Attack in Atlanta – Asian women are being hypersexualized

After the Atlanta attack on massage parlors on Tuesday that killed eight, the motive of the alleged assassin is still unclear. But one thing is certain: the 21-year-old white suspect was targeting women. And: Six of the victims have an Asian-American background. The attack is read in the community as a hate crime against Asian-looking people.

Journalist Nhi Le also believes that the crime must be analyzed in terms of racism and sexism. The perpetrator himself stated during the first interrogations that he was suffering from a sex addiction – and gave no racist motives. He saw the massage parlors as a “temptation” that he wanted to eradicate.

Cliché of the ice-cold seductress

“There’s a lot of hate in there,” says Nhi Le. The idea behind this is that Asian women are a temptation. “It’s a stereotype that many East and Southeast Asian women face, they are objectified, hypersexualized and seen as sexually available.”

This is also shown in films, in the theater or in the opera. “There’s that cliche the daring dragon lady, as in ‘Ally McBeal’ or ‘Kill Bill’; that the women are portrayed as cold as ice and very seductive.”

Another image also plays a major role. “That of the available, submissive or even sex-hungry lotus flower, like in ‘Madame Butterfly’, ‘Austin Powers’ or even ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Some scenes from that have done a lot of harm to Asian women.”

Massage parlors would often be perceived as brothels. “Here in Germany, you can often see that, for example, German Thai massage parlors have a large sign on the door: ‘No eroticism’. That means that the people who work there are confronted with these clichés.”

Nhi Le is missing an important aspect in the perception of the Atlanta attack. “Many of the women are said to have not only worked in the massage parlors, but also lived there. They are also extremely poor women.”

Stigmatization as a “virus slingshot”

The number of hostilities towards people who are perceived as Asian has risen sharply since the beginning of the corona pandemic, not only in the USA but also in Germany. Nhi Le, who has lived in the United States, is not surprised: “I wouldn’t say it’s something specifically American, quite the opposite.” Because there they at least know about the racism problem. “Unlike here in Germany, where you always have to prove that the problem exists.”

The corona pandemic revealed a colonial-historical narrative: “The equation was opened: Asians are so dirty and uncivilized that they managed to create such a virus. Asians were then stigmatized as virus slingers.”

However, there is another stereotype that leads to the fact that the connection to racism in relation to Asian people is often not made. “And that’s that of the flagship minority: you’re so well integrated, it’s nice that you’re so quiet and work so hard. Of course, that’s also used to play us off against other marginalized groups.”

In Germany, however, there are now mergers such as ichbinkeinvirus.org or the organization Korientationto make this discrimination visible. “I think the voices are there, now they have to be heard.” The responsibility lies with the majority society.

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