GROUP 3:
Asian Masculinity

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Comments towards the issue:

Under the video: The “Asexual” Asian Man - End the Undesirable Stereotype (Youtube Comments): 

@sotrue5413 says “I learned about this in my Asian American History class in college. Asian women are either oversexualized and viewed as "exotic", or submissive, or even portrayed as the villain at times. And how they're always paired with a white man that "saves" them, but Asian men are seen as weak and never paired with a white woman, or any woman for that matter. Just because of the war, as mentioned in the video. They're rarely the lead, and if they are, then it's only for a martial arts movie, but even then, they never have a love interest in movies.”

 

@blackhoneyblossom said, “As a teen I watched a lot of Japanese series subbed online and was crushing hard on the actors...when I talked about that at school I became the weird girl who like Asian guys and therefore must be a lesbian because they looked so "feminine". I was so pissed back then, not because I was called a lesbian, I'm pan, so I don't care about that, I'm also totally supportive of men who actually have a feminine aesthetic, but because they looked at these very attractive masculine men and, just because they weren't the typical American Hollywood jock, called them feminine. I'm very happy that times are changing and especially with all these BTS fangirls, I just wished that I didn't have to listen to people telling me all Asian men look like women back when I was younger. The weirdest thing was: we actually had a guy in our grade whose parents were from China and a couple of girls were into him, so the hypocrisy was real. On the other hand, I'm happy they didn't treat him like they talked about my film crushes. “

 

Is Taller Better, or Whiter? A Racial Investigation of Asian American Women’s Height Preferences in Dating by Thomas P. Le: 

“This suggests that ascribing traditional gender norms (e.g., that women are weaker and in need of men’s protection) may be associated with a preference for taller men, who may be perceived as more masculine than shorter men due to gender norm socialization”
“(Batres et al., 2015; Helgeson, 1994). Furthermore, taller men tend to have higher life-time earnings (Jæger, 2011), as taller men are perceived as being more dominant, more intelligent, and healthier given patriarchal notions that equate height with strength (Yancey & Emerson, 2016). Thus, the attributions of positive traits to taller men may enable them to have more leadership opportunities (Blaker et al., 2013) or managerial positions (Lindqvist, 2012). This research suggests that the preference to date taller men may suggest the desire for higher socioeconomic status.”

 

One of the reasons why Asian Men are emasculated and thus not desired on the dating market is that they are shorter than average in America. It is reported in a study that taller people on average are seen as much more masculine than shorter due to gender norm socialization. Furthermore Due to the Gender norm Socialization positive traits are assigned to taller men that enable them to have more leadership opportunities. These positive traits also in part frame Taller men as being more dominant, intelligent and healthier. But a significant question is whether this desire for taller men is due to socialization or a natural desire.

 

Nature vs. Nurture vs. Sexual Fluidity by preston Sprinkle:

“It’s important not to confuse environmental influences with choice. Some people think that if something isn’t purely biological—like brown hair—then it must be a choice. But many things that are fundamental to our humanity that aren’t biological also aren’t a choice.

 

For instance, my ability to speak English isn’t biological, nor did I choose it. And yet it’s still a fixed trait and I can’t unlearn it. I was simply nurtured in an environment where I sort of absorbed English and I don’t consciously remember learning it.”

 

Another important distinction Diamond makes is between love and desire.

 

Fixed traits can stem from both socialization and biology, determining from either one is difficult because both can be fixed from the environment or one’s own biology. Whether height is fixed in socialization or biology is unknown but height is of course valued in American culture and media.

 

As an Asian American man, the dating world made me feel invisible by Mike Cabbollon:

 

“, but before “Crazy Rich Asians,” how many other Asian male romantic leads can you think of, in a hundred years of American cinema? How much worse does that number get if you don’t count kung fu movies?”

 

“I could walk into a party dressed in a Gucci tuxedo, telling a witty story about my good friend the Dalai Lama; if I was standing next to a tall, bearded white guy in ripped cargo shorts, all the eyeballs in the room would drift toward him and away from me.”

 

But the socialization of American society has gone so far that a personal account from an Asian American perspective internalizes the difference in height and emasculation as if it is ingrained in the Asian racial identity.  There is no doubt that this will cause distrust amongst Asian Americans, to view other Americans as more superior due to height and masculinity will hinder interpersonal relationships and put ourselves in perpetual competition with others for resources and mates.

 

Sexual selection- Andre Deutsch

“In terms of combat, males within a species compete with each other for access to the females. This leads to larger and stronger males and to the development of male ‘weapons’ in order to give them the advantage when in combat with other males”

 

“The presence of a costly ornament on a male tells the female that he is genetically exceptionally healthy and thus her offspring will inherit his vitality.”

 

In this way the height could signal from other humans that they are not healthy and lack virility thus they will not be picked to inherit offspring. Their lack of recognized masculine traits as envisioned by society already signals them as unhealthy and incapable spreading offspring. Thus I highly a simple media depiction will swerve public opinion to make average Asian men desirable. Even if it does it only makes tall Americanized Asian men attractive, Asians that are far from that norm. I believe for Asian Americans to be desirable it will be naturally innate, in American society it will take many years of genetic development to change the average height and change the appeal of Asian Americans to be palatable to the average American the scope of media change is far too short sighted to be able to provide changes.

 

Men being masculine and strong is innate to our biological design. Men are much stronger on average than women, women have 67% upper body strength that men have. The process of Childbirth is a really arduous experience and puts women at a really difficult position, men need to be able to provide and protect in those very critical times. So I’d argue men's social roles are interested with the design of their biology.

 

Now it is possible that social roles could change in the future due to developments in science, but at the current moment with the way social roles are and how it's interested with our current unalterable biology. Asian men being shorter than average is gonna present a significant problem in terms of sexual selection. So to say that media representation will fix the problem is a bit misleading, a future change for Asian Americans is required.