Dear “not whitewashed”:
The root issue of it all is that Hollywood (and the general public), do not view Asian males as romantic leads - or romantic in general, or sexy, or desirable. We are still stuck with the nerd/geek/scientist/professional/gangsta/martial artist stereotypes that say we are smart, strong and talented but that’s it. I pose the question of matching an Asian male lead with the typical blonde starlet because the typical blonde starlet is considered and regarded as the most desireable in Hollywood and society. So why couldn’t an Asian guy be just as sexy and desireable as the blonde starlet?
My issue is also about representing diversity. The fact is that there are interracial relationships out there. You see Asian women with non-asian men in films and media. Why not the other way around?
okay, my typed up reply had an error and is completely gone so i’m going to give the abreviated version.
yes, i’m aware of the two recent articles on the lack of asian representation and all the racist caricatures out there. however, if you are aware of dr.hamamoto’s work he said that in his classes a survey showed not surprisingly most AF and AM didn’t find each other attractive, but the blonde-haired/blue-eyed media validated standard.
http://www.vconline.org/ff05/interviews/darryl.html
isn’t that something problematic and shouldn’t AF and AM find each other attractive first?
yeah, I discovered my spam filter was a little too strict after my own comment was rejected. I adjusted it so things should be fine now.
Ultimately my issue is more about diversity and the Asian male image in media, than about whether or not we as Asians should “stick to our own kind”. I feel like Asian males get the proverbial short end of the stick (pun somewhat intended) when it comes to “getting the girl” in films and tv. I mean I think that it is even more “taboo” to show an Asian guy involved romantically/sexually with a blonde ingenue than it is to see a gay/lesbian relationship. I find that a little messed up.
Let’s show the entire range of the Asian experience. Let’s break out of the box.
obviously, as another asian actor (not your age range so don’t worry) i’d be the first to agree we need a diverse media representation instead of the chop-socky eunuch caricature. it’ll be a tremendous day when they have more of the russel wong “rising sun” movies where the asian dude (maybe even full asian instead of half) does get the girl in movies like jason scott lee in “dragon: the bruce lee story” or “map of the human heart” or those based on Marguerite Duras’ “the lover” and “hiroshima mon amour” — that chick had a serious case of yellow fever BTW.
however, if you look at the asian demographics data from the 2000 census i posted way back, you’ll see that asians hardly “stick to our own” given the highest number and percentage of interracial marriages for any ethnicity out there, and this does not count living together/dating households. you’d be hard to pressed to say asians stick to each other like rice; maybe the few FOBs/FOPs but most “asian-americans” are so whitewashed they won’t have anything to do with other asians. that seems a bigger problem to me instead of getting paired up with the blonde chick. according to dr.hamamoto, there are hardly any sort of positive AF/AM couples in the western media so won’t you say that’s a problem?
and i’ve wrote this in the first reply that’s deleted so i’ll just quickly re-type here that why is it we need the media’s validation to confirm AM are sexy and desirable? what were we for tens of thousands of years before the existence of the mass media? isn’t it sickening that we need to have the media’s validaiton by proxy of the blonde chick in order to feel any sort of self-esteem? why not work on it ourselves first and show the media is wrong and racist? those who have high self-esteems tend to ignore the racist media, while those who depend on it are never happy. take the recent study showing girls as young as 9 are taking steroids to achieve the media ideal that never even exists if it wasn’t for digital airbrushing and photoshop shaving of body parts. that’s a greater problem in itself which i don’t want to debate right now, why should we AM need the media’s validation before we take charge of our sexuality and feel confident about it? the mass media is conservative and only reacts to whatever makes money, and we can show them that AM are desirable and marketable instead of waiting for godot trying to let the studios define who we are.
I hear you loud and clear. We need to work on our own issues and be confident in our own identity which will then eventually be reflected in the media. True, true. But I think it’s a viscious cycle. I think that Asian Americans form a sort of self-hate BECAUSE of the lack of strong, positive representations in the media. So that’s why we need those breakout roles which will redefine the Asian male image. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be through proxy of a blonde starlet.
well, in all honesty i can’t say i’m completely free of media’s whitewashing, as myself don’t even go after those “americanized” AF and find them unappealing. those who aren’t actively seeking whiteboys are usually so generic in appearance and thought that since they “act so white” why do i even bother with them when i can go after white-chicks? :p
FYI, avoid golden horde on aznlover.com (you’re even one of the featured “aspiring talents.)
http://www.aznlover.com/vbulletin/