Yellow Fever: The Exotification of Asian Women
(Only a mag like psychology today would come up with a word like "exotification"--and that term "rice picking"? OMFG.)
Most men with Yellow Fever – know they have Yellow Fever. They know they are more attracted to women of Asian ethnicity, but they are often unclear why. They might casually attribute it to looks, but when you probe more deeply, many can admit fascinations with Asian culture, or that they harbor stereotypes about Asian women, stereotypes which are blatantly racist, misogynist, and devaluing. As this article by Goal Auzeen Saedi, Ph.D. points out, women of Asian ancestry are frequently exotified and stereotyped. They are “submissive, man-pleasing ‘sex kittens’”, or in a more palatable phrase I’ve heard “have great personalities.” What does that mean, exactly? Usually, it means that Asian women are perceived to be less aggressive, more docile and self-sacrificing – more obedient, in other words. They are perceived as less likely to challenge their partners and be compliant. (Saedi has another nice article on how exotification is a microaggression.)
Stereotypes are projections made in an attempt to organize the mind, exert power, and cope with and control a world that feels threatening or is not fully understood. They distort reality and create an environment of misunderstanding and even oppression. As Anais Nin wrote, “we see the world not as it is, but as we are.” Any person projecting the stereotypes of submissiveness, etc. onto an Asian female is likely to get a sound rebuke. Racist and polarizing assumptions limit possibilities and invite backlash. Why would the person with Yellow Fever need to project limiting stereotypes onto their partner? First, the stereotype becomes the object of desire. Why is that? Everyone’s different, but suspects include a consuming need for control, an inability to integrate one’s own feminine capacity, an immature or wounded masculinity, and outright racist attitudes and even a thirst for exploitation of “the other”. Stereotypes are held steadfastly in ignorance of reality, and the worst culprits manifest in creepishness, perversion and sociopathy.
Debbie Lum’s award-winning film “Seeking Asian Female” will air on PBS’s Independent Lens on May 6th. She is ramping up to that debut with a series of webisodes exploring the issues involved in interracial relationship and attraction at http://www.theyreallsobeautiful.com. I sat down with Debbie during the recent 2013 CAAMFest (formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival), where she won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature. That interview is here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-pacific-heart/201304/yellow-fever-the-exotification-asian-women
= new reply since forum marked as read
Looking for Hispanic/Latina women. Now admittedly, I am attracted to them as well, but I'm *different!* 
Anyway, when I was kicking around grad school, I was the only white guy in a lot of the Hispanic/Latin clubs. I joined them because one of my undergrads was Spanish, and my small undergrad didn't have all the different organizations that my bigger grad school did.
Hispanic Heritage Month was coming up, and I wanted to do some research on famous Hispanic/Latin women to see if maybe we could turn it into a discussion/exhibit (we had several different events during the whole month). I Infoseeked (Google wasn't around yet) Latin Women and found this Latin Women Listserv, which was full of men who just knew that American women had been ruined by society, and to find their dream, submissive - and of course, much younger - dream wife, they had to go south of the border. Pretty far south - Colombia was the hot spot then (and probably still is). Well, being the wise-ass, know-it-all 20-something with too much time on my hands, I joined and for the most part trolled, but I got to know them all pretty well. It was gratifying that the vast majority of men who were successful were the kinds who didn't treat their women as property and were interested in the culture and weren't looking for a submissive wife in the first place, and it was aggravating that the other guys would dismiss the successful ones' advice and happiness because they wouldn't treat their wives as property, or possibly they found a H/L woman either born in America or who had been in the country for a while (they were seen as "ruined" because they had been exposed to American women who filled their heads with nonsense). Many of them said they honestly didn't care about the culture and weren't going to learn the language past being able to order a beer and ask for the bathroom - all they wanted was the woman that they "deserved."
TlalocW
Lots of people do seem to have 'types' and physical appearance is part of it. I never have so I can't personally relate, but I've had white girlfriends who had a thing for Mexican and Latin men. I think it might have been the language lol.
I think the creepy part is when its about a stereotype... submissive and docile, macho and ... whatever else, etc. I don't understand the looks thing but it seems to be the rule more than the exception, so.. 
