A vile article from Ying Chu in women’s magazine Marie Claire, The New Trophy Wives: Asian Women, features the salacious teaser: “Rupert Murdoch has one. So do financiers Vivi Nevo and Bruce Wasserstein. Why are the West’s most powerful men coupling up with younger Asian women?” Chu claims that a “curious cultural ripple” has been created by celebrity marriages between western men and Asian women:

Were these tycoons consciously courting Asian babes? Do any of them qualify for the unnerving “yellow fever” or “rice king” moniker? It’s unsavory to think so. But after two or three failed attempts at domestic bliss with women of like background and age, these heavy hitters sought out something different. Something they had likely fetishized.

Like almost all classic racism, the author exhibits her own prejudices prima facie. I’ll attempt to list them here:

• Women are objects to “have” or “collect”
• Asian women are exclusively objects of fetishism
• Asian women are a “more valuable” commodity than American women

We can attribute most of the tastelessness to the author’s own perception of what it’s like to be an Asian woman in America. It seems that the men she’s dated have reinforced the “omnipresent and often entertaining” sexual stereotyping of Asian women:

Sure, I’m petite and was in fact born in Shanghai, but — to the shock of more than one guy I’ve gone out with — I’d rather down an icy beer and burger than nurse bubble tea and eat dumplings while massaging his back with my toes.

The point of globalism and the 21st century is that our generation is a new fresh generation. We have internet, we’ve seen people of all races and cultural backgrounds. Many of us have attended college and learned about far away places that a mere hundred years ago would have been a page in the encyclopedia, and impossible to travel to. We can throw off stereotype and challenge it, discarding labels like “Asian Trophy Wife”. An interracial couple is just two people in love.

I agree with Latoya Peterson at Jezebel, who writes that “the article is a scattershot bunch of ideas, culminating in nothing.” See also Asian Women Aren’t Just Fetish Objects and 8 Asians take.

Update: Check out the comments on the original article, some are really quite amazing:

Dear Editor: I applaud you for publishing ads with Asian models and running an article highlighting the attributes of Asian cosmetics and culture in an attempt to balance out the derogatory assertions and stereotypes made in “Trophy Wives”. Maybe next time, you can have an African writer address the topic of Educated African Americans with the header “Uncle Toms”. I’m sure your talented staff will find a way to rationalize it, and pass it off as not so bad.

Why? Why go through all the trouble of going to Japan, learning a very difficult language, and hooking up with an Asian girl? Why not just marry Mary Anne from the back hills? Because some people just like something different is why. Most people may love their iPods, but there are a few renegades who love their Zunes.

Marie Claire, This article is not edgy, it is not bold, and most importantly, it is not based on facts. This article is a racist tirade aimed at inter-racial relationships and loaded with ignorance. How could you publish this? What kind of editor would let this article enter the pages of your magazine? I’ve noticed there are many “high powered men” that have brunette wives, does that mean that men have a “fetish” for brunettes?

Is this all we can expect from a supposedly urbane NYC-dwelling educated woman? Ying, you’ve revealed too much of your personal identity issues here. This piece sounds like it came from your diary. Editors, this is the kind of drivel you publish under “Sex and Relationship Advice”? If these things were said in real-life conversation, it would induce silent stares and ridicule amongst the uncomfortable parties.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is tagged with bruce wasserstein, magazine marie claire, rupert murdoch, domestic bliss, trophy wives, trophy wife, yellow fever, bubble tea, asian babes, nevo, western men, interracial couple, globalism, heavy hitters, asian women, tycoons, asian woman, peo, moniker, prejudices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.