture space, not only in Asia, but especially in Western media. The two rails of Culture and Aesthetics have been so asymmetrically skewed, to the point where aesthetics have impeded and metamorphosed into fetishization, an ideal that is often celebrated and overlooked in modern society.
Eurocentrism is a term that refers to an ethnocentric manner of influence (mostly unwanted) on the world. Eurocentrism is a reflection of European culture, including that of European art, music, theatre, politics and bureaucracy, and most importantly, unabashed racism. This racism manifested through Europe’s imperialist and inhumane conquests to exploit foreign peoples of their rights, resources, freedom, and culture. It was the ultimate hubris-laden political oppression. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, The White Man’s Burden, perfectly encompasses the discriminatory caricaturization of not only Filipinos and Asians as a whole, but also at the expense of all minorities and their corresponding cultures. White Man’s Burden conveys the biased justifications of some of the worst atrocities committed by Americans and Europeans towards the Asiatic and African races. The racist rationale within this poem, which painted these races as helpless savages was used to justify the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indians during famines caused by excessively mercantilist policies on the part of the British. The poem presents one of the few popularized aestheticizations of Asians, albeit negative. Although not directly characterized, the idea of lazy savageness was effectively directed towards Asiatic people — an excuse for the imperialist period that was yet to follow, and the birth of the idea of Yellow Peril, which was the fear of Asians and their “scheming personalities, which would end in their world domination”. Kipling’s poem was one of the first pervasive Eurocentric caricatures of the Asian race, one that would ultimately set the narrative for self-image and portrayal of the nonwhite races throughout history. Alongside the pillaging, looting, the rape and murder, the thievery, and graft inflicted upon those nations of Southeast Asia — above all the debauchery was seated this horrid spector of offense and deindividuation.
Women & Fetishization
Only at this point did intersectionality and sexualized racism amplify the disparity of treatment between men and women. Zora Neale Hurston, an African American feminist during the Harlem Renaissance correctly identified, “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as far as Ah been able tuh find out…so de white man throw down de load and tell the black man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De black woman is de mule uh de world so far as Ah can see’’. As gender is a key to the construction of the hierarchical intolerance of hatred, the differences of the treatment of Asian women and Asian men must be distinct and void of ambiguity. Sex is entirely crucial in the understanding of the impacts and aftershocks of colonialism.
India
The first example of the intertwining of imperialism and gender, stems from the British occupation and dictatorial status over India. The British imperial system was intended to maximize international British power and authoritarianism by implementing British government and overthrowing the local institutional governments. European imperialism is often mistaken as man’s work, when rather it was the work of British ladies in colonial India to permeate and influence its feminine culture sphere. British women evidently shared their Eurocentric ideals with their male counterparts, and often flaunted their white womanhood as a trophy to Indian women, many of whom were poverty stricken and already stifled under the suppressive misogyny of their own culture. A British woman wrote in her journal once after a rendezvous trip to India, “Despite having many opportunities to adorn themselves with jewelry and fragrance, Indian women seemed powerless to elevate their minds or to bridge the enormous gulf that separated the mere female from the lady. In India, only very poor women moved around freely while the movements of women from higher classes were restricted, a situation contrary to the one at home. …Wealth provided opportunities for British women to gain education, to travel in foreign countries, and to cultivate tastes for everything beautiful and refined in nature and art” (Overland, Inland, and Upland: A Lady’s Notes of Personal Observation and Adventure). The nature of Indian culture was dissimilar to their own…yet these “educated British ladies” had no intent on educating themselves on the nature of the cultural context of an Indian woman’s life…rather creating a sense of superiority of the white woman, an idea that would inevitably permeate Indian society. For British women, even hiring darker-skinned servants made them uncomfortable, they refused to even attempt to comprehend the interrelations between Indian Islam and Hinduism, and influenced their thought of the unstable cultural situation of India….a sentiment utilized to excuse their imperialism and subjugation of the subcontinent. Here lies the genesis of a deeply-rooted modern cultural norm of skin color and colorism in Asia. In many societies, and especially in Asia, dark skin has long been associated with poverty and the working class agrarian lifestyle. On the other hand, pale skin is associated with living a more comfortable, cosmopolitan life indoors, out of the sun. Subsequently, skin color is inadvertently a sign of social class, one example of the sacrifice of culture for aesthetics. Indian women were not the sole victims of colorism, rather all Asian women were, and still are, victim to the superiority of white skin. The World Health Organization found that “today, whitening is big business….nearly 40 percent of women polled in nations including China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea regularly use products for lightening their skin. Market intelligence firm Global Industry Analysts shows that the demand for whiteners is rising, projected to reach $31.2 billion by 2024” (Salva). Thus, the influence of white women on aestheticization is not to be minimized nor to be ignored, as their blatant ignorance has caused a continent wide culture crisis.
