This appeared in our schoor newspaper this morning, about an Asian-American studies professor here that made a porn film to overcome the stereotype of Asian Americans as "desexualized nerds" in popular culture. He defended this pactice by saying that "a yellow porno practice can help recuperate [an Asian American] sexuality that has been distorted ...[by] an oppressive system of white racial supremacy" (The California Aggie, November 18, 2003).
So now oppression has taken the form of the exclusion of Asian males in porn films. Does anyone honestly believe that racial bigotry motivates any business decisions in the porn industry? The application of the neo-marxist meta-narrative has reached a new height of ridiculousness.
Of course he does have a point that Asian males in films in general tend to be either geeks or martial arts action heroes with no apparent love interest or sexuality. But people tend to demand love stories portrayed by people that they identify with. The trend to produce romantic comedies targeting the African-American comunity is a response to demand from a significant market. Is the fact that the demand for love stories involving Asian(-American) men (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a notable exception) a function of oppression? And if so, does making porn lend that argument any scholarly credibility or positively influence those stereotypes?
Posted by Matthew Pearson at November 18, 2003 08:49 PM | TrackBackInteresting post. I look forward to being eternally enraged by those wacky Californians and their highly liberal leanings... I'm getting fired up just thinking about it.
I wonder if this professor has ever seen the film In the Mood for Love? I recently saw it and it is one of the few predominately Asian films I can think of which portrays it's characters in a romantic light with any sort of sexuality (not the "martial arts/geek" angle that is so popular).
Here's a link to more on the subject
http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/?id=2609
That Darrell Hamamoto is quite an confused fellow.
http://asa.ucdavis.edu/faculty/hamamoto.html
How can he claim that the whites are desexualizing Asians? There are more than a billion people in China, Darrell. Why don't you get yourself another grant, go over there and count them?
Posted by: David at April 26, 2004 10:07 PMHi wanna no how i can get into the porn indusrty
Posted by: Ben Nichoslon at December 21, 2004 03:28 PM