The emasculation of Asian men in popular culture
2016 02 03
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I had a very interesting conversation today with a gentleman of Asian extraction, about the emasculation of Asian men in Western culture. Asian men can be doctors, computer nerds, quirky sidekicks, and even tyrants or sage ancients - but they can't be artists, they aren't everyday folk, and they sure as hell never get the girls. This actually came to my attention a couple of decades ago, and it's something I pay attention to whenever there's an Asian male lead in a film or TV show.
In Star Trek: Voyager, Ensign Harry Kim was actually the first Asian male in a major role that I ever noticed "getting some". It was a refreshing change from decades of Asians as shopkeepers or martial arts masters. Then, during that same time period, I watched The Replacement Killers starring a very blonde Mira Sorvino, and a very Asian Chow Yun-fat; and what do we get in the final scene - not sex, not even a turned back and a walk into the sunset - she hugs him. She hugs him and walks away. Now if that isn't relegating someone into a non-sexual stigma, I don't know what is. It would have been better had they not touched and just walked away from each other.
A hug in that context is like leaving a waitress a ten cent tip - it tells the world you are barely good enough to be acknowledged, and aren't even good enough to be ignored.