This subjugation of course, is incomparable to the subjugation that the Indian woman endured under the hands of both Indian and Anglican men. Anybody of the feminine sex, such as mothers, sisters, and daughters were forced to participate in “nude marches”, where they were sexually tortured, gang raped, taken as mistresses, forced into prostitution, and starved to death. This weaponization of women’s sexuality became a source of fear for the women. A fear that once again would be rooted in the depths of women’s psyche until and throughout the modern day. The barbarism that the women undertook due to their race would never leave; thus imperialism introduced the idea of racialized sexism, an ideal that likened Indian women to sexual objects, solely existing for one’s own gratification. This behavior may be argued as pure misogyny. However if this were the case, would not the English ladies be under this male subjugation as well? Rather, the behavior was no secret, nor was it discouraged. There were approximately 350 sex slave centers filled with hundreds of captured women. Many women who were rape victims became servants in the British family’s home… subjecting themselves to further abuse, and a loss of identity: their last names. Most Indian women were forced to convert to Christianity and adopted a British Christian name, giving up their traditional Indian surnames in the process. This often signified their status of a mistress to the family. Those who were raped stood in a court trial in which they were mentally tortured by the unjust questioning from the British Imperial Court, and so the rapists found themselves innocent, with no consequences for their inexcusable actions. An officer by the name of Colonel Neil testified in his journal that there was not a day that passed in which he did not rape a new Indian girl. The true hypocrisy came however, in the Siege of Kanpur, where an Indian uprising was beginning to take place. Over 200 women were raped, dismembered, and thrown into ditches. However, this rape however was partaken in by both Indian soldiers and British soldiers as well. The Indian men had started the rape, and the British army had apparently taken this as a challenge of their authority and their manliness, thus they conversely began to rape and dismember the women alongside their Indian counterparts.
The conglomerate of offenses undertaken by Indian women include pro-whiteness/anti-brown sentiments, colorism, inferiority, and sexualized racism that was normalized by imperialism to the native Indian men…who have now adopted the English imperialist brutal misogyny. The last issue has spiraled into a modern national rape crisis, and anti-woman ideology. More than 300,000 Indian girls are aborted, thousands sold into child marriages, sex slavery, etc… Women are seen as burdens who must be sold into marriage as soon as possible, because they are viewed as household objects, that are only good for collecting dust. Due to the overpopulation problem in India, there are far more grooms who are much older than the percentage of available women, which sadly increases the child bride’s market value. Those who are lucky enough to escape child-marriage are stifled in the man’s world of industry, education, and STEM. From here stems the idea of self-misogyny, this sense of competition amongst women, rather than it being a unifying force. After all, these women have always been taught that there are two paths in life- the fairer your skin and the longer your hair, one can either find a husband sooner, or they’re able to seduce their higher ups and make a name for themselves. If your skin is darker or your hair isn’t ramrod straight, you’re immediately deemed undesirable for marriage, which only exacerbates the desperation and the ultimate amplification of unwanted marriages. And those from England are entirely unaware of their irreparable impact. As David Gilmore, author of The British in India would say, “It was as if the British, at almost every level of society, were proud to have India as their jewel but did not want to spend much time admiring the object: It was just nice to know that it was in the bank and to be able to boast about it.”
