I’ve recently seen a lot of confusion regarding yellowface. People saying “what? I’m not yellowfacing!” or “It’s not racist, I really love X culture!” so I’ve decided to make this post on it.
Yellowfacing is any time a non-Asian person changes a physical aspect about themselves in order to try to look Asian*. It doesn’t have to involve literally painting your face yellow. Most of the time that’s not involved at all. It can be as simple as putting on a wig and colored contacts or doing full-blown “geisha makeup”. It’s literally anything done in an attempt to make yourself look Asian. There’s also internet yellowface where people pretend to be Asian online.
*Specifically East, South, and Southeast Asian. I see dressing up as Western Asian being put into the category of brownfacing. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.
"Why is yellowfacing bad?"
I really wish I didn’t have to be explaining this in 2015. Yellowfacing is racist as hell because it turns a real life group of people into a costume. It also reduces us to whatever key features someone decides is ~Asian~. If you’ve never had to face the hardships specific to the different groups of Asian people, and never will, why should you get to pretend to be us? You can take off the wig and wipe off the makeup. We can’t.
Yellowface has also been used historically to exclude Asians from acting roles while still being able to cash in on “exoticness”. Asian characters were more often than not played by white people in makeup and prosthetics. You can see this in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Conquerer, The Teahouse of the August Moon, and countless other films and plays. Seriously, there are so fucking many. Yellowface is still being used to this day to give white people Asian roles, notable examples being Cloud Atlas, Ushi Must Marry (a ridiculously racist film to begin with), and a performance of The Mikado in Seattle (also ridiculously racist).
These are all examples of yellowfacing:
(This fucker got surgery look like that)
They are all trying to “look Asian” in one way or another. Some examples are more extreme than others, but it is all harmful and gross.
"But I really love [insert Asian country] and this is how I want to show my respect for it!"
No. There’s nothing respectful about harming the people of the culture you supposedly love so much.
"I’m just taking ~inspiration~ from the traditional makeup of X culture!"
Why do you have to try to make everything yours somehow? Is it really that difficult to appreciate something you’re not part of from afar? Don’t fuck around with aspects of a culture that isn’t yours to fuck around with. You wouldn’t copy from someone else’s artwork without permission, would you?
"But my friend from [insert country] said it was okay and they don’t mind!"
But do they really think it’s okay or are they just trying to make you happy? Do they have issues with internalized racism? And when it comes to people who live and have grown up in countries where they are the ethnic majority they’re not going to recognize racism the same way as those who are diasporic will. A Japanese person born, raised, and living in Japan isn’t going to be as perceptive to racism as a Japanese-American, for example, because they don’t face racism in their everyday life. Also is this person your friend or your excuse to be racist?
"Is it okay to cosplay as an Asian character?"
Yeah, that’s totally fine to dress up as a fictional character as long as you aren’t trying to make yourself “look Asian” while doing it. If you want to use makeup to give yourself big, anime-looking eyes though, go right on ahead.
"What about gyaru and ulzzang?"
This one really depends. It’s not bad in and of itself, in my opinion. I see people doing gyaru and ulzzang makeup without being problematic, but I also see a hell of a lot of people doing it as yellowface because their intention is to “look Asian”. I’m usually pretty suspicious of non-Asians who do this kind of makeup because it’s often indicative of them being weeaboos/koreaboos.
So in conclusion, don’t fucking yellowface. Don’t do it. If you’re not Asian, you don’t get to pretend to be. It upholds a long history of racism and makes a mockery of our struggles, cultures, and identities by turning us into a costume. If you’re someone who has done this don’t get all stubborn and defensive. Instead: stop, apologize, and learn from your mistake. It’s not going to magically redeem you of your actions but you can still make yourself a better person.
izzy806
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jacobvanloon
