Feminists versus Yellow Fever

In my preceding post, I pointed out that Feminists never complain about the phenomenon known as "Jungle Fever", where White women engage in romantic and sexual relationships with Black men.  If pressed, I suspect that the Feminists would characterize Jungle Fever as "empowering", "therapeutic", as affording White women a sense of "agency", and possibly a "transgressive practice" that serves as a "potent weapon for Feminist politics."  The only complaints seem to come primarily from Black women (who apprehend a serious diminution in their potential breeding pool), and from ignorant White racists (who just don't know any better, and who perceive their sorry little world as crashing down around them).  However, when it comes to "Yellow Fever" (where White men and Asian women lust after each other), it seems that the Feminists can scarcely contain their fury.  Here is Ann Gus on the subject:

...The WMAW phenomenon is itself one steeped in Patriarchal values, sexism and racism. Ever since its breakout, it has caused white men to trick millions of Asian women into relationships in which they’re being heavily taken advantage of.

Asian women, are you too narrow-sighted to realize that the only reason the most privileged and devious group on this side of the Milky Way, White men, are trying to get all up in your wonton soup, is that they are heavily fetishizing you?

If that is the case, let me explain something you, and you better listen, it could save your lives.

White men who chase after Asian Women are afflicted with something called, in laywomen’s terms, Yellow Fever, Asiaphilia or Hentai-ism...

...Upon contraction of Yellow Fever, White men suddenly stop going after strong and beautiful white women like myself, and start trading us for our shorter, black haired and more yellow-hued sisters, namely, you people. Yellow fever is classed as a mental aberration and causes White men not only to date outside their own race, but also to see you Asian women as nothing but dehumanized, servile Toshiba robots...

 

Fascinating perspective.  And, we're fetishizing now, are we?  And, why would this word not apply to White women who like Black cock?  Or, for that matter, to White men who only lust after White women?  In a study of dating, Ray Fisman found:

...Women of all the races we studied revealed a strong preference for men of their own race: White women were more likely to choose white men; black women preferred black men; East Asian women preferred East Asian men; Hispanic women preferred Hispanic men. But men don't seem to discriminate based on race when it comes to dating. A woman's race had no effect on the men's choices.

Two wrinkles on this: We found no evidence of the stereotype of a white male preference for East Asian women. However, we also found that East Asian women did not discriminate against white men (only against black and Hispanic men). As a result, the white man-Asian woman pairing was the most common form of interracial dating—but because of the women's neutrality, not the men's pronounced preference...

See?  At least according to Mr. Fisman, men aren't racist, but women are.  And, it was the Asian ladies' preference for us that made White-male/Asian-female coupling so common.

The Feminists aren't going to embrace these conclusions, are they?  Of course not.  A writer, who goes by the pseudonym Moe at the popular Feminist site Jezebel, wrote:

Are "Asian Fetishes" A Myth? We're Gonna Have To Go With "No"

A bunch of economists are once again putting their decades of rigorous study to a societally optimal end and dispelling the "myth" of the Asian fetish. In studies of speed dating communities, it turned out, Caucasian men showed no racial preference at all for Asian women; in fact, male speed daters showed no racial preferences whatsoever!  To which I call, "bullshit." (Remind me to tell you about my "Asian" phone sex persona one time!)...there are a few reasons some dudes prefer Asian women, and it starts with the fact that they are very rarely unattractive, and they are even more rarely stupid, and they are even more rarely than that fat. They have really nice skin and they're not afraid to tell you yours looks bad...

...I lived in Hong Kong for two years and I think I got laid once. And that would be why I no longer live there!

Outside of that singular occasion, those two years in Hong Kong must have been bloody awful!  Here is the lovely Karisa Blake on being a female expatriate in Bangkok:

On the one hand, I fit the image of the “ideal Western woman,” i.e. white, young and blonde...

...But on the other hand, as a farang woman, I am almost completely undateable. Western men want Thai women and Thai men want Thai women. The general conception is that Thai men consider western women to be too aggressive and they disapprove of our sexual openness. More importantly, Thai men are dedicated to their families and if their parents disapprove of dating farang women, then they will never ever date a farang...

