Weighing on my Mind
- Andrea Cabezas
- Nov 22, 2020
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 22, 2024
The fetishization of Asian women is a descendant of Western Society’s embrace of stereotypes and the misogyny and devaluation tied to them. Asian Pacific-Islander American (API/A) women seem to agree on the effects it has on their self-esteem and issues with body image. One’s body image holds a significant space in self-confidence, as it involves how a person perceives their own body and attractiveness in comparison to societal standards.
“I didn’t really identify as Asian, because I never saw Asians that looked like me in movies growing up,” said Liz Villeneuve.
Faltering confidence in this perception can lead to several mental health issues and disorders, including dangerous eating disorders and behaviors that can negatively impact physical health. As a minority group constantly interacting with the Western world, this population is also bound to suffer repercussions of a torn identity and the situation their juxtaposing cultural values create; in this case, an unfortunate perplexing concept of beauty and the customs tied to it. But just how do these factors of needless sexualization of racial minorities and opposing cultural beauty standards feed into changes in body image and risk of eating disorders?
Media, especially from the Western world, has a large influence over how different communities and countries are perceived, due to Hollywood’s global outreach. These perceptions play a huge role in both creating and perpetuating exaggerated and offensive stereotypes that harm Asian communities.
“I didn’t really identify as Asian, because I never saw Asians that looked like me in movies growing up,” said Liz Villeneuve.
Villeneuve, a Kinesiology Major at the University of Central Florida struggled to identify with her Filipino background due to stereotypical portrayal of API/A women in the media. She believes Western beauty standards to be heavily rooted in colonialism, and their recognition of other races highly based on pop culture.
“If you look at ‘Charlie’s Angels’, Lucy Liu is very feminine, very petite. You have Constance Wu who is also portrayed as the typical fair, petite and dainty Asian beauty standard.”, she commented. “You just kind of see the same cookie cutter vision of how an Asian woman should be in America.”
“If you look at ‘Charlie’s Angels’, Lucy Liu is very feminine, very petite. You have Constance Wu who is also portrayed as the typical fair, petite and dainty Asian beauty standard.”, she commented. “You just kind of see the same cookie cutter vision of how an Asian woman should be in America.”
Indeed, Western media has had somewhat problematic portrayals of Asian women, as they typically reinforce the “China Doll” and “Dragon Lady” archetypes. Both harmful perceptions, the “China Doll” is seen as submissive and overly emotional, while the “Dragon Lady” is cold and threatening; both harshly categorizing a diverse minority and stripping them from a complex human nature, rather than just simply soft or aggressive.
This extreme black-or-white media representation exoticizes and brings an inherent social dominance over Eastern women. Eventually, which Hollywood stereotype you fall under is irrelevant, for both archetypes are submissive to Western society as a whole. Even the hostile “Dragon Lady” is chained to a standardized image, and automatically victim to Western ideals. Asian women are stunted by their expectations to be docile and comply with the dominant Westerner in media, and this is reflected in a mirrored societal demand.
Neither of these representations even begin to encompass the diversity found within the API/A community, nor does it do a good job at acknowledging their cultural strengths and beauty. Instead, by placing this community into a box of what Asian women are expected to be, it limits all that they can be. The exotification of these women eventually leads to their objectification, condemning them to fetishization. Once objectified, there is a harsh physical objective placed upon API/A women which heavily influences their self-perception and warps the image of what they should look like or want to look like.
Sarah Truong*, a Vietnamese-American junior studying at UCF recalled being fetishized in her workplace at a young age. Working as a waitress, an older Caucasian man began making inappropriate comments about her perceived ethnicity and kept trying to “subtly” touch her back. Her co-workers and boss were there to protect her and help avoid further interactions, but it didn’t take away from the reality of being blatantly preyed on. “Each instance of fetishization I’ve had, it’s usually an older white man”, Truong recalled, “I feel they fetishize that youthful, slim look that Asians usually have. East Asian women are seen to be submissive already, and that demeanor is what appeals to them.”
Instead, by placing this community into a box of what Asian women are expected to be, it limits all that they can be. The exotification of these women eventually leads to their objectification, condemning them to fetishization. Once objectified, there is a harsh physical objective placed upon API/A women which heavily influences their self-perception and warps the image of what they should look like or want to look like.
The “China Doll” archetype strikes again. The use of infantilizing and sexualizing of those of Asian descent proposes a non-existent need for Western interference. It creates a fallacy that the youthful and dainty call for a supposedly “stronger” caretaker, someone who will protect and guide them. This false notion creates an imbalanced power hierarchy, where East Asian women become a “lesser than” contender, and in fact become more vulnerable to being needlessly sexualized solely on the basis of racial features.
Since slimmer and petite body types have an unfortunate connotation of being easier to control and direct, fetishization of Asian women is directly a product of Western society and its savior mentality. The slimmer and petite figures become the expectation, a sort of mold that Asian women are counted on to fit into. This raises concern for how women of the API/A community might try to force themselves into this standard given its connections with Eastern beauty standards and eating habits.
