The Effects of East Asian Fetishization on Me

I sometimes catch myself trying to avoid dressing like anime girls. I can’t even define a specific style that all anime characters have, but sometimes when I see something in my wardrobe that I feel like an anime girl would wear, I try to avoid it. I’m not sure if this makes sense, but I guess I might feel that resembling the way East Asian women are portrayed in anime as little as possible will combat the negative stereotypes that anime has created.

It’s not a secret that over the past few years, K-pop and anime have taken a leap into the view of the Western media. With its popularity, it’s hard to imagine these forms of entertainment would have a negative impact on East Asian people. It’s spreading the appreciation for East Asian arts, right? While this is true, K-pop and anime also deepen the fetishization of East Asian girls/women through strengthening stereotypes about them.

While East Asian media is becoming immensely popular in the West, East Asian fetishization has long been established from histories of immigration.

The Page Act of 1875 was an early example of the stereotypes of Asian women. Chinese women were thought to have carried STIs.

Later, some European artists started to adapt the Asian stereotype of being innocent and submissive into their works. The Italian opera Madame Butterfly from 1904 by Giacomo Puccini, which is about a tragic relationship between a Japanese woman and an American officer, is one example. (I think it’s also worth mentioning that in most of these opera productions Butterfly isn’t even played by a Japanese woman). The opera is about an American officer who marries a 15-year-old Japanese girl for fun until he finds an American wife. He has a child with her, and later goes back to America and marries another white woman. Madame Butterfly is so sad that she takes her own life. Throughout the opera Madame Butterfly is portrayed as a sexual object just to please an American officer, without her own independence. Her whole character was staged as a passive, loving wife who’s whole world turned because of a white man. She took her own life because her husband got tired of her. This storyline normalizes and romanticizes cruel actions of fetishization into an opera. This speaks to the audience that it’s almost normal and one could get away with such actions that the man acted upon the girl. Madame Butterfly ended up being the one suffering the consequences, which cost her her life, while the naval officer found himself a new wife.

Hollywood eventually picked up on this theme and created films such as Full Metal Jacket and The Good Earth, both of which presented expectations of Asian women as obedient and servile. This is harmful to this demographic because the way they are presented in Western media to cater to the Western male gaze sets standards for them in real life. People begin to expect Asian women to act like this and feel entitled to their bodies, for they see men in films get this treatment. Now, sexualization continues to appear in entertainment, including as a rising theme in K-pop and anime.

Anime has been extremely popular this past decade and it only seems to be growing. Along with it comes the fetishization of East Asian women. In nearly every anime I browse through I can detect at least one scene that plays into fan service and could potentially worsen fetishization and stereotypes.

^This popular anime, Eromanga Sensei, is controversial on so many levels, but most definitely sexualizes Japanese middle school girls. One of the main characters (the girl on the right), is constantly portrayed in the stereotypical cute, innocent, but also sexual way. She speaks in the voice of a child (because she is one) but there are always scenes zooming in on her legs. This character is portrayed as “waifu material,” which means the type of girl that many anime fans would consider wife material.

A recurring theme of this anime is the sexualization of East Asian minors. It validates and elicits predatory behavior towards real life East Asian girls and women, because of certain ways the little sister of the male protagonist is portrayed. People will watch these animes and believe that the way they portray women and girls is okay. From this also arises the expectation that actual East Asian women have to act cute and innocent, just like how a sexualized child would act in an anime.

Alongside anime, K-pop is another highly popular phenomenon that potentially validates acts of East Asian fetishization. K-pop idols, especially girl groups, have to maintain a “pure” image. Jang Wonyoung (17) is arguably one of the most popular girl group members of K-pop today. Known by many fans as Korea’s “it girl,” she has been in the spotlight for years. She debuted when she was just 14, demonstrating a recent trend where K-pop agencies have been debuting younger and younger idols. Since they are so young, these idols are presented with a pure, innocent image, but with its popularity, these childlike traits have become what is “desirable” in East Asian women.

It’s probable every K-pop idol has been asked by their fans to do “aegyo,” which is a concept where they try to act “cute.” It’s a purposely childish act that usually includes pouting, baby voices and innocent facial expressions that infantilizes oneself in order to appear adorable.

Here’s a link to Blackpink doing it. I can’t speak on the idols behalf of whether they should do aegyo or not when asked to, for I know that it helps them with gaining fans both in Korea and internationally. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with aegyo as a cultural custom (and it’s certainly not my place to critique anybody’s culture either), the main problem I see arises is the way viewers of this content in K-pop take it as an invitation to infantilize these K-pop idols and East Asian people. The problem is the way aegyo is received by the audience. It is crafting a standard for regular East Asian women and men to act this way. It may even give people the idea that they should demand aegyo from their East Asian friends, thinking that all East Asian people would like to do it. Aegyo in my opinion is likely playing into the fantasies that come with East Asian fetishization in the West. I am not Korean however, and I am not at all in the positionaly to fully understand the culture of aegyo. I don’t think aegyo is bad as a custom at all- I respect everyone’s cultures. I just see harmful effects that come from sexualization of this culture in the West. The way it’s received by the West and East Asian fetishists is where the problem lies- not aegyo itself. The meek and childish act that people put on when doing aegyo mirrors the recurring theme we’ve been seeing with how East Asian women are fetishized.

The Western audience is influenced to think that this is the norm for these women, for it’s what’s largely presented in the industry. In actuality, every one of these East Asian women is unique and different. Though there is a huge difference between an idol and a regular East Asian person, regardless people start to fabricate a belief of how the typical East Asian women should behave based on what they see in Korean entertainment. The image that people have of these idols is pushed onto regular East Asian women as well.

The Dangerous Effects of East Asian Fetishization:

The National Network to End Domestic Violence reported that 41 to 61 percent of Asian women have said they experienced physical/and or sexual violence by a partner before, and that’s only those who reported it. Knowing the stigma in many East Asian cultures of having abuse problems, I suspect even more women have gone through this without documenting it.

The stereotype of Asian women being docile is forced upon them in their households, and in many cases their partners will take advantage of that. With the stigma in many East Asian cultures of having familial issues, it makes situations nevertheless more challenging for these victims.

Some questions about the basics of East Asian fetishization came up while I was constructing this article. Would K-pop and anime even be considered fetishization in East Asia, which is largely dominated by actual East Asian people? Though the objectification and fetishization of girls and women would still be a noticeable issue, what would racial prejudice in the forms of fetishization be like there? Would it even be a problem due to how big of a section East Asian people cover in these countries’ population? If the majority of people are already East Asian, how is it possible to essentially fetishize each other within this demographic? Is East Asian fetishization only a problem in the West?

It would be fantastic if one day, we could enjoy East Asian media without the negative consequences of objectification and stereotypes as an addition to its popularity. It’s unfortunate that such enjoyable genres can also be destructive. I hope that with time and activism, the issues of East Asian fetishization that arises from K-pop and anime will be talked about more.