Japan
The next example of fetishization of Asians from Western influence stems from American troops during World War II where Japanese women in history were entirely belittled and sexualized. Geishas were Japanese entertainers and artisans who were regarded as women of a high status which required thorough training from the 1700s. However, geishas have been historically misconstrued to be prostitutes due to the hypersexual Western consciousness during World War II. Women would work as prostitutes and dress up as geishas to provide their sexual services to the American armymen. These women had painted white faces resembling dolls, slanted cat-eyes, and blood red lips, they would often also don traditional garb to “play the part” of the geisha. This disgusting roleplay is a textbook example of exoticization of Asian women. It is essentially the white man’s interpretation of a culture that is entirely unbelonging to them, and the roleplay of such a character is a grotesque criticism of Japanese culture on its own. A testimony of a modern Asian woman attests to the sexualization she still has to face in the modern age, “I had a Caucasian boyfriend ask me if my vagina were slanted like my eyes, and then repeat this to his friends. Same boyfriend asked me to use “tiny Oriental fingers” to braid his hair for him” (Mukkamala & Suyemoto).
The geisha was also used to paint Asians as demure and coy creatures, and used this to have them act “cutesy” to fit the stereotype. Another Asian woman attests to the modern standing of these tropes, “Being told by male Caucasian friends that I didn’t ‘act like an Asian woman’ when I objected to something they said or did, as I was not as docile and gracious as they thought Asian women should be’” (Mukkamala & Suyemoto). The geisha was also adopted as the traditional Asian woman’s body, tiny and slender, almost childlike. Asian women today face scrutiny if their bodies fit this oversexualized trope. In the psychological study conducted by Shruti Mukkamala, and Karen L. Suyemoto, “Racialized Sexism/Sexualized Racism: A Multimethod Study of Intersectional Experiences of Discrimination for Asian American Women”, testimonies from Asian women reveal this sad truth. A participant stated, “Well in terms of being hit on, I have been consistently receiving comments on my body type — I am significantly large chested. Men make comments that Asian women don’t normally look the way that I do and ask if they are fake. I wanted to slap so many people for these comments” (Mukkamala & Suyemoto).
Geishas are still hypersexualized by Western media and praised for being the archetype of a strong seductively sexual woman…when rather the sexualizing of the geisha is cultural appropriation and is highly offensive. In 2017, American supermodel Karlie Kloss participated in a highly offensive fetishized photoshoot of Japanese culture. The photoshoot included sumo wrestlers, Karlie Kloss donning a long black wig and roleplaying as a geisha. Each of the pictures are either highly or somewhat sexualized, suggesting that geishas provoke sexual sentiment, and their only value is to represent Japanese culture as a whole, and to sell their bodies. The problem with this is that it’s dual-racism… of course there’s the exoticization and fetishizing of Japanese women, but also taking an aspect of misconstrued culture and applying it to the entirety of the culture. To assume that Japanese culture revolves around geishas and geisha-behavior (which is also fabricated) is unequivocally racist.
However, the issue of sexualizing Japanese women is only exacerbated, like Indian women, by the explicit misogynistic cultural bubble of Japan. After Japan’s horrendous war crimes during World War II (which included but was not limited to extreme starvation, forcing prisoners to rape others, injecting prisoners with animal blood and diseases, pouring boiling water on frozen limbs of people who were still alive, live dissections of people, etc…), Japan was seen as a terrifying murderous country. Clearly, this was against the interest of the Japanese government, and thus, they created anime culture as a sort of propaganda. Anime is essentially Japanese cartoons, that unlike American cartoons, are enjoyed by everybody of any age. During the war, the Japanese government hired Japanese cartoonists to create cartoon strips to use as propaganda….mainly because in the United States, Walt Disney had started his magical creations that appealed to American audiences and children. After the war, many Japanese agencies were formed for cartoonists to create artwork. From then on, anime was the Japanese gold standard for entertainment…over the years, many of the tropes are visible, especially for female characters.
