Comments on At the Bar: Side Effects of Being Invisible in Hollywood

@ Anonymous Leave a name, please.

2011-07-06T08:21:43.619-04:00

@ Anonymous

Leave a name, please.

We need to stop watching white people humanize the...

2011-07-06T03:47:08.971-04:00

We need to stop watching white people humanize themselve and dehumanize us POC.

Don't be a sheep and spend your money to be stereotype by white writers who probably dont' even have any POC friends.

Asian guy here.

It may be because I am French and not American, bu...

2010-11-07T10:29:51.232-05:00

It may be because I am French and not American, but I've always found Asian men attractive. I've read somewhere that French women were an exception to the "White women not attracted to Asians" rule, I don't know if it's true (hard to check!). I don't think the stereotypes against Asian males are as strong here as they are in America, however, I have also noticed that you saw far more White man-Asian woman couples than White woman-Asian man. To go back to movies... I remember seeing The Lover when I was quite young, and this one definitely shows the Asian man (Tony Leung Ka Fai) as an erotic figure (you could even say it's another form of racism, eroticisation of the exotic, but at least it goes against the "emasculated Asian" stereotype). I'm a Takeshi Kaneshiro fan, and I've noticed his hotness crossed racial boundaries (the usual "I don't usually like Asians but this time..."). I don't look for Asian actors in American films, I watch Asian films directly. Takeshi is probably the hottest and a wonderful actor, but Tony Leung, Andy Lau and many others are extremely attractive men too, and most of the time they're not portrayed as martial artists (Kaneshiro even said the reason he wasn't going to Hollywood was typecasting, what a loss for American filmgoers AND women!).

@ Natalie - you can't respect what you don'...

2010-10-29T19:03:12.018-04:00

@ Natalie - you can't respect what you don't actually understand to begin with and you're being incredibly simplistic. White people simply don't make up *most* of the people who live in the world (they are a minority) yet are heavily over-represented in international in international and global to a ridiculous, stifling degree.

China, a major film-making powerhouse simply doesn't have the diverse demographics of America (even though it has its own problems regarding race and representation). America *barely* has a white majority and that will soon change, which is precisely why I think that we're in the middle of a white-out in terms of Hollywood, fiction, media, fashion and so-forth where whiteness is being pushed like it's coke on the corner.

As Ankhesen Mie points out, there is this panicked investment in a surplus of white imagery and the conscious construction of all-white fantasy havens (my term for them) or 'whitopias'(Ankesen's term) because it provides a necessary escape from having to face the reality of a world in which you're actually minority and might have to *ew* live along other people. I agree that these films function as a blissful 'ignoreland' for white viewers.

@ Natalie You're missing the issue. Asians a...

2010-09-20T09:07:20.289-04:00

@ Natalie

You're missing the issue.

Asians aren't just underrepresented, they're practically invisible. That's a problem. Meanwhile, whites are overrepresented, because POC are portrayed as being far fewer than we actually are. That's also a problem.

Look, I respect what you are saying but you have f...

2010-09-20T05:07:24.659-04:00

Look, I respect what you are saying but you have forgetten a few things.

America is largely a white anglo society. Asians make up about 4% of the population....and even then only so many are actors. Obviously most of the acting community is going to be white as America is mainly a white country. This goes for the Asian film industry with most actors being mainly of asian ancestry rather than white anglo. The majority is what is typically represented.
There have been some great leading asian men in the past (Jackie Chan was my hero as a kid). But, I think you do make a good point on Asians being stereotyped. This further fuels the fire on racism in everyday America.

John Cho gets the hot (latino?) girl by the end...

2010-06-14T18:14:32.631-04:00
John Cho gets the hot (latino?) girl by the end of the 2nd movie!

But she's really, really light-skinned ("passe blanc") and Kal Penn gets a white chick.

*shakes head*

Excellent post! I noticed too that the Asian neve...

2010-06-12T15:50:24.820-04:00
Excellent post!

I noticed too that the Asian never gets laid in movies, even if he's the hero!

I guess it's the old stereotype that lingers that Asian men can't be labelled as hot or lovable. Maybe it's an extinction of the "Asian have small penises and aren't skilled in bed" stereotype. With so many smoking hot Asian celebrities (thanks for that picture of Takeshi Kaneshiro by the way), how come this error wasn't corrected yet?