...In the words of my American friend, “Farang men like Thai women because they do all the things that farang women won’t do.” He and other farang men have told me that Thai women are very accommodating and will do all the cooking, cleaning and housekeeping that farang women expect to share with their partner. If I begin dating a farang man, he will inevitably choose a Thai girl over me. I know a few Western couples in Bangkok, although they began dating before moving to Thailand. It’s frustrating to be totally and utterly undateable in a city filled with skybars, VIP movie theatres, beer gardens and world class restaurants and clubs.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Although female farangs are generally undateable among expats and locals, this doesn’t mean that we’re unattractive to all men! For instance, backpackers find us interesting because we live in Thailand. The thing about backpackers, though, is that a day or two after you meet them they’re not in Thailand any longer! It’s hard to find love with someone who is only in your country for a few days.

Farang is the Thai word for "foreigner", and is a term that visitors to Thailand learn almost immediately.  And, the tables definitely turn in Thailand, don't they?  An exquisitely beautiful and charming lady like Miss Blake would have her choice of adulatory, drooling men, anywhere in the West.  In Bangkok, she is reduced to sporadic coitus with transient backpackers who are looking to save a few bucks.

For Psychology Today, Dr. Goal Auzeen Saedi wrote:

What Is Exotic Beauty? Part II: The Case of the Asian Fetish

...For those of you also in the dark ages: In a nutshell, the Asian fetish is commonly ascribed to White males who serial date Asian women....

...In my previous post, I explored the idea of racial microaggressions, and how the notion of an exotic beauty is an example of this...The notion of exoticization enters the picture, and in some cases specific groups such as Asian women may become targets.

In my review of the literature, I was only able to locate two studies explicitly examining the Asian fetish. In the first study, an economist examined dating preferences of Columbia University students and found no evidence for such a phenomenon. Instead, East Asian women were discriminating against Black and Hispanic men, but not White men, hence accounting for a possible increase in the number of White male-Asian female pairings. But multicultural researchers have suggested that to get to the real heart of the matter, qualitative research approaches may yield more descriptive data.

The second study was in fact a qualitative analysis. Conducted by Korean-American Bitna Kim, who had witnessed the common pairing of White males and Asian females among family and friends, she set out to understand the phenomenon. In her interviews with non-Asian males, she found many held positive stereotypes of Asian women...These women are intelligent, educated, successful, family-oriented, and beautiful....

...However, Kim noted, "Almost all of those interviewees started with a sentence that negates Asian women as submissive, but, nevertheless, they all mentioned, in one way or another, that Asian women are submissive: ‘Women serve the men; they do things for him that the western culture has long forgotten. It's hard to pinpoint, and I'm not saying that western women don't take care of their men, it's just the way Asian women go about it. The presence, the mannerism, the movement of their bodies that are attractive to some of us. And again these things I am speaking of don't pertain to all Asian females, but this is the general belief or idea, I think that ... we men want a princess in public and a whore in the bedroom. Simple as that....'"

In her analysis, Kim notes that the interviewees were making broad sweeping statements about Asian women based on a handful of experiences. And the most shocking realization was the fascination of non-Asian men with Asian women fetishes and fantasies. She writes, "That Asian women are submissive in the bed, I think, is a misconception, and I do not think the misconceptions are limited to this issue."...

In her initial quest for participants, Kim came across one male who explained Asian women are commonly paired with unattractive White males who cannot acquire beautiful White women. Hence, Asian women are implicated to be substitutes...Further, he explained that Asian women go for White men because they symbolize power and dominance.

For those who may argue this was a singular study and sample, acclaimed multicultural researcher Derald Wing Sue also found evidence for the Asian fetish. In a study headed by Sue, researchers found multiple instances where Asian women were being exoticized and sexualized. Women spoke of White men approaching them and explicitly communicating their "fetishes" of subservience and sexual pleasing. The researchers noted, "Nearly all members of the focus groups interpreted these microaggressions as: Asian women are only needed for the physical needs of White men and nothing more"...

...in Kim's (2011) study, one male asked why it is okay to be attracted to blonde women, without a "blonde fetish" label. This is a fair question. Yet she explains that one of the primary issues with the Asian fetish is the objectification of women, and devaluation that occurs as a result.

So does this mean that we can't appreciate or be attracted to something that is different from ourselves? Am I positing that true love does not occur bi-racially? Of course not. It simply means that that complacency with the status quo can be potentially harmful....