Female anime characters are basically divided into three categories, the big breasted character, the lolicon, and the character with no sex appeal. The big breasted characters are a staple in anime- their one purpose is usually to be sexually appealing, in fact their presence is usually there for comic/sexual relief. The lolicon is basically a lolita- a little childlike girl who’s supposed to be seen as cute, with big eyes, and supposedly innocent. However, the lolis in anime are often sexualized as well, as we recall the geisha “demure” fetish. The loli’s purpose is to be cutesy and fanservice-y… in fact, the loli’s innocence, juxtaposed with the big-breasted one’s clear sexual expression, is what appeals to the fans. The character with no sex appeal, is often portrayed as just average-rather than on the two ends of the hypersexualized character spectrum like the loli and the promiscuous woman. Nonetheless all women are portrayed as cute and feminine, which sets back the feminist agenda in Japan hundreds of years. The women are continuously sexualized, in fact their only existence has evolved to just be fanservice and cater to otaku/waifu culture (which is a really creepy phenomenon where people become obsessed with a certain character and claim her as their waifu… it is often taken to horrifying extents, to the point where sexual body pillows are bought, social intrusion is encouraged, and an extreme sexual addiction begins to take hold).
In fact, this sexual addiction seems to have taken Japan hostage. Japan has an incurable pornography addiction…a lot of which is concerningly child pornography. “Child porn-related crimes have grown fivefold in Japan through the last decade, according to the country’s National Police Agency. At least 600 children a year fall victim to pedophile directors and photographers…A government survey in 2002 found that 10 percent of Japanese men admitted to owning child porn at some stage…Bookstores and convenience stores across the country stock magazines carrying semi-naked pictures of pubescent and prepubescent children. Many underage girls have built careers as so-called “junior idols”, posing in a suggestive manner. The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation traced nearly 16,250 websites depicting child abuse back to Japan in 2006, enough to put it third on a global watch list” (McNeill). As the porn addiction amplifies in Japan, the clear initiator of these hypersexual pedophilic tendencies arises from anime and hentai culture (hentai being pornographic anime). In fact, in hentai, pedophilic tendencies are even encouraged, with categories such as loli and shotacon (little girls/little boys). The fundamental basis of females portrayed in anime, is reflected in the real-life actions of Japanese men on how they treat Japanese women and children. Although forcible indecencies (sexual harassment) in Japan has slowly decreased, the rape rates have slowly increased, thus the sexualization and fetishization of Japanese women and children are not only propagated by Western hypersexuality, but Japanese hypersexuality as well.
Men & Aesthetics
Although as proven above, women go through far more fetishization and unwanted sexualization at the hands of Western media and their own cultural bubble, both at the hands of Western men who influence them through their Eurocentric pro-white ideals, and also men from their own hypersexualized nation (which is mostly hypersexualized due to the previous unwanted influences from the West), it has only been recently within the last 50 or so years, that Asian men have begun to be fetishized and aestheticized, once again, not only by Western media, but by their own toxic culture.
China
Film is an artistic medium that is extremely important to Western media, in fact the United States has the biggest cinema market in the entire world- Hollywood. Films and cinema are used to capture fictional stories with real details to make the cinema enjoyable to the viewer- without these realistic details, the viewer is unable to relate to the movie. However, most viewers accept what they see on the silver screen as the truth, even though certain facts may be exaggerated, certain characters that are caricatures, and stupid attributable actions that inevitably become stereotypes. Hollywood has certainly used narrative methods to present many stories about Chinese people…Kung Fu is a typical trope in Hollywood martial arts films. It has become a symbol of Chinese people and a common feature of Chinese images on the Hollywood screen… For example, the actor Jackie Chan who appears in Hollywood martial arts films in the 1980s acquires great success in 1990s, and becomes the most famous Chinese martial arts actor in the world. But before they could even employ Chinese people to act- producers employed white actors in yellow face, with long fingernails, a half bald hairstyle, and many more negative connotating features. Hollywood continued to orientalize Chinese characters with untrue caricatures. These characters fit one of two molds — the first being an evil sociopathic calculating character, or an effeminate and monotonous character. Effeminacy is one of these stereotypes that Asian men have carried throughout history- the idea that Asian men are unable to participate in typical Western sports and excel…Asian men are generally viewed as smaller, weaker, and easier targets in sports, a reason why there is such little Asian male representation in American sports. This fear has definitely been internalized by a lot of Asian men- the idea that they cannot compete with Americans or any other race in athleticism, because they view themselves as the propagated stereotypes: small, weak, and inferior.
