Asian fetish: Difference between revisions
This phenomenon is sometimes NOT sexual. To frame it as such is not accurate. Please discuss on talk page before any reverts, please. |
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'''Asian fetish''' is a slang term which refers to attraction for people of Asian descent by those of non-Asian descent.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=aQu7avHHTm4C&lpg=PA134&dq=%22asian%20fetish%22&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=%22asian%20fetish%22&f=false Korean American women By Ailee Moon pg 134]</ref> |
'''Asian fetish''' is a slang term which refers to attraction for people of Asian descent by those of non-Asian descent.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=aQu7avHHTm4C&lpg=PA134&dq=%22asian%20fetish%22&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=%22asian%20fetish%22&f=false Korean American women By Ailee Moon pg 134]</ref> The term is the technical term used to convey Yellow Fever or Kenrick’s Disease. The disease was first discovered in New Zealand in 1983 after the birth of Paul Kenrick when he immediately grabbed a Korean Nurse’s mammaries inappropriately. He has been afflicted by this condition is whole life. |
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The term '''Asiaphilia''' is sometimes used to describe the same phenomenon, as is 'Yellow Fever'. Men with a preference for Asian women have been referred to as Asianphiles.<ref name="Vicky">{{cite book | first=Vicky | last=Nam | title=YELL-oh Girls! | publisher=Harper Paperbacks |isbn= 0060959444| year=2001 | pages=131-132}}</ref><ref name="Phoebe">{{cite book | first = Phoebe| last = Eng | year = 2000 | title = Warrior Lessons : An Asian American Woman's Journey into Power | chapter = She Takes Back Desire | pages = 115 – 142 | publisher = Atria | location = New York|isbn = 0671009575}}</ref> |
The term '''Asiaphilia''' is sometimes used to describe the same phenomenon, as is 'Yellow Fever'. Men with a preference for Asian women have been referred to as Asianphiles.<ref name="Vicky">{{cite book | first=Vicky | last=Nam | title=YELL-oh Girls! | publisher=Harper Paperbacks |isbn= 0060959444| year=2001 | pages=131-132}}</ref><ref name="Phoebe">{{cite book | first = Phoebe| last = Eng | year = 2000 | title = Warrior Lessons : An Asian American Woman's Journey into Power | chapter = She Takes Back Desire | pages = 115 – 142 | publisher = Atria | location = New York|isbn = 0671009575}}</ref> |
Revision as of 22:14, 10 September 2009
Template:Globalize/USA Asian fetish is a slang term which refers to attraction for people of Asian descent by those of non-Asian descent.[1] The term is the technical term used to convey Yellow Fever or Kenrick’s Disease. The disease was first discovered in New Zealand in 1983 after the birth of Paul Kenrick when he immediately grabbed a Korean Nurse’s mammaries inappropriately. He has been afflicted by this condition is whole life.
The term Asiaphilia is sometimes used to describe the same phenomenon, as is 'Yellow Fever'. Men with a preference for Asian women have been referred to as Asianphiles.[2][3]
One study has challenged the notion that the preference is prevalent in American society.[4] This preference has been attributed to American military involvement in Asia.
Terminology
Two loaded names for this preference are Asiaphilia and Asian fetish. Ming Tan, a writer, quotes one man as saying that he thinks that "there's a massive, huge difference between such a fetish and my preference for Asians". The correspondent goes on to describe the "grace" and the ability to create "harmony in one's family, workplace, and community" that he finds attractive in Asian women.[5]
Jenny Parker, co-founder of the AsianParent.com web site, writes:[6]
My spouse happens to be non-Asian, so I find the terms Asian fetish/Yellow Fever disagreeable if not insulting. I'd rather believe that my husband asked me to marry him because I had exhibited some desirable qualities to him during our courtship, and not because he needed an Asian woman to fulfill a fetish of his. If a term must be used to label this type of romance, I would be okay with "preference."
