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Asians in Porn

When we want to talk about the fetishization of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders we need to discuss the portrayals of ourselves in porn. Our portrayals in media matter in how many of us are perceived as we interpret media as realistic portrayals of life. Leaving out porn in our discussion of representation in media would be a poor decision as porn websites get more traffic a month than many of the worlds most popular apps, like Tik Tok or Amazon. So how have Asians been portrayed in porn in the past and present?

Yellowface in Stag Pornography

According to The Museum of Sex, stag films were "[produced in the] early 1900s until the late 1960s" and "were predominantly short, black-and-white, and anonymously produced". In order to look at the historical portrayal of Asian Women in porn, we have to look at how Asians are portrayed and racialized in early stag films.

Celine Parreñas Shimizu discusses and analyzes Yellowface in stag pornography in her book "The Hypersexuality of Race" in Chapter Four "Racial Threat or Racial Treat? Preforming Yellowface". She finds in her viewings of stag pornography that the sexuality of Asian women is racialized in these films. As the actresses portraying the "Asian" women in this films are white, stereotypical, orientialist props are used to racialize the actresses. Kimonos, chopsticks, flowing robes, and specific hairstyles such as buns are stereotypically used to racialize the actresses.

"Making fun of Asians indicates the place of Asian women in the stag film. Their bodies are made into cultural objects for the viewers’ pleasure and/or ridicule. Their difference provides visual pleasure that comes from seeing objects from afar: exotic items previously unseen for they belong somewhere out there"

Genitalia also becomes a sight for racialization as closeup shots of penetration (also known as "money shots") serve to not just show the act of sex but also the differences in skin color, and sometimes even the anatomy of genitalia to differentiate race.

Many of these stag films end with messages of racial harmony, using sex to show the indifference between races. Yet these films depend on racial differences to drive the stories and arousal in their films. The sexuality of Asian women is exotic and fetishized in order to turn racial panic (Yellow Peril) in racial pleasure (Yellow Pleasure) to appeal to a white male gaze at the time. Through this analysis, we can see how the sexuality of Asian women has been purposely differed and stereotyped in order to appeal to sexual fantasies of the white male gaze.

"the stags offer a pornotopia that says that sex universalizes racial difference" "Race signals perversity. If the sex acts are equally the same, as the films ultimately argue, the marketing of racial difference seems to be contradicted. If Asian women do not ‘do’ sex differently, what’s the big deal? Race functions as a part of the narrative in the commodification of sex"

Portrayal in Porn Today

We can see how the exaggeration and usage of race to translate to sexual pleasure is presently used in porn. "Asian" is often its own category in porn and represents more of just Asians having sex. Porn including Asians is often racialized and stereotypical, as Asians continue to be portrayed as "doing sex differently". Asian women in particular continue to be portrayed as small, submissive, infantile, and exotic. Not only have these portrayals continued, but the popularity of Asian porn has skyrocketed.

According to PornHub Insights for 2023, we can see how Asian categories or "Asian-related" categories (categories associated with Asian and Asian produced media) have been extremely popular in porn search history and viewership. For me this not only reflects a growing interest in Asian porn but may also indicate the consumership of sterotypical and fetishizating behavior towards Asian women today.

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Liyou's interview notes

originally I had planned to transcribe our interview and post it here, but my computer did not catch the interview audio :(. So I will be posting my interview notes in its place.

Liyou (she/her) is my close friend who is also a student at UW. She is Asian American but has lived in both America and Japan. She lived in Japan up until high school. Liyou is also a cosplayer who posts on social media.

_start of interview_

_asked her to first talk about some experiences she has had related to Asian fetishization_

Liyou recounted a time when a guy asked her out. She politely declined because she was not interested and the guy gave her a creepy vibe. When she rejected him, he told her that he only liked her because she was Asian. She thought he had only said that to hurt her, but he started dating another Asian girl two weeks later.

Liyou discussed how men, specifically a certain type of men which she describes as "white guys who like anime", seem to take more interest in her when she would mention that she had previously lived in Japan

Liyou describes the reasoning for men's hyper interest in Asia and Asian women as superficial and stereotypical as they assume Asian and Asian women are like how western media portrays

Liyou describes how she feels Asian women are oversexualized in media. She specifically mentions that Asian women are portrayed as freaky yet submissive, like a sort of sex slave.