Eastern Beauty Standards and Food
To categorize Eastern beauty standards as one sole ideal would be dismissive of its diversity. The Eastern world includes so many different cultures and distinct beauty standards, it’s hard to group them into one. To focus on East Asian beauty standards for women, some generalized expectations include conveying a gentle and delicate femininity. These expectations are achieved through keeping to an overall minimal look: “natural” smooth skin, large doe eyes, a slim heart-shaped face and slender body type. To a certain degree, there is a desire for a more childlike and innocent appearance. These features contrast heavily from the Western desire for a fierce and heavily altered look.
In what ways do Eastern beauty standards reinforce this unjust submissive role for Asian women? This topic runs into conflicting ideas. The demand for a minimal slender look calls for need to adjust relationships with food and eating habits. Since physical slenderness is directly tied to a number of factors, including genetics, athletics and eating, this can often play a role in developing certain ideas around food that can be psychologically damaging.
Caiti Bradbury, a psychologist at the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at UCF who specializes in working with API/A students and eating disorders, explained how food is a large part of the relationship dynamic in Asian culture.
“It keeps us connected in the family, it is very much involved in everyday life, even as a sign of love and expression. It’s very much like a love language in this community,” Bradbury commented.
This ritualistic and celebratory importance of food often contradicts Eastern beauty standards. Growing up, Villeneuve remembered constantly receiving comments from aunties on her eating habits. Even at a young age, remarks about her eating too much and not being able to resemble other Asian children because of it persisted at the table. On the other hand, there’s also a nagging idea of needing to be appreciative of food and not letting it go to waste.
“My mom was strict about finishing everything on our plate, because otherwise we would be ungrateful, which is pretty funny because you either eat too much, or if you don’t eat everything, you’re selfish, too,” said Villeneuve.
This ritualistic and celebratory importance of food often contradicts Eastern beauty standards.
This dichotomy can only result in a crisis of having to sacrifice meeting beauty standards, or appearing to be grateful. Paired against the process of assimilation to American values regarding growing body positivity and constant food waste, it tears down the understanding of what should be valued overall, and leaves one even more vulnerable to becoming submissive to society’s expectations and ideals. Painfully, these familial and cultural ties to body image hold the power to grave mental and physical health consequences.
Caiti Bradbury understood Eating Disorders (ED) to be anything related to one’s food habits that get in the way of their day-to-day life. Whether it be Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating or Body Dysmorphia, all of these disorders negatively interfere with relationships and lifestyle.
Bradbury described EDs as hard to detect in other people, mainly because the measures they take are often very secretive and hidden. However, if you do ever grow suspicious of someone potentially having developed an ED, it's important you express your concern in private without trying to force or pressure them into therapy or eating, since this can cause them to become more distressed.
Having struggled herself for many years with an ED, she knows how cultural conflict often is enough to distress one’s own body image. She described Asian cultures as being very shame-based in expressing emotion. This can lead to feeling trapped, and pushes for a need for control.
“Eating Disorders are about Control, people with ED are able to choose what to put and purge out of their body, it helps them cope with the emotions they don’t feel they’re able to express in the family,” said Bradbury.
She also explained how it's common in Asian communities to comment on others’ physical appearances, something both Truong and Villeneuve have shared experiences about.
“My family has complained about me working out a lot, I have bigger thighs than Asian women adhere to, said Truong. “I’ve explained that ‘I’m healthy, I feel good, and I look good, and you’re not going to change that.’”
Villeneuve mentioned, “I would always restrict myself or not want to eat in front of my family because I knew that they would comment on that.”
Bradbury goes on to agree that a lot of her own issues stemmed from topics of cultural shame, control, beauty standards, and submission:
“Expectations and pressures may lead to submissiveness (…) you can feel very trapped and unaccepted, I know I did. Because you can express yourself in ways that don’t fall in line with your culture.”
Luckily, Bradbury manages the Empowering Asian Voices group therapy at CAPS, a group she started in order to reach out to those going through the same struggles she had.
“I created this space for their voices to be heard. Growing up, I know how distressing it was to feel like you don’t have a voice. I think there is a reason I came into this field, because I struggled a lot, and my cultural background definitely had a part in it too.”
She encourages anyone struggling to not be afraid to reach out and speak to someone for help. College students have campus counselors they should reach out to for resources, and group therapies can really help you to realize you are not alone.
It is an unfortunate insight to understand the ways in how Fetishization of a minority group can push one far enough to develop an Eating Disorder and an extreme perception of their own body.
Alongside cultural pressures and expectations, Western vs. Eastern beauty standards and even Cultural relationships with food, these combined factors are extremely harmful to the API/A community.
Even so, there are ways to try and break free from the chains Western society has bound Eastern Women to. Truong recommends not being afraid to speak up and challenge the submissive stereotype by trying to be honest and upfront, starting with the family.
“Asian Women aren’t really seen to speak out and all. I have been rebelling against that recently, especially since going to college,” said Truong. “Luckily with my parents, I can have that conversation, even though it might get frustrating and we may argue, but I’ve become more vocal about it”
Villeneuve offered advice to other girls going through body pressures and beauty ideals:
“Realizing that we all have our own perceptions of beauty, and one can respect another’s way of feeling beautiful and happy with themselves, I think that is reaching the unreachable, and I would call that my beauty standard. It's learning to love yourself versus striving for an aesthetic”.
Fetishization is a major social issue today, and whilst we work together to tackle it and bring down stereotypes, we can start helping ourselves by breaking free from these expectations.
*Name changed upon request.
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