I saw countless infographics, articles and guides to “dismantling” this fetish.
Thousands of voices rose up to condemn Asian American hate crimes, as well as the sexualization and fetishization of Asian women that led to this shooting.
Our very existence has been sexualized, without our choice. We know that the man who fatally shot these women had been clinically treated for a sex addiction, and was acting out against Asian women because, to him, Asian women are sex incarnate. While some individuals were quick to claim that this was a sexually-motivated act rather than a hate crime, we must question why the perpetrator’s desire to rid his world of sexual temptation had to be expressed as an attack on Asian women. Asian women are condemned to this fate, sometimes fatally so.Īfter the Atlanta spa shootings killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, the world turned its eyes on the Asian American community. Yet after this acknowledgement occurs, no steps are made to correct that assumption and empower us. What is most dangerous about the way that people like this express an “Asian” aesthetic is that it often involves an acknowledgement that the world sees Asian women as domestic, cute, little and, ultimately, rather helpless. And many of us see either overt Asian-fishing or an unjust co-opting of Asian trends within our everyday lives, without even realizing it. But make no mistake - it has the same consequences of demeaning our culture and people. Rather than overtly presenting itself as racism, “Asian-fishing” hides under the premise of being a “cute,” “aesthetic” trend. “Asian-fishing,” or when a non-Asian person alters their appearance to seem more Asian, has taken a dark turn in this century. In the few seconds that these people walked by me, I saw a variety of Asian trends and styles mismatched together with no care the knee high socks were clearly a product of the extremely problematic Japanese schoolgirl aesthetic, the jackets with random Japanese phrases came from the recent American obsession with Asian streetwear and the bun hairstyle was almost certainly from the kawaii aesthetic that was popularized in the U.S. This moment perfectly encapsulated how pop culture’s vicious trend cycle regularly fetishizes Asian women. While these things might sound insignificant to the typical onlooker, I can guarantee that almost every Asian person reading that sentence has sighed and rolled their eyes, because we have all experienced a moment where someone presumes that all of Asian culture can be boiled down to a chopstick-in-hair aesthetic. I saw groups of people bearing knee-high socks, jackets with nonsensical Japanese letters and phrases on them and high bun hairstyles littered with chopsticks. No, what these people were wearing was a reductive caricature of Asian culture. Now, I’m not talking about wearing a kimono, which would be overt cultural appropriation. However, I also encountered something that I had not been expecting on my Little Tokyo trip: groups of non-Asian people walking through the streets wearing what they apparently perceived to be “Asian” clothing.
Seeing elderly Asian couples walking through the square with grocery bags, young groups of friends chattering in a mix of Japanese and English and couples walking hand in hand with musubi sent a wave of relief over me. Luckily, the district was bustling with life. Returning for the first time since the recent rise in hate-crimes against Asian Americans, I worried that the Little Tokyo square would be desolate, that the wishing tree would be barren of notes, that the storefronts would be dark and dusty. It has great historical relevance for my Japanese American family, who felt welcomed there upon their move to California in the early 20th century, and I personally have many fond memories of skipping through its busy streets in my childhood - honey cake snacks in hand and an easy smile on my face. I was delighted to be back in Little Tokyo, a place which for me was imbued with value and memories. I recently made a trip into Los Angeles’ historical Little Tokyo district after being overcome with a craving for some authentic mochi.
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