Liyou describes her disgust with the normalization of the troupe of a sexually deviant and submissive Asian woman. She describes how western media takes pieces of culture and sexualizes them using the example of a Japanese school girl

Liyou does not like the usage of Japanese school girl uniforms in a sexual manner because she associates those outfits with children and her own experiences of going to school in Japan

I asked Liyou if she felt these stereotypes have effected her dating life and outlook on romance

Liyou says yes because when guys approach her or ask her out she is weary that they only like her for her race due to her experiences

Liyou mentions that these experiences are also not just related to her, she has seen it happen to her mom and friends.

We also discuss modern sites for asian fetishization. has it gone away? or has it just taken another form? I mention ABGs.

Liyou brings up that she feels people have taken to social media to fetishize and objectify not just Asian women, but also Asian men.

Liyou points to Kpop as an example as female fans take their obsession with male kpop idols to a next level by expressing that the only want a Korean guy as a boyfriend.

Liyou finds this ironic because she describes the culture in Korea as one that tends to put first born sons on a pedstal, causing some Korean men to be spoiled and rude. She uses this example to explain that not every Korean man is going to be just like your favorite kpop idol

Liyou also points out how western social media tends to take more of an interest in things simply because they are Asian/from Asia. She uses the example of makeup.

Liyou also feels that social media and the representation of Asian women sets untenable body standards. She feels the need to be shorter and skinnier

Liyou also recounts that people have commented on her boobs and curvy body shape and compares these features to other Asian women, "you have big [insert body part] for an Asian woman" "you are so [body descriptor, ex curvy] for an Asian woman"

Liyou also feels that Asians are used for a sort of appeal due to the sensualization in media. She describes how social media guides for "cute selfies" or "cute poses" will only use East Asians for pose examples. The poses might not be even cute or relevant to the topic but users use East Asians for that sensualization factor.

Liyou also mentions disturbing comments she gets on her social media posts as a cosplayer, with people "faceclaiming" her, or expressing that they want to be Asian like her

I express my confusion for some "faceclaiming" lingo and Liyou describes a whole transracial movement on social media that I've never heard of before

Liyou explains that this transracial movement has users doing facial exercises and manifestations in hopes of making themselves look "more Asian"

_end interview_

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Orientialism: the exotic, othered Orient

Edward Said, Shela Burney, Sylvia Shin Huey Chong

According to Said, Orientialism is “"systematic discipline [my emphasis] by which European culture was able to manage - and even produce the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post Enlightenment period”. Orientialism is an exotized and exaggerated fantasy of what is defined as the “East” or “Orient” in reference to Asia and North Africa. The “Orient” doesn’t exist, it isn’t a person nor does it replicate people. The Orient was created by the West to oppose their own image of the “Occident”. And because the West gets to define what is and isn’t “Oriential”, they impose power over the “Orient”. What is problematic about Orientialism is not just how it is an stereotypical representation of Asian and North African cultures, but how it inherently strips away the voices and cultures of the people it tries to represent, true to its imperialist roots. According to both Burney and Chong, this opposing image of the “Orient” only serves to other the groups it supposedly represents. As perpetual foreigners, the “American” in Asian American falls flat as Asians will never be American. They are “inherently” different.

The foreigness and fantastical imagery of the “Orient” is constantly projected onto the Asian American woman and her sexuality. There will always be something “special” or “unique” about us because of the exotic representations of our cultures. Our bodies, like the “Orient” are exotic spaces, foreign and meant to be conquered and tamed. 

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Pacific Islander Women and Femmes

cited: "Decolonizing API" Stephanie Nohelani Teves, Malie Arvin, "The princess, the convert, and the schoolgirl: Indian girls and Anglo desire in American literature, 1595–1934" Elizabeth J. Thompson

“Early European journals and travelogues characterized the Pacific as a sexual playground, noting that Pacific women were sexually available, existing in a kind of Garden of Eden with no mores or rationality.”

Although in many ways we label and group Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders together, it is important and essential to this topic of fetishization to acknowledge where they differ. Often Pacific Islanders are overlooked in AAPI centered events and topics. Unlike Asian Americans, who have a specific othered place for themselves, the “Orient”, Pacific Islanders don’t have a space of their own to show how they differ because under colonization, the expectation is for them to assimilate. This reflects the difference in history that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have and how they are portrayed.