Dr. Saedi has a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, and she is able to express her disapproval quite elegantly and very creatively. Yellow Fever is a fetish, that involves racial microagression and exoticization.  And, she doesn't seem to like Mr. Fisman's idea that the preferences of Asian women contributed to the large number of White-male/Asian-female couplings.  Otherwise, she would have to accuse Asian chicks of having fetishes, of practicing racial microagression, and of engaging in exoticization  (two very big words that don't even pass the spell-checker).  Since women (and especially non-White women) can never be faulted for anything in the Feminist world, it has to be about White men exoticizing, sexualizing, and doing other horrible things to innocent Asian ladies.  If a guy likes blondes, then that is fine--the "blonde fetish" is perfectly normal.  But, if he likes Asians, then he is objectifying and devaluing them.  We can't be complacent with the status quo, and are behooved to do something about it.

Here is Dr. Ravi Chandra, with an Asian male perspective:

..Most men with Yellow Fever – know they have Yellow Fever.  They know they are more attracted to women of Asian ethnicity, but they are often unclear why.  They might casually attribute it to looks, but when you probe more deeply, many can admit fascinations with Asian culture, or that they harbor stereotypes about Asian women, stereotypes which are blatantly racist, misogynist, and devaluing...women of Asian ancestry are frequently exotified and stereotyped.  They are “submissive, man-pleasing ‘sex kittens’”, or in a more palatable phrase I’ve heard “have great personalities.”  What does that mean, exactly?  Usually, it means that Asian women are perceived to be less aggressive, more docile and self-sacrificing – more obedient, in other words.  They are perceived as less likely to challenge their partners and be compliant.

Stereotypes are projections made in an attempt to organize the mind, exert power, and cope with and control a world that feels threatening or is not fully understood.  They distort reality and create an environment of misunderstanding and even oppression... Any person projecting the stereotypes of submissiveness, etc. onto an Asian female is likely to get a sound rebuke.  Racist and polarizing assumptions limit possibilities and invite backlash.  Why would the person with Yellow Fever need to project limiting stereotypes onto their partner?  First, the stereotype becomes the object of desire.  Why is that?  Everyone’s different, but suspects include a consuming need for control, an inability to integrate one’s own feminine capacity, an immature or wounded masculinity, and outright racist attitudes and even a thirst for exploitation of “the other”.  Stereotypes are held steadfastly in ignorance of reality, and the worst culprits manifest in creepishness, perversion and sociopathy.

The problem is that these relationship “choices” are being made in a context that usually places White men at the top and Asian men at the bottom of a scale of manhood.  Some scholars speak of a ‘hiergamy’ or hierarchy of manhood that is tied to race and power in society.  Thus white men generally have more choice and say in asserting their desires, and are often seen as more desirable by potential partners by virtue of their status in society.  And women have power to choose as well, and are essentially the gatekeepers to relationship.  When either men or women choose to marry into the dominant culture, this can naturally raise questions of connection with versus devaluing of their own ethnicity, questions that must be dealt with actively.  Underscoring this point is the fact that Japanese Americans have the highest outmarriage rate of any Asian ethnicity – this is attributed to factors including that they have a long history in the United States, and the effects of Internment during World War II, leading to internalized shame and a wish to assimilate and not stand out...

Most Asian and Asian American men and women do choose to marry each other – but the Asian-White pairing tends to be an area of scrutiny, because of the underlying issues of racism and power differential.  Asian American men often feel like they have been emasculated by popular culture, while Asian American women are portrayed as desirable, exotic beauties who will cater to their man’s every whim.

Some may feel that “love” is above politics – but sexual politics that involve race, sexism, class, religion, and so on are powerful forces...

Dr. Chandra is just as vexed about White men chasing Asian tail as Miss TruthAngel07 (discussed in my preceding post) is about White chicks sleeping with, cooking for, and marrying Black men.  But, of course, with his doctoral degree, Dr. Chandra is much more stylish about it.  While the venom is the same, without a doctoral degree, and without having read a heck of a lot of Feminist literature, Miss TruthAngel07 doesn't quite have the quiver of clever clichés from which to draw.  Dr. Chandra's arsenal is very impressive.  We're blatantly racist, misogynistic, devaluing, exotifying, and stereotyping our "submissive, man-pleasing sex kittens" who have "great personalities."  We're creepy, perverted sociopaths.  The Asian women who love us are devaluing their own ethnicity and suffering from internalized shame.  And, Asian men are left emasculated.  Just try writing some of this drivel about the Black-male/White-female phenomenon.  I double-dog dare you!  Psychology Today certainly wouldn't publish any more of your material, and neither would any of the Feminist rags. 

As for the "submissive, man-pleasing sex kittens" with the "great personalities":  who doesn't want a submissive, man-pleasing sex kitten with a great personality?

