As the nation grows tired of our long battle against COVID-19, Asian hate crimes have risen. Many people of Asian descent are subjected to violent deaths, physical alterations, and verbal abuse because of the misconception that Chinese people brought COVID-19 to the United States. Some even believe that China manufactured the virus as a biological weapon. According to a BBC article, there have been “more than 2,800 reports of hate incidents directed at Asian Americans nationwide last year.”
The recent story of the Atlanta shooting of eight people, six of which are Asian women, has not yet been determined as a hate crime. As reported by an NPR article, the shooter claims that the attack was not racially motivated. However, the “suspect told police he did this because of a self-diagnosed sex addiction and he wanted to eliminate ‘temptation.'” Thus, many Asian women fear that the Atlanta shooting was rooted not only in discrimination against Asians but sexism. The media simultaneously portrays Asian women as innocent and hypersexual, which dehumanizes them as objects to be sexually dominated. So while the shooter may not recognize his own crime as racially motivated, his perception of Asian women is rooted in sexist, race-specific stereotypes.
The submissive Asian woman trope comes in many forms: the gold digger (a woman who sells her body to a rich man), the dragon lady (a mystical, sexually alluring woman), the lotus blossom baby (a servant woman, often perceived as sexual). On the contrary, strong Asian women, known as tiger women, are seen as stoic and inhumane mothers who over discipline their children. Both of these stereotypes, though polar opposite, dehumanize Asian women and may contribute to the hate crimes against them.
These tropes harken back to orientalism of hundreds of years ago. The image of the submissive Asian female as a representation of the East helped bolster the West’s dominant self-image: emasculating the East made it easier to justify exploiting the region for its resources. After this distorted image of Eastern women entered into books written by white authors in the West, the stereotype became rampant and was reiterated in all forms of mainstream media. Unfortunately, it still fuels the basis for female Asian characters in books, TV shows, and movies today.
This was very interesting to read. I was not aware of the shooter’s attribution of sex addiction to his crime. I would not have thought of it on my own, but the representation of Asian women as passive objects to be dominated very well could contribute to an act like this. In my sociology class, we have been talking about Asian discrimination due to Covid-19, and I find it incredibly sad that Asian Americans are being targeted for a pandemic that they had no more involvement with than me and you.
I really enjoyed reading this post! I think it shed light on an important issue in American civil life and so I want to thank you for exploring this topic so well. I think that acknowledging the discrimination Asian Americans have faced is the first step in correcting the problem within our society. I think you did a good job explaining the events that took place in Atlanta and overall it was well written and organized.