The portrayal of Asian women in the Media to Real life

The West’s perspective of the ‘East’, and the cultural power they have to dominate how ‘Others’ are  defined, is seen in the proliferation of stereotypes in the media, and how this in turn, influences the ways in which people perceive and treat me. The legitimisation of the Model Minority myth, that all Asians are ‘math geeks’ is seen in film and television constantly, such as the portrayal of Ming in MTV’s ‘Awkward.’ Whereas Jenna, her best friend Tamara, and even love interest Matty get narrative arcs of their own, Ming is the ‘side-kick’ whose only concern is getting good grades. Her smartness is synonymous with her race. Similarly, many people tell me that I am a ‘bad Asian’ because I am not good at Math. By not conforming to the stereotype, I am, in the eyes of the West, not representative of my race.

Alternatively, Asian women are seen as hyper-sexualised and exotic ‘Others.’ Hollywood ‘lad’ films such as ‘The Hangover’ often show successful men surrounded by multiple beautiful Asian girls, all of them docile and silent, sensual and submissive. They are, in the eyes of the West, sexual objects to use and exploit. A film I watched recently was ‘Hector’s Pursuit of Happiness,’ in which Hector leaves his long-term girlfriend to travel the ‘Far East’ and elsewhere. In China, he finds himself a nameless, beautiful Asian girl, who willingly complies to have sex with him. She has no other function (or narrative arc) besides being a sexual device for the White man. The idea of Chinese women as exotic, subservient and willing to ‘do things’ other women can’t is perpetuated in images such as these, which in turn inform the ideologies people form in reality. 

“Yellow Fever” is an oriental fetishism pervasive in online dating, which affirms skewed ideas of the sexual appeal of Asian women. The assumed stereotype of Asian women as exotic, docile and subservient have rendered them the “most popular” race on OkCupid (AYI Survey, 2015).  Friends have told me about people on Tinder who tell them they “love their culture.” In reality, it is not the ‘culture’ people love, but the West’s own perspective of what the ‘East’ represents, and what they can gain from the sexually adventurous ‘Other.’ Thus, many Asian women don’t know if people approach them online because of who they are, or because of the delusional ideologies of race they represent. These are some of the many effects that Orientalism has, when Western tropes and images of the ‘East’ in the media translate into real life.