If Dr. Chandra really prefers an aggressive, outspoken White Feminist over a submissive, man-pleasing sex kitten with a great personality, then more power to him.  Maybe he can try charming and seducing the notorious Big Red.

If he succeeds, then absolutely no-one is going to call Dr. Chandra a race traitor, nor label him as blatantly racist, misogynistic, devaluing, and stereotyping.  "Exotifying?"  We wouldn't hold it against him if he managed to indulge in a bit of exotification.  I don't know how he could accomplish the task without at least a certain amount of exotifying.  "Creepy, perverted sociopath?"  Well, maybe.  But we certainly wouldn't call him any of that other stuff.

A lot of other Patriarchs, though, might find one-or-more of these K-Pop stars to be a bit more appealing.

These gents obviously enjoyed gazing at them.

As did many other Patriarchs who posted YouTube reaction videos.  K-Pop stars are already quite exotic, so we don't have to go to the trouble of exotifying them.  Which removes one complaint from Dr. Chandra's list.

If they turn out to be submissive, man-pleasing sex kittens with great personalities, then so much the better.  Now, what was it that I was blogging about?

Well, here is the perspective of an Asian-American Feminist (whose nom de plume is Lauren Smash):

...Yellow Fever is more of a social disease. Carriers of Yellow Fever are obsessed with Asian women to the point where they rarely, if ever, date or enter into a sexual relationship with any other women. They actively seek out Asian women to satisfy their romantic and sexual desires. I can usually tell almost immediately if I’m dealing with someone who has this fetish for Asian women. Sometimes, the guys are extremely vocal about it and proudly proclaim that they have it. Most of the time, it is framed as a preference by men who simply “prefer” Asian women over other women. Either way, I can’t take this phenomenon as some kind of compliment. I sure used to, though...

...For a while, I admit that I tried to use this “yellow fever” thing to my advantage. It’s incredibly easy to seal the deal with a dude that exclusively has a thing for Asian women. You just tell them “what kind of Asian” you are, tell them the words you know in that language, and giggle. Giggle a lot. That’s it! But, the reason why it is so easy is because these guys really don’t care who I am as an individual. I could just as easily be another person entirely. The only thing that matters to these guys is that I’m Asian and everything else is unimportant. And, once I figured that out, it made me sick to my stomach. But, even after I stopped entertaining the Yellow Fever nonsense, the hits just kept on coming. I have dealt with a seemingly endless array of shit that is directly linked to my Asianness. Here are the top 5:

• When I was Internet dating a couple years ago, a guy told me that he had found me by searching for only Asian women. Well, that’s one way to use the Search function on okcupid.
• “What kind of Asian are you?”and “Say some things in your language,” are deemed suitable ice breakers and pickup lines for men who hit on me at parties, clubs, and bars.
•  I’ve been told on multiple occasions that I could make a living in porn because I am an Asian woman with big breasts. Every time it was meant as a compliment.
• An ex once casually told me that he almost exclusively watches Asian fetish porn, assumed that I would be okay with it, and then got upset with me when I hinted that he might possibly be doing something racist.
• I opened the laptop of ANOTHER ex to check my email, and I saw that he had searched “asian”on a porn site and was halfway through a video with a bunch of white guys ejaculating on an Asian woman’s face

...Not all men are like this and there are plenty of people I’ve been romantically involved with who have never treated me this way. I am actually in a relationship right now with a great non-Asian guy who would never pull things like this and doesn’t harbor those harmful stereotypical ideas about Asian women. But, ever since the last two experiences I listed, I still constantly question if any of the other people I’ve been involved with or who have found me attractive only felt that way because I’m an Asian woman. And, that’s a hard thing to shake. I still feel like I have been objectified, exotified, and hypersexualized because of my race and sometimes I have trouble trusting people who find me attractive because of that.

People with Yellow Fever don’t want to get to know Asian women. In fact, I would venture to say that they don’t care very much about Asian women at all. They are more concerned with the idea of us–  the notion that we are adorable little kawaii girls or demure lotus flowers or geisha-like sexual objects. Their attraction to Asian women relies on stereotypes that turn us into exotic sexual objects instead of real women. Stereotypes turn people like me into things that are measured against a caricature, and they strip me of the individuality that, frankly, I would probably have been more freely assigned if I were white. It is dehumanizing at best to constantly be compared to a stereotype and to have people chasing you not as a person, but as an embodiment of the stereotypes that they use to define you...