These tropes were overused until the rise of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in Hollywood- two stunt artists who seemed to transcend the monotonous Chinese male stereotypical character molds. This is the turning point at which tokenism took over Chinese representation in Hollywood- suddenly Chinese actors who were hired had to play the archetypical kung-fu or karate master, the sensei, or a Chinese action star who happened to have a diverse knowledge of martial arts. This was a clear exploitation of Chinese culture and disrespectful to the origins of martial arts, and its importance to Chinese culture, rather than it being seen as the entirety of Chinese culture. A Chinese character could never be a normal protagonist- rather he had to be an exaggerated and offensive parody of a Chinese person. The characters are unable to speak anything except broken and inaccurate English, play up their accents, and lean into the bit.
Asian American men are still largely unseen in Hollywood, mainly because all Hollywood has ever known of Chinese men is effeminacy or martial artists…yet they are conscious of the offensiveness of this characterization of Chinese men, and are unable to pursue these archetypes further out of fear of modern cancel culture…yet they also refuse to condemn their past portrayals of Chinese men, and refuse to actually educate themselves on Chinese culture…the most recent of which is the atrocity that was the live action Mulan film. The differences between the original and the remake have highly offended the Asian American community. Disney’s 1998 animated Mulan was beloved in the fact that it highlighted the internal conflict commonly faced by many Asians that are forced to conform within high-context cultures that would otherwise be dismissive of your own identity or brand. Fast forward to 22 years later and we have a movie that tried its hardest to be pro-feminism, but in reality, completely butchered the film. The film got rid of Li Shang, the original prince from the 1998 Mulan. A prince with a personality, strengths and weaknesses, and not an entire disgrace to Chinese male characters. The film’s attempt to be woke, essentially backfired on them, considering how their whole focus was on the idea of “chi”, which was marketed as a superpower phenomena rather than intrinsic peace. Yet another example of Hollywood removing an Asian male influence from the big screen. Nevertheless, Hollywood continues to enforce the idea of Chinese male effeminacy by refusing to condemn their past actions, and by refusing to cast more male Asian actors.
South Korea
During the early 2000s, a phenomena called K-Pop exploded in popularity across South Korea. K-Pop is essentially Korean Popular Music…often dictated by music agencies which contract artists and push them to train their voices and their bodies to increase their appeal to their main audience…which used to be mainly Korean teenage girls. These agencies often contract many K-Pop bands, but the problems with these bands have only recently arisen in the explosion of the K-Pop band BTS in mid-2013. The band consists of 7 members, some of whom rap, sing, and all are exceptional dancers. Their boom in popularity induced the success of their agency BigHit Inc., but it also enforced the suppressive tendencies of the agency. Receiving the craze of international teenage girls, K-Pop has only become more conservative and protective over these K-Pop idols and their lives, in order to please the fans. All personal information belongs to the company, and there are strict codes of conduct for idols to preserve their Western support. Idols are seen as doll-like figures who must be protected against all costs. These idols have a very distinct style that they must follow…nothing can be too outspoken, and their style cannot indicate their straying from their baby-like image. Since Korea’s K-Pop industry is highly selective, extremely competitive, and crushing, in order to make it, idols must be perfect, especially in their physical features. Many idols must have white skin, big eyes, a bowl cut or another boyish cut that indicates youth, and other “pretty” features. Although the nature of cosmetics in K-Pop is greatly conserved, many people speculate that idols are pressured to have plastic surgery, especially a double-eyelid surgery to make themselves more attractive. All of these features are applied, not because the idols like the look per se, rather the look indicates the shy pretty-boy image, and increases likeability. This phenomena is only enforced by Western media, the idea of preserving their “purity”, because they look like babies. This, in and of itself, is a prime example of whitewashing in the community…idols must have lighter skin, bigger eyes, more Western features than traditionally Asian ones in order to be liked. The idea that fetishizing idols who look like children is done unconsciously, yet its impact is great.
