It IS amazing what ideas that a Western man has of the Asian/Eastern woman. I am Asian and have dated some Western, as well as European, men and the majority of them have this idea of a "subservient, submission" woman who WILL cater to their every needs, sexual or otherwise. I have tried "educating" them on the idea that a woman is a woman, no matter where they are from. Most, if not every, Western woman will not cater to their needs, so why do they think that Asian women are different. Sometimes I blame the porn industry, depicting Asian woman as women who will do everything to please a man, and other times, I just blame the man himself....for being narrow minded to believe such tripe.

But in the end, the things that I have done is just be myself and show these men that we are smart, strong women who cannot be judged for what they think is true, but be judged for who we are....just women and human beings.

Amen!

As to origins, I'm not sure the porn industry is to blame. A lot of the stereotypes that are common about Asian women have in many respects been around for centuries. Madame Butterfly (cited in this piece) was written in the early 1900's. I think it has more to do with the fact that the vast majority of interactions between whites and asians has been in unequal terms, as that of a colonizer and that of the colonized. The early white men that went to Asia were men of power who had the means to sexually exploit the women they found. Later, they outright colonized the areas they found.

Of course, it's not just stereotypes about women. The emasculation of the Asian man is pervasive. It's also not just in porn. To date, I have only seen one Hollywood movie ever where an Asian man gets the non-Asian woman, and it was Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. The Asian man in our culture can be a terrific fighter, a noble warrior, a monk, etc, but they can never seem to be sex-symbols. That and the Asian men are almost always undercut by new white guys in films.

Look at The Last Samurai. Tom Cruise goes to Japan, kills a guy, then lives with the wife of the guy she killed. And then she TOTALLY falls in love with him because he's so WHITE *swoon*. Or how about his samurai skills? So he trains by sparring with this guy who seems to be REALLY into swordfighting, and of course has been doing it his entire life. But what's that? Tom Cruise learns the SECRET ASIAN MIND TRICK of... concentrating?... and then beats him.

And of course, "Me so horny me love you long time" didn't even come from a porn film...

Watchreader:

1. You are right, the stereotype that Asian women are submissive flowers of feminine sexuality predates the modern porn industry by decades if not a century or two. Part of it, as you say, is because of colonialism. Another part of it is because the commercial sex industry was more in the open and more elaborate in many Asian countries than it was in Europe and the Americas. In Europe and the Americas, a prostitute was a prostitute even if some were higher-quality than the others. Nothing like the Japanese hierarchy of prostitutes existed. The combination of colonialism and a more developed commercial sex industry led to the idea that Asian women are submissive flowers of feminine sexuality.

2. There are other Hollywood movies where an Asian guy is with a white girl but they are from the late 1950s and 1960s, when Hollywood briefly tried to create Asian-American stars. Both movies have James Shigeta as the lead. One is called Red Kimono and has Shigeta with Natalie Wood. I forgot the title of the other but it is based on the autobiography of a Southern woman who marries a Japanese diplomat in the pre-WWII era.
I really do not understand why Asian-American men are seen as emasculated and not as sex symbols but it is very persistent. Part of it is because in reality more white men end up in relationships with Asian women than vice versa but it goes beyond on that. Hollywood seems very unwilling to cast an Asian man as a romantic lead.

I have seen one other example of an Asian male being with a non-Asian woman. In the pilot for Virtuality recently aired on FOX (great pilot I might add), Nelson Lee's character is married to Joy Bryant and they seem to be the two people getting the most sex out of all the characters on the show. It also had an interacial gay couple that were not effeminite or aesexual. I wonder if this is why FOX did not bother advertising the show and premiering the same night Transformers ame out. Were they freaked out by the idea of an Asian male actually having sex and not being some evil dominering man that a white dude had to rescue the lady from? Or maybe they were afraid the show was too intelligent period.

Oh yeah, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Leonarndo Nam was the boyfriend of Amber Tamblyn and sadly some people complained about him not being white.

The Replacement Killers, Chow Yun Fat and Mira Sorvino.

The One, Jet Li and Carla Gugino.

The Medallion, Jackie Chan and Claire Forlani

The Tuxedo, Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt

Kiss of the Dragon, Jet Li and Bridget Fonda

Romeo Must Die, Jet Li and Aaliyah

"I really do not understand why Asian-American men are seen as emasculated and not as sex symbols but it is very persistent. Part of it is because in reality more white men end up in relationships with Asian women than vice versa but it goes beyond on that."

