Posts Tagged ‘interracial’

Random Thoughts on White Men Dating Asian Women, Asian Fetish, Yellow Fever, or Whatever Else You Want To Call It

August 23, 2007

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Relationships between white men and an Asian women seem to be not only quite common but also accepted far more than the other interracial relationships.  I’ve noticed most Asian women with white men at my undergraduate school, graduate school, and law school as well as the legal community and in my neighborhood.

Many of my Asian women friends and colleagues have told me that they don’t have a preference as to what race they date but that it’s usually white men who ask them out. [This has been my experience as well].

On the other hand, I know quite a few white men who prefer to date only Asian women. Their reasons are always the same. They prefer the Asian looks: straight black hair, slender builds, almond-shaped eyes, and smooth golden skin. They like the culture, the art, and the traditions of Asia. And they say that they find Asian women to be more feminine. Many of my Asian friends and colleagues [jokingly] say that these men have an “Asian fetish” or “yellow fever.”

Recently, I had a couple of conversations on the topic of white men who prefer to date only Asian women. So I looked online for articles and comments concerning this topic. Many of the articles on this topic were somewhat offensive, and many of them just confirmed my belief that certainly there are many men out there with “yellow fever,” whether they want to admit it or not (see, for example: Why White Men Prefer Asian Women and White Boy Speaks on Dating Asian Women.

I then came across an article, Tiny, Flat-Chested and Hairless: A White Man Extols the Wonders of Asian Women. However, like many people who wrote letters to the editor (see Letters), I found this article also to be quite offensive because she implied that men who prefer to date Asian women must be pedophiles. One of the first things that came to my mind when I read this article was that this author (a white woman) must not like Asian women very much (or white men who date Asian women, for that matter), since she exhibited a better-than-thou attitude.

So I got curious about the relations between Asian women and Non-Asian women. And wouldn’t you know it? There was an article exactly on point: Relations Between Asian and Non-Asian Women. The article points out that some white women have negative impressions of Asian women because they see Asian women either as sexual threats (the exotic temptresses/sexual predators stereotype), or objects of pity and condescension (the passive victims of sexist cultures stereotype), or as superhuman competitors for grades and promotions (the grinds-with-no-lives stereotype).

Yes, I know I’ve digressed. But what the heck? They’re just my random thoughts on Asian women, white men, non-Asian women, yellow fever, Asian fetish, and everything in between.

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