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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Are AA Women the Real Victims of Prejudice?
sian women get a free ride at the expense of Asian men. That's the received wisdom here in the U.S. This belief appears premised on the suspicion that American society sees Asian women as sexy exotics in need of rescuing from the cold clutches of Asian men who don't know how to smile except evilly.
The real victim?
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Credit Hollywood for its tireless casting of Asian women as sexual accessories to white heroes while suppressing the very existence of Asian men except as unsavory paper tigers. Credit too the TV networks that uncover bevies of talking Asian women but rarely their male counterparts.
In fairness this media fantasy of the Asian race was partly inspired by recent history. Devastated and impoverished Asian nations sent tens of thousands of war brides and orphans, followed by several million desperate immigrants willing to hock their identities while toiling to build new lives.
Male-dominated societies toast new women as exotic sexual prospects while suppressing new men as an exploitable lower class or even enemy aliens. The women get all the breaks and the men get all the lumps. Even worse, the women have their heads turned and adopt a scornful attitude toward their own men. So goes the complaint of some AA men.
The women have a different take. Sexual predators bearing insulting stereotypes must be fended off while coping with women who see them as unfair competitors. Add to that the pain of being scorned as sellouts by AA men for no more reason than their apparent welcome by American society. Worst of all, complain AA women, is being begrudged the right to take simple pleasure in their own identities. How much easier just to face straightforward racial prejudice!
Do Asian women really have an easier time in America? Or do they suffer from the double-whammy of insulting stereotypes from non-Asians and unfair persecution from Asian men?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:10:46 PM)
Strength in Numbers,
Your speak about supporting our Asians sisters. Why?
My Asian brothers have been supporting AF long enough, and what do they get in return. Constant reminders that they are seen as second class compared to white men.
I have two examples.
Olivia Chow, a city of Toronto councilor representing Trinity/Spadina, basically China Town. She claims to represent Asians but who does she marry, some loser lefty white guy.
My other example is from an interview in Banana magazine with Lily Kwan, one of the Naked News host. She says she's never dated an Asian guy because none have met her standards. There's a reason why none of us can meet her standards, being white is unattainable for Asians, regardless of gender.
Yup, these two reasons just make me want to go right out and defend our so-called other half.
P.S. If you ever pull out the entertainment centre spread in the Sunday Sun, more often than naught, you'll find an AF with her trophy partner. AF are just like BM.
huu76
Monday, July 08, 2002 at 02:52:10 (PDT)
K Chang,
i sort of agree and disagree with you....i think WF's in general are a little less open minded than their AF counterparts and that with all due respect AM are a little less open minded than their WM counterparts.....this is a recipe for imbalance in the dating scene but it's up to AM to do something about it....i always hear AF say they get approached more by WM (whether for the right reasons or not)....dating is after all a numbers game
they definitely have it harder than AF's but compared to WM they have the best of both worlds....i mean if you are an asian in the US then statistically speaking about 90% of your social contact will be with non-asians unless you live in an asian bubble....so what's stopping you?
If you act like victims then you'll always be victims
maxdacat
Monday, July 08, 2002 at 01:05:30 (PDT)
TO DC GUY from NEW DAY COMING, You needed cold,hard specifics re the many slights minorities suffer I would refer you to the reading list ASIAN DOMINATRIX has outlined. She recommends three excellent books you may wish to delve into in order that you may understand a little better what we mean. Also you may want to think about this new day and the fact that it will make many whites uncomfortable to have to share a more equal status with different races. Why I say that is because most whites aren't as liberal as yourself and look at the difficulty you're experiencing.
A NEW DAY COMING
Monday, July 08, 2002 at 00:35:02 (PDT)
TV watcha,
Unfortunately, I'm over 25 so I don't watch MTV as much as I used to. But I'll try to catch those ads you've mentioned.
B. Lee,
You're right on target as usual.
I'm probably about as guilty as you are in admiring Caucasian features in the opposite sex as well. Not that I necessarily consider WMs more attractive, mind you, but it's just that I've never encountered that many Asians where I've lived and studied--and it's hard to draw a consensus of attractiveness when you don't have a large sample at hand.
The media doesn't make it any easier. If you don't see it on the big screen, you read about it in newspapers, magazines, poetry, novels, etc.:"intelligent blue eyes, lively green eyes, glistening blond hair, attractive blonde, fiery redhead, etc." We are thus brainwashed into thinking that the Caucasian race is the most beautiful race in the world. Then these so-called prized features become even more striking when a person of the opposite sex with those features admire us too.
Maybe as such, while I can get hyperexcited by an ASIAN man like the gorgeous soccer player Ahn (?) or other Asians who do not look like him, I just cannot feel that attracted to a brown-haired, brown-eyed WHITE male, even if he's got the features of a Pierce Brosnan. (Should also note, however, that I only find certain types of blond men attractive.)
I think a good way to de-brainwash ourselves is to immerse ourselves in Asian media. When I flip through some of my cousin's Taiwanese "People" equivalent magazines with Asian celebrities, I think "Some of these people are mind-blowingly beautiful. Tall, slim men some of the most perfect features! Women with long, sexy legs! Why do we Asians want to look Caucasian at all when there is already so much beauty in our own race?" Wish there were more Asian magazines written in English!!
Now about the European/Asian dichotomy and double standards: I know exactly what you're talking about.
For instance, no one makes fun of European FOBs: Europeans have such "beautiful" accents while Asians have "ridiculous" accents.
Your average uppermiddle class white American will admire "European tradition"--all while complaining about how hierarchical and conservative Asian culture is. Europe is considered "sophisticated, traditional and yet progressive" while Asia gets libelled as "backwards, primitive, yet modern and soulless."
It is partly because of this that Asians have become ashamed of being Asian.
However, I do try to counteract any rampant Euroboasting when possible. When one of my WF friends (2nd generation German-American)--a very good HS friend too--told me she had to "culture" her husband from Hong Kong, "you know, teach him about great literature and music", I responded, "Why should you? He's got 10,000 years of culture; you only have about 5,000." Needless to say, she wasn't too happy...!
Asian Dominatrix
Sunday, July 07, 2002 at 21:43:25 (PDT)
Asian Dominatrix:
Go to Littleton or Evergreen, CO...the entire communities have been built on white flight from Asians in California...it is either Asians are dirty, they are not real Americans or they take too many places in the University.
In 2000, white guys shouting racial slurs attacked three Asian women at three different times and during the Spy Plane crisis Asians were assaulted and asked to go back home.
Sociologist
Sunday, July 07, 2002 at 13:55:22 (PDT)
"At Cornell, a young Asian woman was knocked down and sexually assaulted by another group of white men shouting racial slurs just last year."
Actually it happened in 2000...and it involved at least three Asian women at different times...and in Duke in April 2001...they surrounded a sixth generation Asian American and wanted her to go back home to China.
Sociologist
Sunday, July 07, 2002 at 13:50:47 (PDT)
No offense. But, I really hate AM/nAf couples a whole lot. It makes me sick to my stomach. Although, that is the AM's decision. Oh well. It's a free country, and AM's have the right to date nAf's if they want to. That is just my opinion.
dsfbcbsijbdax
Sunday, July 07, 2002 at 12:40:32 (PDT)
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