Fans become outraged at the thought of idols having agency outside of their career. The K-Pop fandom is crazy because many people are entirely obsessed with self-inserting themselves into the equation. Fantasization kicks in… “Nobody can look at Idol X, because Idol X is too pretty and too cute for them”. At the slightest sight of idols straying from the cute pretty-boy look, fans lose their mind. Many of the most popular K-Pop bands are unable to date, unable to be over a certain weight, and unable to grow facial hair. This is yet another example of enforcing Asian effeminacy and forcing idols to be in a cruel age roleplay, when they are adults that should have agency over their lives. The weight limit also applies to muscle…thus trying to maintain the pretty-boy look, which is generally lean but muscular, rather than fully muscular. This is a big reason why most K-Pop groups are separated by gender…bias culture would never allow a group as successful as BTS to remain successful if they were integrated with a girl group. Thus, the companies themselves enforce this fetishization of their idols, because they want young girls to remain sexually/romantically interested in their idols. Through forcing their idols to abide by restricting rules, they only enforce the Western ideology of effeminacy of Asian men by forcing them into the mold of beauty.
South Korea is known for its beautiful skincare and rather harsh beauty standards. Most of these standards, as stated prior, are based on the Western fetishized version of an Asian…pale skin, big eyes, small nose, slim figures, V shaped jaw, straight eyebrows, etc…most of which are applied to the general population as well. Western beauty is a primary concern to South Korean people, hence the high rate of people who have some form of plastic surgery. About 20% of young Korean girls have had some form of plastic surgery, a rate that is significantly higher than other countries. “South Korea is a very competitive society and people are pushed closely together. Half of South Korea’s population lives in Seoul, so we are confronted with other people’s images all the time. In addition, it is widely agreed upon that people who look better have an advantage in the job market,” said Dr. Joo Kwon, CEO and founder of the JK Plastic Surgery Center in Seoul, South Korea.
Analysis
What does this mean for Asian American men and women? What is the political importance of such fetishization and aestheticization of our race? How do we stop the trolley from running us over? For one, this aestheticization and fetishization has been initiated by the Western hypersexual conscious…however, it is also clear that the Asian cultural bubble only exacerbates these problems to an extent that is toxic to every Asian and Asian American. In this modern age we must take advantage of technology and politics to induce change for the Asian community. Social media is an amplified echo-chamber which makes it extremely easy to start a movement and a political revolution. We should demand accurate representation, proper treatment, and immediate change. In the wake of understanding the unfairness of how our own cultures have been infiltrated by Western ideology, and have been poisoned to become a mutated festering duplicate of its original beauty, we should celebrate our culture. This means no more whitewashing, no more identifying with privilege, and no more pick-me behavior. This also means condemning clearly harmful facets of the mutated version of culture…it is impossible to purge all Western influence, and it is unethical to do so, however we should be able to remove some of those unfair institutions and standards placed upon us. Another viable option for fixing these issues is to open oneself up to the world of politics. There are a mere 13 Asian Americans in the House of Representatives, and it goes without saying that to facilitate change, there must be an army of us, willing to fight to inspire it. This of course demands the alliance of many minorities, not simply Asians. Black and Hispanic recognition of Asian struggles would greatly mitigate and break the model-minority stereotype- the idea that Asians are not as discriminated against, because they often fit the American model of success. With outstretched hands, we can stop the impending doom of the trolley.
Because quite frankly, our entire existence has been filled with particularly “bad days.” Generations and generations of rape, murder, thievery, and racism. Unlike Mr. Robert Aaron Long, we’ve experienced constant oppression, not only by white privilege, but also at the hands of other minorities, jealous of our unwanted model-minority branding. Bullet holes in each of our hearts for those eight victims, bloody for the Asians who are bludgeoned in the streets with bricks being blamed for the pandemic, bruised for the Asians who are afraid to go outside. But not beaten. Never beaten.
We have come too far, and fought too hard to be beaten so easily by a man with a gun. We will not let this Trolley flatten us. If my forecast of the relative nature of the coming years are to be true, one day the two rails of Culture and Aesthetics will be separated again, spanning until the end of mankind. But for now, I suppose that we ought to make each other proud. We should stand up straight to rise above the hate. After all, who wouldn’t seize upon the opportunity to make their voices heard? Asians, ever the opportunists, certainly won’t pass on this chance to lift our oppression.
Because unlike the monster that is Robert Aaron Long, this will not be the end of our rope.
The Young Politicasian is a project of the High School Democrats of America Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus. Follow us on Instagram @hsda_aapi, join the caucus, and apply to be a staff writer. The opinions expressed in The Young Politicasian do not necessarily reflect those of the AAPI Caucus or the High School Democrats of America.
