Fetishized, sexualized and marginalized Asian women are at risk of violence

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Investigators said it was too early to say whether the crime was racially motivated, and instead noted the suspect’s claim that he was engaged in sexual slavery.

But experts and campaigners argue that it is no coincidence that six of the eight victims were Asian women. And the suspect’s views, they say, are rooted in a false history and stereotypes that are too familiar to Asian and Asian American women.

The way their race transcends their gender puts Asian and Asian American women at risk of violence, said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group of the Asian American Women’s Forum. Pacific.

And those factors came together this week in a dangerous, and ultimately deadly, way.

These ideas are rooted in U.S. history

The attitudes of Asian and Asian American women can be traced back as submissive, hypersexual and exotic men centuries ago.

Rachel Kuo, an ethnic scholar and co-director of the Asian Asian Feminist Confederation of America, describes legal and political measures throughout the country’s history that have shaped these harmful views.

One of the earliest examples comes from the Page 1875 Act.
The history of attacks against Asian Americans is complex. He deals with it too
That law, which came a few years before the China Prohibition Act, was apparently enacted to ban prostitution and forced labor. In fact, it was routinely used to prevent Chinese women from immigrating to the U.S., accused of being prostitutes.

The U.S. empire has also played an important role in these views, Kuo said.

Atlanta police officers are pictured at a shooting site at a spa in the city, one of three attacks that left several people dead.
American service members, while overseas for U.S. military actions (including the Philippine-American War, World War II and the Vietnam War), have a history of seeking sex workers and supporting businesses that have encouraged sex trafficking. That promoted stereotypes of Asian women as sexual gods, remembered on screen.

All of those ideas “have been used to apologize and suffer violence by noticing, dismissing and normalizing,” Kuo said.

They have had an economic impact on Asian women

These stereotypes also feed into perceptions of “Asian women as free and disposable workers,” Kuo said, making them economically vulnerable.

Asian American businesses have already been hit particularly hard during the pandemic, fueled by both unemployment and senoffobia.
Asian women, in particular, made up the highest proportion of unemployed workers in December last year, according to a January report from the National Women’s Law Center.

And many Asian American women work in service industries, such as beauty salons, hospitality and restaurants.

'Hope our dream is not broken.' Asian American industries hit particularly hard during a pandemic

“The statement will be lost because we have seen it as the ‘minority model,’ where they think we are all lawyers and doctors and engineers, but look a little more into it. depth and many of the women in our community work in a face – to – face service based departments, “Coimorrow, of the American Pacific Women ‘s Forum.

Other plaintiffs also noted the recent employment situation of victims.

“That the Asian women murdered yesterday were working very vulnerable and low-paid jobs during a chronic pandemic spoke directly to the effects of false tension, structural violence, and white supremacy, Phi Nguyen, legal director at Asian Promotional Justice America – Atlanta, said in a statement.

Massage parlor workers and sex workers are particularly at risk, according to Esther Kao, organizer with Red Canary Song, a New York-based gathering of Asian and Asian American advocates for massage parlor workers and sex workers. sex work.

She said that not only do these workers have a stigma, but they are also migrants. Some may be afraid to export if authorities investigate violence or crimes against them.

It’s also important to remember that not all massage businesses provide sexual services, Kao said. Praising the amount, as did the suspect in the Atlanta area attacks, is a “racist assumption,” she said.

“It particularly connects to the fetishization of an Asian woman,” Kao said.

They are reflected in the violence seen today

The recent attacks come as Asian Americans have suffered an increase in incidents of hate and violence since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, revealing a historical pattern that has targeted Asian Americans in times of crisis rather than they are seen as strangers.

Organizations that monitor violence and harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders say their data shows that women are being unfairly affected.

Flowers left by benefactors will sit at the entrance to Young Asian Massage Spa in Acworth, Georgia, on March 17th.
Nearly 3,800 hate incidents were reported to have stopped AAPI Hate between March 19 last year and February 28 this year. Women were targeted in an disproportionate proportion of these incidents, making up 68% of reports while men made up 29%, the report found.
Melissa Borja, associate professor of Asian / Pacific Island studies at the University of Michigan, note on Twitter that she and another team of researchers observed a similar pattern.

Despite these conclusions, the extent to which Asian and Asian American women are particularly vulnerable to hatred and violence often goes unnoticed, Commorrow said.

“We get invisibilized when we talk about crimes against Asian Americans,” she said.

“It’s really time to have a full conversation about our unique experiences and challenges, because of how society sees us specifically with this racial, gender lens.”

What is needed to address this problem is a systematic approach that recognizes the dangers facing Asian and Asian American women, Coimorrow and others said.

With so much being neglected in Asian and Asian American women, the kind of violence seen in these recent attacks could happen again.

CNN’s Caitlin Hu contributed to this report.

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