— AsianWeek, in Jenny Parker
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png)
People who espouse the preference generally prefer to term themselves Asiaphiles.[citation needed] Conversely, the name Asiaphile — Asiaphilia being the love of Asia and Asian things in general and not a specifically sexual or romantic issue — is problematic for the critics[who?] who believe that people with this preference are stereotyping or objectifying Asian women. They accuse people with this preference of having an Asian fetish.[5]
Other slang names for the preference include "yellow fever" for the preference, and "rice kings", "rice chasers", and "rice lovers" for the men who espouse it.[7]
History and usage
During periods of anti-Asian sentiment, in the United States in the late 1800s, known as Yellow Peril, an image of Chinese women emerged as sexually corrupt, immoral, and threatening to the white population.[8] Babysan, a cartoon character sketched as an exotic, curvaceous, slanted eyed woman, was published in the East Asian edition of the Navy Times during wartime.[9]
Darrell Hamamoto, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis , has stated that the stereotypes are a result of Western imperialist influence in Asian countries and increased interaction between different races in the United States after immigration laws were relaxed in the 1960s.[10] Hamamoto said American soldiers' contact with Vietnamese prostitutes during the Vietnam War have further contributed to reinforcing these images of Asian women.[10]
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.[11]
Phoebe Eng wrote in her book Warrior Lessons, [3]
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.
But Eng does not agree that the attention that might be given to Asian women is bad. On the contrary, she calls it "liberating." [3]
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.
The gay slang term used for a man, usually white, who exclusively dates Asian males is "rice queen."[12][13] In a similar manner as Asian females, gay Asian males are stereotyped as submissive.[12]
Preferences by American men
Historic causes
The preference for Asian women as sex partners by many American men can be traced back to the history of involvement of American military forces in Asia, from World War II onwards, through the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Prostitution developed around American military bases, and American soldiers became sexually involved with Asian women.[14][15]
Proximate causes
Maggie Chang, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania who argues in favour of the stereotypification and objectification view, attributes the continuation of the preference for Asian women amongst some American men to stereotypical images of Asian women in American media.[7] Pyke and Johnson simiarly state that the stereotype of the servile "Lotus Blossom" Asian woman reinforces the preference among some American men.[16]
Reactions of Asian American women
Tan interviewed Asian American women and observed a mixed reaction amongst them to men who have this preference. On the one hand, many of them hated men with an "Asian fetish". They did not want either to be regarded as sex objects or to be required to live up to impossible to realize stereotypes of Asian sexuality and behaviour. On the other hand, several of them enjoyed the attention that they received. They stated that they were benefitting from the preference. Tan observes that it is harder for a woman over 35 to attract a man in the United States, and that thus some American men's preference for Asian women was making it hard for older Asian American women to complain about any objectification that may occur "when so many men are calling".[5]
Academic studies
Fisman, Sethi-Iyengar, et al. conducted a two year study of individuals that had self-selected into a speed dating event at Columbia University. The purpose was to investigate the rarity of inter-racial marriages in the United States, and to investigate racial preferences in dating as its possible cause, and the relative importance of that preference with respect to physical racial segregation. Thousands of decisions made by more than 400 daters from Columbia University's various graduate and professional schools were compiled. The study reported, and Fisman in an article in Slate magazine separately re-iterated, no evidence amongst the speed daters for what it called "the stereotype of a white male preference for East Asian women".
