Asian American masculinity is being increasingly celebrated. But many men still face stereotyping.

[SummerMadness]

Asian American masculinity is being increasingly celebrated. But many men still face stereotyping.

Bernard Bach, a Tennessee-born New Yorker of Vietnamese descent, was walking alone through Times Square near midnight recently when a stranger yelled at him. With anti-Asian bigotry on the rise because of the coronavirus's origins in China, many Asians have been shouted at — or worse — in public. But Bach's stranger had a different motivation.

"Work those calves!" she cheered. On a video of the moment he posted, Bach, 35, responded with a glowing, knowing smirk — not that he felt comfortable.

"It's always been difficult for me to accept compliments because I don't know if people are being sincere," he said in an interview. "One of the worst things I hear is, 'You're good-looking for an Asian.' I try not to take all the bad compliments as an insult, because sometimes people are still learning."

...Asian American men, who are aware of "a stereotype of being emasculated, effeminate, less attractive, less manly, falling short of the White hegemonic masculinity ideal in the United States," said Keum, who specializes in Asian American male body image and mental health.

Keum explained these stereotypes date to the mid-1800s, when Chinese immigrant men were forced into jobs as launderers, cooks and domestic servants in retaliation for their efficiency in mining and construction jobs (from which they became banned), but linger in the 21st century, through, for example, racist online dating practices in which Asian Americans are the least likely of men to be matched. In his research of Asian American men, Keum said, "every single one of them says, 'I just cannot deal with the shame.' "

 

[FireDragon76]

Personally, I think people should be free to find anybody attractive and shouldn't be shamed if they aren't sexually attracted to Asian people, or any other race (and I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as racism). I think its counterproductive to shame people for that. Combatting negative stereotypes should be done in a more positive way than that. People tend not to respond well to negative criticism of a personal nature. And what can be more personal than physical attraction?