“[A] very human need for companionship will find many a young, gay Asian playing up stereotypes and pursuing white men like they are made of gold. You see them buying into the notion that whiteness is the most attractive, most manly, the most everything. This process of self-orientalizing (constructing yourself as the opposite of everything western) is incredibly damaging because it means both buying into the values of whiteness and, in turn, embodying all the values you’ve been told are bad/not desirable.
In addition, the Asian men I’ve known who refuse to participate in this process are the ones who end up single and incredibly frustrated with the very limited dating opportunities available to an Asian who does not want to be colonized and who refuses to mold themselves into what white people think is attractive.”