Pacific Islanders are not “forever foreigners” like Asian Americans. They have been colonized and are therefore part of the Occident in Western eyes. Pacific Islanders are exoticized like Asian Americans, but in a different way. In fact, the fetishization and sexualization of Pacific Islanders is more similar to that of other Indigenous groups than Asian Americans. I found a text titled “The princess, the convert, and the schoolgirl: Indian girls and Anglo desire in American literature, 1595–1934” by Elizabeth J. Thompson which I feel commuincates ideas of the fetishization of Indigenous Americans that can be related to the fetishzation of Pacific Islanders. I especially like her categories of “the princess, the convert, and the schoolgirl”, which are tropes that convey the idea of the history of sexualization of Indigenous women and the usage of their image and bodies to justify/promote colonization. 

“It is imperative for us to underscore that the ongoing exoticization of the Pacific as a space of fantasy and freedom, as it was represented through European and American colonialism, is different than the ways Asian women are figured as representative of sexual excess rooted in Orientalism.”

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stereotypical portrayals.

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Prostitutes and War Brides: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Military Bases

"...this guy came up to my counter to check out his shit, he asked me if i was Asian I said yeah. I forgot what he said but he said 'I love Asian Women'. It just felt weird and uncomfortable. I don't know this man. He was definitely older than me. I’ve heard in the past from men talking about preferring asian women. it’s always felt off” - Isabelle Couto, Student

What the hell is up with old men and their obsession with young, Asian women? Isabelle's encounter reflects attitudes among an older generation who have only viewed Asian Women through lenses of war, immigration, and prostitution.

The United State's overreach abroad has also contributed to the portrayal of Asian American and Pacific Islander women as inherently sexual. Military bases have a history of serving as a popular customer base for prostitution and it is a common phenomena to serve abroad and come back with a so called "War Bride". Military bases can be found in many Asian and Pacific Islander countries and often have long histories with those places because of colonization and/or imperialism (sometimes in forms of "intervention").

Labor- Page Act of 1875, Portrayal as Prostitutes

The Page Act of 1875 was an act that portrayed Chinese women as prostitutes and therefore banned almost all Chinese women from entering the United States. This act was based on the stereotype of all Asians being prostitutes or sexually promiscuous and used that to justify limits on women immigrating from China. This resulted in very few Chinese women being able to immigrate to the United States during this period. For the women who could immigrate to the United States, many of them had to result to domestic or reproductive labor, including prostitution. This is due to the fact that for WOC, labor is racialized. In order to support their families, WOC need to also pick up jobs, which tend to be low paying, exploitative domestic/reproductive jobs. Asian prostitutes were also villainized as they were seen as threats to the white, nuclear family because they were seen as the cause for STDS/STIS and against Christianity/Christian ideals.

Notably, the Page Act of 1875 produced a Chinese bachelor society, which contributed to the stereotypical portrayal of Asian men as simultaneously sexual predators (specifically towards white women) and as asexual men. This production of a bachelor society also fed into fears about interracial marriage and race impurity.

"Sex Among Allies" Katharine H. S Moon

"Sex Among Allies" by Katharine H.S Moon discusses the US military presence in South Korea and the prostitution that revolved around these bases. Moon discusses how essential the prostitution of South Korean women was to US- South Korea relations as prostitutions were deemed "patriotic" and "nesscary" but shunned from Korean and American society. Prostitutes were seen as important because both countries believed that prostitution contributed to the morale of GI's. It was also believed that by having a sector of prostitutes "normal" South Korean women would be shielded from American GI's.

“Where there are soldiers, there are women who exist for them. This is practically a cliché. History is filled with examples of women as war booty and “camp followers,” their bodies being used for service labor of various kinds, including sex. Contrary to common assumptions in the West, prostitution is not “part of Asian culture”

Historically, we can see that Asians and Pacific Islanders have been designated the role of prostitutes in American military history, which explains the continued portrayal of Asian and Pacific Islander women as inherently sexual as they have been commodified/frame as sexual products for the American military.

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culture vultures.

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my interpretation of the stereotypical Asian American/Pacific Islander woman in media.