Sexism, racism, and xenophobia oh my!

I’ve spent time discussing over at East Asia Blog the racism and xenophobia of East Asia in the context of the kerfluffle surrounding the China/Japan problems, but now I’m going to turn to something more close to home: Michael Lohman, Asian fetishism, and the xenophobia, racism, and sexism inherent in American communities.

A few months ago, feministing had a post about Michael Lohman’s assault on Asian women. On one of the feminist live journals I check out from time to time, I came across a post that linked to a forum called ModelMinority: A Guide To Asian American Empowerment. The article posted, For Asian Women, ‘Fetish’ is Less Than Benign, highlights the problems with American society at large while the comments show the problems that the Asian American community is part of.

American society seems to be perversely fascinated by “submissive” women, whether it be finding one, forcing someone to become one, or imagining one. This is not only nothing new but it is, arguably, an integral part of the Puritan ideals America was founded on. What comes into play here, however, is the stereotyping of all Asian women as the ideal submissive woman, the real facts about these women be damned. This notion is not limited to sexual perverts, but can hit anyone: friends, family, and any other people who are usually against racism. I cannot count the number of times I have heard people talk about how submissive Asian women are; I remember having a conversation with one of my cousins about how he wanted a Korean wife because Korean women were so submissive. My story is merely an anecdote and, like the Michael Lohman case, is easily dismissed as an outside incident.

Many might discredit this news as an isolated incident of perversity, but the fact is that there is a pattern in which Asian women are targeted for sexual fetishes, harassment and assaults, even on college campuses. For example, in 2000, two Japanese college women were abducted, raped, videotaped and told that if they told anybody what had happened, the videotapes would be sent to their fathers. The three white assailants admitted targeting Asian women precisely because they had a sexual fetish for “submissive” Asian women, but also because they believed that this same submissiveness and cultural shame would prevent the women from reporting the assaults.

The article begins to explore some of the reasons behind this fetishizing of Asian women coming, not surprisingly, to the media.

Though it may be difficult to identify the exact origins of violence targeted at Asian women, there is no denying that media portrayal of this minority population has had an effect on building preconceived notions and shaping stereotypes of Asian women as passive, exotic and more easily dominated. Images of the Japanese Geisha girl, the South Asian seductress and the China doll pervade American culture and add to the misconception of Asian women. This has had disturbing results. For instance, in 2002, Jennifer Lynn Gossett and Sarah Byrne conducted a content-analysis study of 31 pornographic Web sites that advertised scenes depicting the rape or torture of women, and found that nearly half of the sites used depictions of Asian women as the rape victim.

This fetishization of Asian women is, among other things, a manifestation of American racism/xenophobia. The Asian woman is objectified, dehumanized, and exulted as exotic and Other; an animal that needs to be tamed. While this process is not too different from what all women, regardless of race, go through, the element of Asian-ness adds something more to the Otherness/exoticism of these women. Perhaps, since women have long been the gatekeepers to morality and society, it would not be so far off to suggest that part of this fetishism might be a way to “conquer” the East. But that is mere speculation; I would have to do more research into the matter to support that kind of claim.

The fetishization described in the article is bad enough, but some of the comments on that thread are disturbing, to say the least. The star of this particular show seems to be someone with the charming handle sir_humpslot, who starts off the conversation with accusing Asian women of “yellow cab service” (another way of calling Asian women sluts), accusing these women of playing “dragon lady,” and saying that the women brought the assault on themselves. UsAgainstThem adds, “Lets face it, white guys are fuckin perverts, no matter what they look like, they are thinking it, and they still get stupid ass whoreientals.” Apparently he not only is qualified to speak for the whole of male white America, but also has the insight into the inner workings of Asian women, as whoriental apparently implies that it is “biological for all Asian women to want to be desired.” And he wonders why it is these supposed “white perverts” who get the women while he, who clearly has such high regard for the “stupid ass whorientals,” can’t get the time of day from these women. Right.

It is heartening to see that amidst the racism and woman hating, there are some voices that try to highlight the problems rather than dismissing it as “white men are perverts” and “Asian women are whorientals”:

mahod:

What a disgusting pervert. Some things can not be forgiven.

Incidents like this show that the fetishization of AA [Asian American] women and the demasculinization of AA men are two sides of the same coin, and both are hurtful racism. AA men and women must join and fight this together.

SeoulOne:

I don’t think Asian culture blames women for being victims of sex crimes, and in that sense I didn’t agree with the authors of the article. But yes, community support is important but prevention should also have the same amount of attention. It’s stupid INDIVIDUALS who blame victims (not culture), a few stupid individuals have commented on here as well.

You can’t tell me that of these 50 incidents it was the women’s fault all along. DFH, are you saying that if women aren’t taught self defense that it’s their fault if they’re ever assaulted? Why is it their fault that they were minding their own business when some sicko attacked them via bodily fluids?

Knowing that racism, xenophobia, and woman blaming are in no way limited to the Asian American community does not make me feel better about what I read in that forum. Being friends with many open-minded and women friendly Asian Canadians cannot erase the bitter taste of some of those posts, any more than being part of and having friends in the nebulous white collective makes me feel any better about the Asian fetishism, and the sexual assault that goes with it, that permeates American culture. In the East Asia Blog comments I said, “When you have such a strong discourse of Otherness then how can you expect to even begin moving away from xenophobia and racisim?” Here I feel I must add “sexism” to xenophobia and racism, for women are very much part and victims of the discourse of Otherness. So, when are we going to step away from these discourses and start seeing people who are different from us as, well, people?

