Evolving East Asian Fetishization

A lot of analysis/personal accounts that I have read about East Asian Fetishization or “Yellow Fever” has been centered around the “sexotic”, which is to say the interplay between between sexualization and exoticization as it pertains to them being Asian in a predominantly White society.

• Dealbreaker: He’s Got an Asian Fetish
• The dangers of dating as an Asian American woman: ‘Fetishization isn’t appreciation’
• East Asian Women Say Fetishization and Stereotypes Affect How They Date
• Why Yellow Fever Is Different Than “Having a Type”

I still absolutely believe that there is a lot of sexual fetishization of East Asian women happening, but it isn’t happening in a vacuum. I think that there are cultural forces moving the Western cisheteropatriarchal beauty standard toward more East Asian.

• The East Asian beauty standard has definitely been influenced by Western beauty standards, but I think we are going to start seeing Eastern influence on the Western beauty standard, and perhaps even the development of a more prescient global beauty standard.
  • There are lots of East Asian people in the world and with those numbers comes influence. Via globalization there is a lot more awareness of East Asian media and culture as well.
  • A lot of the beauty standard is around pale and smooth skin, likely motivated by ideals about perfection and purity.

Not only that, I believe that Asian-ness itself is now being fetishized. It is less about the exoticness of erotic, but the proximity to cultural tastemakers (“the cool”). I believe this in part because of Hallyu (Korean wave of K-Dramas, K-Pop, etc.) and other rise of other forms of East Asian cultural soft power, like the popularity of Japanese anime.

• This seems different than stereotyping because I don’t think that the traditional stereotype is that Asians are all cool.
  • However it is still very harmful because it is still a powerful form of Othering.
• Asian = Cool
  • Ex: Thing, Japan Meme
  • Techno-orientalism, while mostly xenophobic and fear-mongering, may have tapped in the unconscious of Asian = Cool.
• In a time where whiteness as the dominant standard is being called into question, I think that many may try to get away from Whiteness. This is particularly made material by the rise of the online RCTA (“race change to another”) community.
  • Others may not go as far as to “change their race”, so having a partner or kids that are Asian could be a next step in their minds.
• There is also a snowball effect because there could be an associated status effect of having an Asian partner.
  • If more people in power have Asian partners, then people could start to desire it more because they see other people desiring it (mimetic desire).
    • Anecdotally speaking, I’ve seen that in some circles of Silicon Valley, an Asian partner is what is strived for or what is talked about as something to strive for.