A Feminist's typical complaint is that she can't leave the house without having Patriarchs gaze at her and objectify her sexually everywhere she goes.  For a hawt young Asian chick in the United States, of course this predicament is only going to be compounded.  But, just wait another ten years, especially after you've put on some weight.  The gaze and objectification will fade with your looks, and the problem will cease to exist.

I find Miss Smash to be quite hypocritical, though.  She seems to feel that White men shouldn't actively seek out Asian women to satisfy their romantic and sexual desires, but how many Asian men's romantic and sexual desires has Miss Smash ever satisfied?  From her writing, I'm guessing none.  An Asian boy (especially if he was the same kind of Asian as she is) wouldn't have asked her the same embarrassing questions that White boys ask.  A nice Asian boy wouldn't have objectified, exotified, and hypersexualized her.  And, a nice Asian boy would certainly never watch any bukake or other Asian fetish porn.  If Miss Smash is so disappointed with White boys, then why doesn't she stick with Asians?  Perhaps she is the one with the fetish, and she is just projecting?  It is starting to look as if Mr. Fisman had a point, and the Feminists (especially the Asian Feminists) are in denial.

For a somewhat more extreme point of view, check out Sunny Woan's White Sexual Imperialism: A Theory of Asian Feminist Jurisprudence: 34 pages about how evil White men are, particularly with respect to Asian women in Asia.

For another perspective, here are the results of a survey from the Isaan region of Thailand:

More than three-fifths of women in the Northeast surveyed in an Isaan poll said they wanted to marry farang husbands, mainly because of their wealth, faithfulness and respect for women.

Of 484 women living in 19 northeastern provinces surveyed in March and April, 61 per cent said they deemed Western men rich, 53 per cent said they thought farang men were kind and respected women more than Thai men, while 16 per cent said they wanted to marry and live abroad.

Englishmen were the favourites, gaining 32 per cent of respondents' votes, while Americans and Germans trailed behind with 21 and eight per cent respectively.

The survey found that women who were already married to foreign husbands spent a large portion (20 per cent) of their monthly income on electricity and water bills as their homes tended to be large and full of domestic appliances - another factor that attracted single, northeastern women.

For the International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Orathai Piayura, a Thai woman, wrote an interesting piece called Thai Women, Cross--Cultural Marriage and Sexuality, which was based upon interviews with Thai women who had married Englishmen and moved to London.  Apparently, "widows and divorcées in Thai society are looked down upon as used or unwanted objects. Marrying a farang is not only a good opportunity for these Thai women to live in a society with higher living standard but also an opportunity for them to feel the value of their bodies."  It appears that just about anyone who would marry a Thai woman who was divorced, widowed, or who was a single mother would be doing her a big favor just by marrying her. Englishmen tend to be partial to women with at least a bit of sexual experience (compared to their Asian counterparts, who largely prefer virgins, or who might only consider marrying a virgin). So, the markets clear, and everyone is happy.  On top of that, "marrying English men was found to be preferable to marrying Thai men due to better sexuality and living standard."  Hey, I won't argue with that.

Shall we conclude with some Kipling?

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"

 Come you back to Mandalay,
 Where the old Flotilla lay;
 Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay,
 On the road to Mandalay,
 Where the flyin'-fishes play,
 An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!

'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,
An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat—jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,
An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:

 Bloomin' idol made o' mud—
 What they called the Great Gawd Budd—
 Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud!
 On the road to Mandalay, etc.

When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,
She'd git her little banjo an' she'd sing "Kulla-lo-lo!"
With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek agin my cheek
We uster watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.

 Elephints a-pilin' teak
 In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
 Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!
 On the road to Mandalay, etc.

But that's all shove be'ind me—long ago an' fur away,
An' there ain't no 'busses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay;
An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells:
"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."

 No! you won't 'eed nothin' else
 But them spicy garlic smells,
 An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells;
 On the road to Mandalay, etc.

I am sick o' wastin' leather on these gritty pavin' stones,
An' the blasted Henglish drizzle wakes the fever in my bones;
Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand,
An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand?

 Beefy face an' grubby 'and—
 Law! wot do they understand?
 I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land!
 On the road to Mandalay, etc.

Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be—
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea.

 On the road to Mandalay,
 Where the old Flotilla lay,
 With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!
 Oh the road to Mandalay,
 Where the flyin'-fishes play,
 An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!