Last updated 12/27/2024
This is mostly about East Asian people, particularly women.
Blanket content warning for racism, objectification, and dehumanization. Many of these links may discuss racist violence, misogynist violence, colonialism, war, and various types of sexual violence.
1. General and various
This Is Not Japan has the tag ”fetishization”
Fat Black Women Stereotypes and Sexualized Asian Women | Writing With Color (January 2015)
Korean Sex Worker: Intersection of Race and Sex Work for East Asians | Writing With Color (March 2021, discusses stigma against sex workers)
Sex Workers, Exotification & Intersectionality | Writing With Color (January 2015)
Please anon...listen carefully | This Is Not Japan (November 2015)
The Issue With Fetishization: Asian American Acceptance by Gabrielle Choi | Medium (March 2021)
Avoiding Fetishizing East Asian Men | Writing With Color thread (October 2020, mentions homoantagonism and real-person shippers)
Victoria's Secret Does It Again: When Racism Meets Fashion by Nina Jacinto | Racialicious (September 2012, archived here and here)
I'm sorry that happened to you but I'm glad you got yourself out of that situation | This Is Not Japan (October 2015, contains a racial slur)
When "Going East" Is Code for "CHERRY BLOSSOM RACISM" | Aida Manduley (September 2012, uses some derogatory terms for sex workers)
I've found recently that posting photographs of my face seem to gain unwanted attention of both kpop obsessed fans...and anime obsessed people | This Is Not Japan (December 2015)
how do you respond to people who say that the Japanese are perverse | This Is Not Japan (July 2014)
for the person asking if asians can fetishize asians... | This Is Not China (April 2014)
A gay man of colour seeks his place in a white gay world by Al Boyo | Xtra* (June 2015, mentions homoantagonism)
[video] TikTok and Asian Fetishization | Elliot Sang (March 2022, discusses Western imperialism and how gendered sexual stereotypes affect Asian people, references slavery, quotes some derogatory terms for sex workers)
Models Describe Anti-Asian Racism in the Fashion Industry by Shivani Persad | Teen Vogue (October 2021)
Purity Culture is Also About National Purity: Anti-Asian Hate and Purity Culture [Audio] by Bradley Onishi | Religion Dispatches (March 2021)
[video] Where Did The "Asian Fetish" Come From? | PBS Voices (May 2021)
One Wicked Winter Night by Mary Jo Putney (book review by Aarya) | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (September 2019)
seeing people erase the racialised sexualisation that Sessue Hayakawa faced in Hollywood | stardust-rain (reblogged version from April 2017)
Reflections on Eleanor and Park: What it Means for White Authors Writing White-East Asian Interracial Couples | Writing With Color (April 2023)
My thoughts on koreaboos | lostintrafficlights (December 2012)
2. Asian women being sexualized and treated as a fetish
Yellow Fever: Dating As An Asian Woman by Lauren Smash | Persephone Magazine (January 2012)
The Madame Butterfly Effect by Patricia Park | Bitch Media (mentions a fictional suicide and a real-life sex crime)
White Sexual Imperialism: A Theory of Asian Feminist Jurisprudence by Sunny Woan | SSRN (March 2008)
Asian women: Rape And Hate Crimes by Jaemin Kim | HuffPost (March 2009, contains somewhat graphic descriptions of rape)
What Is Exotic Beauty? Part II: The Case of the Asian Fetish by Goali Saedi Bocci Ph.D. | Psychology Today (April 2011)
The Exploitation of Asian Girlz by Scot Nakagawa | Race Files (August 2013)
Stop fetishizing me: Why being an Asian woman in the dating world has never been harder by Paula Young Lee | Salon (August 2014)
Yellow Fever: The Exotification of Asian Women by Ravi Chandra M.D. | Psychology Today (April 2013)
A Sociologist's View On The Hyper-Sexualization Of Asian Women In American Society by Ailsa Chang and Nancy Wang Yuen | National Public Radio (March 2021)
Not Your "Geisha Doll": Why We Need To Stop Skirting Around Racist Sexual Violence by Aiko Fukuchi | The Body Is Not An Apology (September 2019)
How Rape Culture And Racism Combine To Hurt Asian Women by Rachel Kuo (January 2017)
Available on Everyday Feminism and Huff Post