Via feminist_rage.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Add to favorites
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

5 thoughts on “Sexism, racism, and xenophobia oh my!

  1. Update on this Michael Lohman sicko. I can’t believe he’s not going to jail–the guy confessed
    to his sick crimes.

    Lohman enters intervention program
    Will undergo counseling, avoids jail time

    Chanakya Sethi
    Princetonian Senior Writer

    Michael Lohman, the mathematics graduate student accused in April of committing dozens of sexual offenses against Asian women on campus, entered a pretrial intervention program Wednesday, avoiding a possible criminal conviction.

    “Michael is remorseful about everything that happened,” Lohman’s lawyer, Kevin Main, said in an interview today. “He feels bad for the people it happened to. He feels bad for his family … I say he’s accepting responsibility for it.”

    Lohman cut and took locks of hair from about nine Asian female University students without their knowledge or consent and poured his own bodily fluids — semen and urine — into the drinks of Asian women more than 50 times, according to police reports from April. Citing his actions as “deeply disrespectful of the rights of others,” President Tilghman subsequently barred Lohman from campus.

    Borough Police charged him with two counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of tampering with a food product, one count of harassment and one count of theft. The case drew media attention across the country, especially within the Asian-American community.

    By entering the pretrial intervention program (PTI), Lohman must pay a $125 fine and commit to a program of psychological counseling, according to a report in the Princeton Packet. If Lohman does not meet the requirements of the three-year program, he could face up to 18 months incarceration for each charge against him, the newspaper reported.

    Officials at the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and Borough Police were unavailable for comment this afternoon.

    According to the New Jersey Judiciary’s website, the PTI “seeks to render early rehabilitative services, when such services can reasonably be expected to deter future criminal behavior.”

    “The PTI program is based on a rehabilitative model that recognizes that there may be an apparent causal connection between the offense charged and the rehabilitative needs of a defendant,” the site continues. “Further, the rehabilitative model emphasizes that social, cultural, and economic conditions often result in a defendant’s decision to commit crime.”

    If the PTI is successfully completed, there will be no record of conviction, according to the site.

    Questions about Lohman’s mental health have surrounded the case from its beginnings. In April, Borough Police reported that Lohman was taken to Capital Health Systems, a hospital in nearby Trenton, after being arrested, though they declined to say why. A later police report indicated that Lohman was in a “facility” — not jail — though additional details were unavailable.

    Contacted by The Daily Princetonian when the news first broke, Michael Litchman, a visiting professor in the psychology department who teaches a course on abnormal psychology, said, “Obviously [Lohman] has some extremely serious issues regarding interpersonal relationships, self esteem and socially acceptable behaviors in public.”

    Though PTI is administered by the prosecutor’s office, defendants must apply and be accepted to enroll in the program. “There are certain offenses and offenders who would not be eligible for the program, and Michael did not fit into the category of someone who is ineligible,” Lohman’s lawyer, Main, said.

    “He’s certainly expressing a remorse for everything that’s happened,” Main added. “It’s not something that he’s getting away with. All around, it’s being handled in the most appropriate fashion for everyone involved.”

    Main stressed that had Lohman’s case been taken up at trial — and had he been convicted — he would likely have not faced jail time. “Essentially, he would have been looking at probation,” Main said. “By no means do I mean to minimize the seriousness of what happened, but these were fourth-degree crimes. Fourth-degree is as low as you can go.”

    Lohman’s former professors and colleagues, when contacted by the ‘Prince’ in April, remembered him as a gifted mathematician with a promising future.

    Professor Robert Perlis, who taught Lohman when he was an undergraduate at Louisiana State University and was on the committee that decided to offer him a scholarship, said he was “absolutely shocked and almost in disbelief that [Lohman] could do something like this.”

  2. Excellent. I love how society is so forgiving of those poor remoreseful criminals who terrorize women. I mean, they said their sorry, the crimes they committed weren’t that bad, and they’re going into counselling for it. What else could we want? [/sarcasm]

    I can’t believe this:
    If the PTI is successfully completed, there will be no record of conviction, according to the site.

    He gets off with a fine, a little counselling, and gets to have a scott free record? What about the women he hurt? What if he does this again?

    I can understand wanting to have this guy undergo “rehabilitation” but doing that without any punishment is like giving him a slap on the wrist while winking at him to let him know that he didn’t do such a bad thing after all.

  3. To Tekanji or appropriate member or staff:

    I am being harassed on a different forum by someone who goes by the handle “sir_humpslot”. This individual has a reputation as being an internet stalker.

    May I have your assistance, specifically I need his IP ADDRESS, so that I can file a formal complaint agasint him?

    Any additional information about this person would also be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you.

  4. [Administrator notice: This comment and all the links have been removed. While all different points of view are encouraged, this blog is not the place for flames or the promotion of hate sites.]

  5. Cynthia, I’m sorry but I can’t help you unless the individual comments on this website. I’m not an administrator at, or even a member of, the website that I link, so the only information I have on “sir_humpsalot” is the same that you have access to.

    If you’re being harassed on another forum, you need to contact that forum’s administrators.

Comments are closed.