Ah, I apologize, I think I’ve phrased my first comment poorly. I believe that the difference in desirability is due to both fetishization of women and emasculation of men. My initial comment did not make that clear due to the word “mostly”, which was the wrong word to use. I meant simply to highlight that desirability as an Asian woman is not without its downsides.
Re:
It doesn’t predict that being a member of two “oppressed” classes can result in an intersectional “privilege”… In any case, there are disadvantages associated with fetishization, but acknowledging this group’s relative dating advantage as an advantage would break the model*.
I actually think that this is perfectly compatible with intersectional theory:
There’s a distinction between “privilege” as a class, and “advantage” in certain areas of life. Intersectionality claims that Asian men have gender privilege, as a class, over Asian women, and that Asian women exist at the intersection of oppressions in a way that Asian men do not. It doesn’t claim that Asian men are advantaged in every area of life over Asian women, or that every single experience of Asian women is due to disadvantage. (edit: John’s comment below explains this way better than I did)
In fact, I think an analysis of how Western gender ideals hurt Asian men via emasculation and Asian women via fetishization is an intersectional analysis, i.e. Asian men and women have different experiences of racism due to the ways in which racism and sexism intersect. (And both are still racism, and bad.)
Acknowledging that Asian women empirically have larger dating pools is just a statement about the world. Whether you consider this to be an “advantage” or not is really subjective, and not addressed by a theory of systemic oppression. I would personally rather have fewer dates than have to wade through fetishizing weebs, but that’s obviously a subjective judgment that you disagree with.
I do share the hope that in popular discourse we start to see more understanding of the nuances of the theory, because it is absolutely more sophisticated in academia than it is on Twitter (or in my EA Forum comments!).
Acknowledging that Asian women empirically have larger dating pools is just a statement about the world. Whether you consider this to be an “advantage” or not is really subjective, and not addressed by a theory of systemic oppression. I would personally rather have fewer dates than have to wade through fetishizing weebs, but that’s obviously a subjective judgment that you disagree with.
Hmm… I think it’s worth considering the implications of considering that subjective. I assume that there’s some women (likely a small group) who would prefer the old 1950s system where women didn’t have to work, but they were discriminated against in the job market? Should we say that’s subjective too? Do we end up in a space where everything is subjective because we can always find a minority with unusual views? I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, just trying to figure out what it would mean.
I think that’s precisely what I’m saying—people have different preferences, but that doesn’t negate the existence of broader dynamics of privilege, i.e. John’s earlier comment, and doesn’t negate that the facts of the matter are shaped by intersecting oppressions.
Assuming that we take as true that systemic oppression is a real thing, the distinction is this: I don’t consider myself to have a dating “advantage”, but I do think that I have a larger dating pool than the average Asian man because of the ways in which Asian women sit at the intersection of racism and sexism. I’m sure plenty of 1950s housewives considered themselves to be advantaged personally, but that doesn’t negate that they were structurally disempowered.
I am no philosopher, but I think it’s a bit slippery-slope to go from “we disagree on whether larger dating pools have inherent goodness” to “everything is subjective”!
Ah, I apologize, I think I’ve phrased my first comment poorly. I believe that the difference in desirability is due to both fetishization of women and emasculation of men. My initial comment did not make that clear due to the word “mostly”, which was the wrong word to use. I meant simply to highlight that desirability as an Asian woman is not without its downsides.
Re:
I actually think that this is perfectly compatible with intersectional theory:
There’s a distinction between “privilege” as a class, and “advantage” in certain areas of life. Intersectionality claims that Asian men have gender privilege, as a class, over Asian women, and that Asian women exist at the intersection of oppressions in a way that Asian men do not. It doesn’t claim that Asian men are advantaged in every area of life over Asian women, or that every single experience of Asian women is due to disadvantage. (edit: John’s comment below explains this way better than I did)
In fact, I think an analysis of how Western gender ideals hurt Asian men via emasculation and Asian women via fetishization is an intersectional analysis, i.e. Asian men and women have different experiences of racism due to the ways in which racism and sexism intersect. (And both are still racism, and bad.)
Acknowledging that Asian women empirically have larger dating pools is just a statement about the world. Whether you consider this to be an “advantage” or not is really subjective, and not addressed by a theory of systemic oppression. I would personally rather have fewer dates than have to wade through fetishizing weebs, but that’s obviously a subjective judgment that you disagree with.
I do share the hope that in popular discourse we start to see more understanding of the nuances of the theory, because it is absolutely more sophisticated in academia than it is on Twitter (or in my EA Forum comments!).
Hmm… I think it’s worth considering the implications of considering that subjective. I assume that there’s some women (likely a small group) who would prefer the old 1950s system where women didn’t have to work, but they were discriminated against in the job market? Should we say that’s subjective too? Do we end up in a space where everything is subjective because we can always find a minority with unusual views? I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, just trying to figure out what it would mean.
I think that’s precisely what I’m saying—people have different preferences, but that doesn’t negate the existence of broader dynamics of privilege, i.e. John’s earlier comment, and doesn’t negate that the facts of the matter are shaped by intersecting oppressions.
Assuming that we take as true that systemic oppression is a real thing, the distinction is this: I don’t consider myself to have a dating “advantage”, but I do think that I have a larger dating pool than the average Asian man because of the ways in which Asian women sit at the intersection of racism and sexism. I’m sure plenty of 1950s housewives considered themselves to be advantaged personally, but that doesn’t negate that they were structurally disempowered.
I am no philosopher, but I think it’s a bit slippery-slope to go from “we disagree on whether larger dating pools have inherent goodness” to “everything is subjective”!