Hyphen Lynks: Transpacific Edition

Written for Hyphen on August 21, 2009.

Momentarily setting aside our overwhelming obsession with all things healthcare, let’s take a quick second to discuss the hot reform topic of yesteryear: immigration. President Obama may have put this issue on the backburner for now, but the Asian American Pacific Legal Center, along with dozens of other API organizations, are pressing the president to prioritize immigration reform with a week of action (August 17-22) designed to publicize the ways in which the “broken” immigration system is affecting API immigrants and their families. While immigration reform is widely (and understandably) regarded as Latina/o issue, this week of action reminds us how much our communities have at stake, as well. Not only do Asian-born immigrants make up more than a quarter of all immigrants in the US, Filipinos are the largest immigrant group in the US after Mexican immigrants (even in spite of the average 22-year wait for a visa).

In a perfect world, though, a 22-year wait for the sake of family reunification and the pursuit of the American dream wouldn’t land you in a place where…

• Asian American men are the fastest growing segment of plastic surgery users, their numbers having risen 290 percent in the last decade. [Evidently, they do it to "stay competitive," to which I must respond: You're the highest paid demographic in the United States -- wtf are you competing against?]

• Hate crimes committed against Asian American men are packaged and sold as comic relief by Paramount Pictures [Seriously Ken Jeong...making fun of your tiny Asian genitalia in The Hangover wasn't bad enough? One more stereotype-y film like these and you'll be a full-fledged, Bai Ling-level disgrace to the race.]

• Miley Cyrus goes to court for doing the slant-eye and then, to add insult to injury, the judge hearing the case has to recuse himself for accidentally(?) using an Asian slur during the hearing [i.e. he referred to the people in the photo as "orientals" and "non-orientals"]

But there is some good news for those who — even in spite of the above-mentioned bullshit — decide to migrate to our star-spangled shores in the hopes of joining our high-earning ranks: Thanks to Vonage, we now have free international calling!

Oh, and contrary to Ken Jeong’s sell-out example and an emerging generation of plastic people, there are still some (very hot) Asian men out there who have managed to make it big time without going under the knife or transforming themselves into a tired old steretype — check out this Tribute to the Top 10 Asian Sportsmen Around Today. Whether you stay or go, these cosmopolitan, Asian-born athletes are just a little reminder of what’s a-waitin’ back home!

Asian Girls and the Guys Who Fetishize Them

[Originally posted at Hyphen on February 11, 2009]

That Asian Fetish Myth thing is making news again…though this time no one’s debunking it.

Jaemin Kim has a piece up examining the dangerous implications of the “Asian Fetish,” in which she shrewdly links media representations of interracial dating with sexual violence against Asian women.  It’s a must-read if you hate seeing Asian women portrayed as the exclusive purview of middle-aged, balding white men and/or hentai-watching computer geeks.

The Onion also recently published a piece on this topic, albeit with a much simpler objective: a lampoon of the fetishizers themselves. In an article titled “Asian Teen Has Sweaty Middle-Aged Man Fetish,” the Onion attempts to put a satirical spin on the Asian Fetish Myth. But, while the premise has potential (even if the target is an easy one), the execution is less than consummate.

Here’s an excerpt:

At first glance, 17-year-old Misaki Nakajima seems like any other shy and submissive Japanese schoolgirl. She loves shopping, text messaging, and the color pink. But beneath her wholesome exterior lies a wicked secret: Misaki Nakajima is consumed by sexual fantasies involving sweaty, middle-aged American men.

“I can’t explain it,” said Nakajima, dressed in a pleated miniskirt and pure white knee socks. “There’s just something about American men who are at least twice my age and nearly three times my body weight that totally drives me wild.”

Sure, we get the punchline — how clever to point out the absurdity of “balding Midwesterners who carry most of their weight in their stomach” entertaining some strange sense of entitlement over women so obviously out of their league.

But for a parody of pervy old white men, we sure don’t get much of the pervy old white men… Instead, we get a pretty intense collection of hyper-sexual descriptions of 17-year-old Misaki’s miniskirt and “alabaster” skin. In fact, after a few paragraphs expounding on the bizarre sexual fantasies of this “virgin nymph,” the article starts to read less like a parody and more like the beginning of Asian-fetish erotica written specifically for “balding Midwesterners who carry most of their weight in their stomach.”

Maybe the Onion writers just can’t keep track of their own punchlines anymore…or maybe this fetishized image of the submissive Asian woman is so pervasive that even satire intended to criticize it becomes, itself, a source of the objectification.

I can just imagine what Jaemin would say about this, given the way her article takes other journalists to task for their borderline racist (and undeniably reductive) representations of Asian women and the men who date them.

Thoughts?

Good Friday

The Democrats are making my week (and I can’t help but feel a little smug about it, given how many people I know who refused to vote for him because “what difference does it make who’s in the white house?”).

Not only has Obama signed executive orders banning torture, and closing Guantanomo and CIA detention centers abroad  [read Amnesty Intl's Perspective on this], he’s also moved to increase government transparency and ethics.

He is also expected to repeal the Global Gag Rule (a policy that has long crippled health providers across the world, by denying U.S. governemnt funding to NGOs that provide abortion services or counseling) TODAY!! [Take a look at the UN's perspective on my the Global Gag Rule must be repealed].

The Senate hasn’t failed us either, passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by a landslide yesterday, 61-36. The bill restores women’s ability to challenge unequal pay. It’s worth noting that every single Republican woman on the Senate voted FOR the bill; just more proof that, regardless of political party, women usually do what’s best for men – and men, regardless of political party, shouldn’t be making decisions about women’s issues.

But my joy over the nation’s new leadership is, unfortunately, tempered by my disgust at Arizona’s [Oh AZ, when will you cease to disappoint?!]:

• Kyl and McCain, of course, voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• Now that our beloved Janet Napolitano has left us for the Department of Homeland Security, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back university funding provided by her while she was governor – meaning that, after the huge budget hit that ASU took a couple of months ago, we are looking at even larger one [read President Crow's statement] that will likely lay off thousands more employees (undoubtedly including myself), raise tuition and fees dramatically, and maybe even close one of our campuses. [More handiwork of Russell Pearce, mastermind behind last year's attempt to cripple public education in Arizona, Senate Bill 1108].

Two steps forward, one step back, huh?