I can't wait for the movie that will portray an interracial relation that will have the characteristics of any real romance.

Oh by the way, in the Harold & Kumar series... John Cho gets the hot (latino?) girl by the end of the 2nd movie!

I really encourage people to hit up the Blasian Na...

2010-06-03T23:59:55.219-04:00
I really encourage people to hit up the Blasian Narrative and give me their interpretation of these two.

Girl you are damn good! A blanket and a bunny? For...

2010-06-03T22:59:28.999-04:00
Girl you are damn good! A blanket and a bunny? For real? Raizo is a Grown Ass Man.

How completely insulting is that damn fan fic passage? Dude is a Stone Cold Killer. WTF are these people thinking?

I saw the film about a week ago and thought Rain and Naomie were the Hotness together. Raizo was flirtatious, dynamic and would kill a muthafucka in a heartbeat.

Blankie and Bunny my ass.

I spent hours watching videos of Rain singing a...

2010-06-03T17:27:53.057-04:00
I spent hours watching videos of Rain singing and dancing with no shirt on.

Yes, well...he does tend to have that effect on people *chuckles*

The movie was a bit gory for my taste

Mine too, but I have a saying, "When you watch a film like Ninja Assassin, you're watching it for one thing...and one thing only."

I heard about Ninja Assassin on the political blog...

2010-06-03T15:57:22.839-04:00
I heard about Ninja Assassin on the political blog 'The Black Snob' before it was released and immediately Googled Rain. I'm sure you know where this leads: I spent hours watching videos of Rain singing and dancing with no shirt on.

I immediately added the movie to my Netlfix queue. The movie was a bit gory for my taste but I enjoyed it and longed for Rain and Naomie Harris to make out. Cause if you get drunk and cross your eyes I look sort of like Naomie and then I WOULD BE MAKING OUT WITH RAIN.

I'm heading over to Blasian Narrative now to look for Ninja Assassin stories. FYI I'm modest-goddess79 on LJ.

@ thelady, To answer your question about the whit...

2010-04-23T09:11:25.301-04:00
@ thelady,

To answer your question about the white blogger researching black hair: unfortunately, the answer's yes. But it was about Mika Coretti, not Uhura.

Mira, LOL - I first rented "House of Flying ...

2010-04-09T21:36:18.375-04:00
Mira,

LOL - I first rented "House of Flying Daggers" to see Zhang Ziyi, but after I saw him I forgot all about her. I then started to rent EVERYTHING he was ever in, you know? Yes, it's shallow...no, I don't care either!!!! He's just that fine!!!

The ridiculously hot dripping-water guy is acto...

2010-04-09T20:46:58.837-04:00
The ridiculously hot dripping-water guy is actor Takeshi Kaneshiro. If you scroll back up to the linked phrase "cause for alarm" you'll learn more about him.

Thanks for the info! He's very attractive. Now I want to watch at least a few of his films. And yes, I know it's shallow. And no, I don't care.

LOL - Thanks! The ridiculously hot dripping-water...

2010-04-07T19:45:12.347-04:00
LOL - Thanks!

The ridiculously hot dripping-water guy is actor Takeshi Kaneshiro. If you scroll back up to the linked phrase "cause for alarm" you'll learn more about him.

He really is beautiful; I've never seen a "bad" picture of his.

Excellent, excellent post. As someone whose only k...

2010-04-07T19:06:35.868-04:00
Excellent, excellent post. As someone whose only knowledge of (white) America is media, I know way too well how these things go. Indeed, I don't remember any Asian-American man in a mainstream Hollywood movie who is.... well, a hot guy who gets laid. I'm not saying main characters in deep, quality films should be hot and get laid, but it's obvious white Hollywood don't see Asian men as masculine and attractive.

And people watch those films over and over again and someone's racist, ignorant imagination suddenly becomes the truth for generations of people (Asian American men are just one example)- media shapes the image people have about POC, about other cultures, even about themselves.

And that fanfiction is laughable. I don't know anything about the fandom or the characters, but it's painfully obvious the author felt the need to explain how could someone be attracted to an Asian man- plus, making him into a cute, vulnerable virgin boy.

PS-Who's the guy under the shower? Or is that rain?