By Brittney Le
AsAmNews Staff Writer
April Moreau and Michelle Sun are stirring up social media with their recent F is for Fetish video, with well over 100 thousand views and counting. The comedic duo, Sun & April, highlights the struggles both Asian women and White women face today as they are fetishized and racially stereotyped.
Michelle Sun was inspired to make this sketch since she had been seeing a lot of news recently on Asian community Facebook groups about Asian girls who were missing or kidnapped. “I felt like they were being targeted because of their ethnicity,” said Sun. “I was very concerned and angry. But if we express our feelings with anger, people don’t always listen. Comedy is a great outlet. April and I started talking about the origins of Asian fetishes and how we could bring the issue to light in a comedic way.”
“We started talking about the idea of people who only date people of certain races or who are more interested in a person’s race than in their personality,” said Moreau. “That’s how we got the idea for F is for Fetish. Originally, we were only going to focus on White people who fetishize Asian people, but Michelle wanted to bring up the opposite situation as well – Asian people who are into White people because of their race.”
“And eventually, we wrote a role in the sketch for an African American woman as well, so that we could show that all races are subject to this issue,” added Sun.
When asked about how society can work to address the problem of women often being fetishized, Moreau said she thinks that people should actively call it out. “And it goes both ways – sometimes women can be guilty of fetishizing men as well,” she noted.
“But it is especially dangerous for women,” added Sun. “It can morph into violence and tragedy. So people have to speak up.” The World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
“We joke about ‘White privilege’ in the sketch, but it’s a real thing,” explained Moreau. “And I think that, because of that, White people need to go the extra mile and speak up on behalf of minorities. If a friend of yours is being racially or culturally insensitive, you can’t let it slide. You have to have a conversation. Otherwise, this stuff will go on forever.”
April Moreau is from Florida and works as a director and actress in Los Angeles. Michelle Sun was born in China, went to elementary school in Japan, and then moved to the U.S., where she currently resides in Los Angeles and works as an actress and producer.
The two met randomly at a job interview last year. They “were cracking each other up within the first five minutes of talking,” said Moreau. “We set up a coffee date for the following week to discuss how we could work together creatively.”
At the time, Sun was collecting directors’ information for a sketch series that she wanted to produce, so she checked out Moreau’s work and thought she would be a great fit.
“I think what Michelle asked me was, ‘Do you want to be like the female, half-white, half-Asian ‘Key and Peele’?’ and I laughed and said, ‘Sure.’ We started writing F is for Fetish the next week,” said Moreau.
Their video has been featured on the ‘Latest & Greatest Videos’ section on Funny Or Die, a popular comedy video website for sharing original content. By being relatable and humorous, the sketch puts a serious topic that is often ignored in the spotlight.
“Since I’ve travelled and lived in different countries, I find it easy to access different cultural issues and empathize with people about what they’re going through,” said Sun. “I think it’s important to look at these things through the lens of comedy. My cultural awareness also definitely influences the endings I write for my pieces. I want to leave people with a sense of hope. For instance, in F is for Fetish, my character speaks up and chooses not to tolerate being fetishized.”
“Since I understand American culture and the experience of being a White American, I’m able to bring that to the table when Michelle and I work together,” said Moreau. “I think that our very different backgrounds help us relate to a wider audience. We bring such different perspectives to our comedy and the combination seems to be resonating with a lot of people. We’ve been so surprised and amazed by the fact that our sketch is getting shared all over the world.”
Stay tuned for new material from Sun & April on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
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