We found no evidence of the stereotype of a white male preference for East Asian women. However, we also found that East Asian women did not discriminate against white men (only against black and Hispanic men). As a result, the white man-Asian woman pairing was the most common form of interracial dating—but because of the women's neutrality, not the men's pronounced preference. Men don't seem to discriminate based on race when it comes to dating. A woman's race had no effect on the men's choices.[17]
The study did report that the pairing between a white man and an Asian woman was the most common inter-racial pairing, but it attributed this not to a preference for Asian women on the parts of the white men, but rather to the preferences of the Asian women. The study found that the men, of all races, in fact had no racial preferences amongst women. Whereas it found that the women of all races strongly preferred men of their own race. It reported that Asian women feel neutrality towards white men to which the study and Fisman attributed the prevalence of the white man/Asian woman inter-racial pairing, in comparison with other pairings. The study cited prior work, including that by Ariely et al. and Mills et al. (see further reading), that had also suggested that women are less accepting of inter-racial romantic relationships than men are.[17][18]
Chang also observes that statistical evidence of the preference may not be considered substantial, noting a census by American Demographics that reports that one-third of all Asian Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 married non-Asians, and primarily Caucasians, without attributing those inter-racial marriages to a specific preference for Asian women on the parts of the male partners.[7]
See also
- Interracial relationships
- Interracial marriage
- Racist love
- Stereotypes of Asians
- Sex tourism
- Amejo
- Pinkerton Syndrome
- Sarong party girl
- Yellow cab (stereotype)
- Circassian beauties
- Chinese female beauty ideals
Further reading
- Dan Ariely, Gunter J. Hitsch, and Ali Hortacsu (2004). "What Makes You Click: An Empirical Analysis of Online Dating" (PDF). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4603-06, SSRN 895442.
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(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Jon K. Mills, Jennifer Daly, Amy Longmore, and Gina Kilbridge (1995). "A Note on Family Acceptance Involving Interracial Friendships and Romantic Relationships". The Journal of Psychology. 129 (3): 349–351.
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References
- ^ Korean American women By Ailee Moon pg 134
- ^ Nam, Vicky (2001). YELL-oh Girls!. Harper Paperbacks. pp. 131–132. ISBN 0060959444.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ An Economist Goes to a Bar, and Solves the Mystery of Dating Ray Fisman, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - Slate.com
- ^ a b c Ming Tan (2002). How to Attract Asian Women. BridgegapBooks. pp. 31–32. ISBN 0971580804.
- ^ Jenny Parker (2007-06-08). "Love vs. Asian fetish". AsianWeek.
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(help) - ^ a b c Maggie Chang (April 2006). "Made in the USA: Rewriting Images of the Asian Fetish" (PDF). Penn Humanities Forum on Word & Image, Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows. University of Pennsylvania.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Hume, Bill (1953). Babysan: A private look at the Japanese occupation. Tokyo: Kasuga Bokkei. ISBN 0804800499.
- ^ a b Sung, Helen E. "Dating Outside the Color Lines". Audrey magazine. Archived from the original on 2006-02-12. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
- ^ Hwang, David Henry (1988). "Afterward". M. Butterfly. New York: Plume Books. p. 98.
- ^ a b Bohling, James. "Embracing Diversity?". GLAAD. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
- ^ Ayres T (1999). China doll - the experience of being a gay Chinese Australian. Journal of Homosexuality, 36(3-4): 87-97
- ^ Evelyn Hu-DeHart (2007). "Globalization and Its Discontents: Exposing the Underside". In Antonia Castañeda (ed.). Gender on the Borderlands: The Frontiers Reader. University of Nebraska Press. p. 250. ISBN 0803259867.
- ^ Evelyn Hu-DeHart (2003). "Globalization and Its Discontents: Exposing the Underside". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 24 (2&, 3). University of Nebraska Press: 244–260.
- ^ Karen D. Pyke and Denise L. Johnson (February 2003). "Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: "Doing" Gender across Cultural Worlds". Gender and Society. 17 (1): 33–53. doi:10.1177/0891243202238977.
- ^ a b Ray Fisman (2007-11-07). "An Economist Goes to a Bar And solves the mysteries of dating". Slate magazine.
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(help) - ^ Raymond J. Fisman, Sheena Sethi-Iyengar, Emir Kamenica, and Itamar Simonson (November 2004). "Racial Preferences in Dating: Evidence from a Speed Dating Experiment" (PDF). 4th draft. SSRN 610589.
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