The Alt-Right’s Asian Fetish

The Asian woman often lies at the intersection of two great myths. First, the model minority myth, which espouses Asians as a monolith of hard-working people who are sufficiently well-behaved to assimilate. Second, the myth of the subservient and hyper-sexual woman. The female Asian body becomes a place for consumption. It’s no wonder that Asian women have been the target of the alt-right’s fantasy: this dual appeal panders to the dangerous ideas the alt-right hold on misogyny, and of legitimising who gets to be accepted in a “white” society.

Yet, it’s easy to dismiss this as a mere fetish from a fringe group. These stereotypes of the Asian woman exists everywhere. They exist when someone has a “thing” for Asian women, they exist when you go on a date and you don’t know whether the person likes you for you, or your race, and they exist when Asian women speak up and people are taken aback because aren’t Asians meant to be super docile and submissive? These tropes are false and harmful. We must continue to reject it.

- Isabella