It is a matter of the way people around the world, not just the West, attribute large, tall muscular bodies to manliness. Asian people, in contrast to much if not most of the world's population, are smaller. The petite Asian female may be seen as cute and sexy to non-Asians, whereas the same body type for Asian men may not be seen that way. (Yes, of course there are tall and large Asian people, but I'm referring to the rule, not the exception.)

Interesting how those Asian male leads are in hyper-violent warrior roles. I wonder if Hollywood can cast a nice sensitive Asian guy getting the girls. I wish they could.

I'm inferring that the writer is an Asian woman. She's making a big mistake in ignoring the fact that culture matters. Sure,as she says ,women are all the same, but the conclusion from that is certainly not that one can pair off with just anyone. Any more than pairing off within your "own group" with just anyone is OK. disigny

The bias could well be with my choice of movies, as opposed to bias in Hollywood. I prefer action movies, and don't much care what race, or gender, the star is, provided there's lots of action. In other words, I don't tend to watch movies with sensitive guys of any race trying to woo the girl, so I'm not going to remember them, to list here.

"I really do not understand why Asian-American men are seen as emasculated and not as sex symbols but it is very persistent. Part of it is because in reality more white men end up in relationships with Asian women than vice versa but it goes beyond on that."

It is a matter of the way people around the world, not just the West, attribute large, tall muscular bodies to manliness. Asian people, in contrast to much if not most of the world's population, are smaller. The petite Asian female may be seen as cute and sexy to non-Asians, whereas the same body type for Asian men may not be seen that way. (Yes, of course there are tall and large Asian people, but I'm referring to the rule, not the exception.)

Early Bird, most of the world's population consists of Asian men and women. China has 1.3 billion people alone, Indonesia 220 million, Japan 130 million, the Koreas together 75 million. Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines also have very large populations. If you consider India, Pakistan, and Bangledish you are dealing with nearly 1.3 billion more Asians. I doubt these billions of Asian men see tallness as a necessity to manliness.

Lee, I thought the subject was why do people outside of Asia not generally find Asian men sex symbols. I expect, and hope, that Asians find each other sexually alluring.

"If you consider India, Pakistan, and Bangledish you are dealing with nearly 1.3 billion more Asians. I doubt these billions of Asian men see tallness as a necessity to manliness."

Categorically, the inhabitants of the countries you list are in the Caucasian group if you indeed believe in the three group system as opposed to the earlier seven group system.

The issue of tallness is relative. Do you really think that Asian women have no preference for height in their mates?

Right on, alwaysquestioning. You said it -- it's not that Asian women are different, it's that white guys can have some WEIRD fetishes. I mean, Madame Butterfly is basically about how a white guy gets "fascinated" by an Asian girl, marries her, leaves her, and then marries another woman behind her back. She then obediently kills herself so he doesn't have to face what he did, and he takes "his" baby. It's gross that there are still guys out there who see that as how Asian women are, and porn definitely reflects this "ultra submissive to men" fantasy.

It's so refreshing, on the other hand, to hear it straight from women like you. I hope you're careful about the white guys you date. Most are probably great people, but if they don't like it when you "educate" them, toss that fish back into the ocean. There are plenty of good ones to replace him with!

Toria:

Right on, alwaysquestioning. You said it -- it's not that Asian women are different, it's that white guys can have some WEIRD fetishes. I mean, Madame Butterfly is basically about how a white guy gets "fascinated" by an Asian girl, marries her, leaves her, and then marries another woman behind her back. She then obediently kills herself so he doesn't have to face what he did, and he takes "his" baby. It's gross that there are still guys out there who see that as how Asian women are, and porn definitely reflects this "ultra submissive to men" fantasy.

Sorry to keep picking on you, Toria, but you've got the idea of Butterfly all wrong. Cio-Cio San was the tragic heroine of the opera, who trusted a duplicitous American male who never took her seriously. The opera successfully demonizes Pinkerton, while it pokes fun at his jingoism by parodying the Star-Spangled Banner while he sings.

Please give Puccini some credit. He said, late in life, that Cio-Cio San was the character he identified with most out of all of his operas.