The racist comments about singer, Lorde, and her Asian boyfriend, cast a disturbing light on Americans’ stereotypes of Asian men and their attractiveness.
According to Jezebel, the outrage is in response to the fact that Lorde and Lowe’s relationship defies the conventional benchmarks of attractiveness and dating. In other words, that their “slightly different amounts of ‘hot,'” are somehow offensive.
That might be part of the issue but I believe that the main reason behind the cyber-attacks are Americans’ cultural stereotypes of Asian men as “unsexy and sexless.” In its own editorial about the cyber-bullying, the LA Times pointed to a 2007 ‘speed dating’ study, in which African American and white women said ‘yes’ 65% less often to the prospect of dating Asian men in comparison to men of their own race.
Has it been engrained in our culture to think of Asian men as nerdy, unattractive and effeminate? The implications of such a disgusting stereotype is far-reaching and disturbing.
Are you as disturbed as I am by this? Or, do you think the media backlash is exaggerating the racist component of the situation?