Tag: Sexuality

The fallacy of fuckability politics

Photo credit: Deposit Photos

By: Tif Shen

After a recent breakup, I’ve found my way back to dating apps. I’ve learned that a new genre of profiles has popped up in the year I’ve been out of dating: white women who specifically target East Asian men.

It’s hard for me to quantify whether this is just a thing in my college town or if it might be a much broader phenomenon. That said, these profiles surfaced experiences in my life that don’t get discussed as frequently as our desexualization: sexual fetishism for Asian men. 

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What I Want From Chester Tam’s Upcoming Rom-Com Film

Photo credit: Monique Jones

By Guest Contributor: Monique Jones (@moniqueblognet)

Note: A version of this article originally appeared last year in Just Add Color.

A few months ago, during one of my shifts for Shadow and Act, I reported on Gabrielle Union’s upcoming starring role in a new Screen Gems rom-com. The film is unique among Screen Gems’ repertoire: it’s about an interracial relationship between an Asian man and a Black woman, and is written by Chester Tam.

The film is based on Tam’s real-life relationship experiences. Currently, no actor has yet to be cast opposite Union as her romantic interest.

From my article:

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chester Tam will direct a rom-com for Screen Gems starring Gabrielle Union. The film, based on Tam’s own script, will be semi-autobiographical and follow “a newly single African-American woman who begins dating a recently divorced Asian-American man,” per the article’s description.

The logline, the article states, hasn’t been fully revealed, but will focus on “how a drunken one-night stand leads to a secret relationship that eventually becomes public, surprising both friends and family of the couple given that neither is typically the other’s type.”

While the plot of this upcoming film sounds interesting, I’m hesitant. Given this backdrop, how will this film present heterosexual interracial relationships between Asian men and Black women — and might it do more damage than good?

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Reappropriate: The Podcast – Ep. 7 | #AAPI and Interracial Relationships

Think you know what a BAD is? How about a SCAB?

Episode 7 of Reappropriate: The Podcast is now live! In this episode, I’m joined by guests Juliet Shen (@juliet_shen, Fascinasians), KJ Park (@kyungjunpark), and Trungles (@trungles) to discuss how the interracial relationship issue within the AAPI community informs — and is informed by — notions of gender, sexuality and white supremacy. Definitely worth checking out!

You can stream the audio and video of the episode through YouTube (above) or just the audio version (below). Subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store or through YouTube.

Next episode: Please join me next week (October 6th, 9pm EST / 6pm PST) for part two of my conversation with Cayden Mak (@cayden) of 18MillionRising on digital activism as decolonial tools of social change. You can RSVP to watch here!

 

Reappropriate: The Podcast – Ep. 5 | What is #AAPI #feminism?

I’m really excited to present the newest episode of Reappropriate: The Podcast, wherein guest Juliet Shen (@juliet_shen) of Fascinasians and I tackle the question “what is AAPI feminism?” It’s a great conversation that talks about identity, movement-building, gender & sexuality (including interracial relationships), and our role models. I hope you will take an hour to watch the podcast through YouTube above, listen to the audio only version using the mp3 player below, or download the podcast through the iTunes store.

Note: In this podcast, I use the word “crazy” a couple of times in a manner that could easily be seen as reinforcing the ableist stigma of the word as negative. I want to draw attention to this because I first want to apologize to any listeners who are offended by my use, and also to underscore that this is a personal language habit I have been actively working on for many months. In the podcast, we talk about always being self-reflective and aware of our internalized -isms as well as conscious and deliberate about everything we do; I think this is a perfect example of what we were talking about and am disappointed in myself for the usage of this word. I think activism and advocacy is always a learning process, and I am certainly not perfect when it comes to challenging my own issues. So, yes, you will hear me slip-up a couple of times in this podcast and use an ableist term, and for that I apologize.

Next episode: Please join me for the next episode of the podcast which will be recording on September 8th at 7pm EST (subject to change). The topic will be “Is digital or hashtag activism ‘real’ activism?”, and to discuss this I’ve invited Cayden Mak (@cayden) of 18MillionRising onto the podcast. You will be able to watch the podcast as it records through this link, and you can tweet your questions or comments now to @reappropriate to have them included on air!

Audio only:

TWiB After Dark Podcast on #AAPI Sexuality, Masculinity and Feminism (feat. me!)

Couple Face to Face

Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a roundtable conversation on This Week in Blackness, one of the web’s premiere race and African American identity podcasts. N’jaila Rhee (@BlasianBytch) hosted a stellar panel discussion on Asian American sexuality and gender identity with guests Matt Salesses (@salesses) of The Good Men Project and Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) of The Daily Beast (and Jeopardy!), as well as me!

It was a truly phenomenal conversation, and I really want to thank all the panelists and N’jaila for giving me the opportunity to participate!

Please take a minute (okay, an hour) to listen. You can play it directly from this link, or follow the instructions to get it into your iTunes or other media player!