East Asian Women Say Fetishization and Stereotypes Affect How They Date by Steffi Cao | Teen Vogue (June 2021, uses a slur)
Why Yellow Fever Isn't Flattering: A Case Against Racial Fetishes by Robin Zheng | Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2016, mentions issues regarding LGBTQ+ people, which includes a transmisogynist slur)
The Roots of the Atlanta Shooting Go Back to the First Law Restricting Immigration by Mari Uyehara | The Nation (March 2021)
Why Yellow Fever Is Different From "Having A Type" by Chin Lu | The Bold Italic (June 2013)
5 Ways Racist Fetishes Put Asian Women in Serious Danger by Rachel Kuo (December 2015)
Available on Everyday Feminism and The Body Is Not An Apology
White Sexual Imperialism | A & M (May 2016, discusses sexual violence and racist violence in detail, contains a racist historical image as part of contextualizing the imperialism in play)
Fetishized, sexualized and marginalized, Asian women are uniquely vulnerable to violence by Harmeet Kaur | CNN (March 2021)
Exotification – I'm Not Your Pretty Little Lotus Flower | Crates and Ribbons (July 2013)
The Alt-Right's Asian Fetish by Audrea Lim | New York Times (January 2018)
I Was Taught to Be Proud of My Tight Asian "Kiki" – Here's Why I Wish I Hadn't Been by Anis Gisele (July 2016, warns for ”eating disorders, rape, forced prostitution, minor attraction, violence against transgender women” at the links, also talks about pain during sex and feeling pressured to keep going to please a partner)
Available on Everyday Feminism and The Body Is Not An Apology
Asian Women, American GIs, and Modern Rape Culture by Miz Jenkins | Persephone Magazine (May 2011)
I Give Up On Trying To Explain Why The Fetishization Of Asian Women Is Bad by Kristina Wong | Huffington Post (January 2018)
Don't Discount Evangelicalism as a Factor in Racist Murder of Asian Spa Workers in Georgia by Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches (March 2021, discusses a mass shooting, harmful Christian teachings regarding sexuality and how such beliefs are tied to rape culture and violence against women)
Dear Asian American Girls, Let Yourselves Be Angry by Rachel Simon | HelloGiggles (March 2021)
Hollywood Played a Role in Hypersexualizing Asian Women by India Roby | Teen Vogue (March 2021)
"Ugh, well he only dates Asian girls. You're so lucky you're Asian." | Tumblr Thread (November 2012)
Fetishized and Shamed–As an Asian American Woman, I'm Doubly Hurt By Body Standards by Pia Velasco | HelloGiggles (April 2021, discusses fatantagonism and disordered eating)
White Sexual Imperialism: "Me Love you long Time" by Sam Louie | AsAm News (August 2013)
The Dehumanizing Logic of All the 'Happy Ending' Jokes by Anne Anlin Cheng | The Atlantic (March 2021, discusses a mass shooting motivated by racialized misogyny and some of the awful ways people responded)
Dear White Guys: Your Asian Fetish Is Showing by Brittany Wong | HuffPost (May 2019)
[video] YIKES: Asian Fetishes | Not Even Emily (November 2021, mentions a mass shooting motivated by racialized misogyny)
3. Decontextualized and sexualized "Geisha" aesthetics
This Is Not Japan has the tag "This is not Geisha"
when you dress up yourself or your models as that "geisha" fantasy... | This Is Not Japan (March 2016)
4. Sexy Japanese schoolgirls (blanket warning for sexualization of children)
[video] let's talk about the Japanese Schoolgirl | Mina Le (January 2021)
Is it cultural appropriation to wear Japanese school uniforms as costumes or kinks? | This Is Not Japan (June 2013)
Sexualizing Japanese schoolgirls is not okay | This Is Not Japan (June 2013)
5. Weeaboos
This refers to non-Japanese people who obsess over Japanese culture.
Weeaboos are offensive because... | This Is Not Japan (October 2014)
Don't Call Yourself a Weeaboo | knuckle
so i'm chinese, and i used to be a huge weaboo... | This is Not Japan (August 2013)
whenever they find out i have japanese heritage...i would be treated like some rare diamond object or something... | This Is Not Japan (August 2016)
What do you think of white girls who glorify hentai? | This Is Not Japan (July 2013)
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