Media Images and Their Effects on Asian American Women
Teresa Mok, Ph.D.,
Clinical Psychologist Counseling Center, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

“Beyond Killing Us Softly: The Strength to Resist” does a nice job explicating the powerful connections that media images have on our perceptions of ourselves and others. The documentary focuses primarily on the deleterious effects the media can (and often does) have on women, especially in relation to body image and self-esteem. The video also pays attention to cultural and racial messages about beauty and attractiveness, in addition to gender-based messages about appearance.

This is helpful because in many venues, be they social science articles or popular press publications, classifications of gender and race are often treated as dichotomous, independent entities – despite the fact that they are inseparable within individuals. While the documentary deals generally with the impact of media images on women and girls, the specific purpose of this essay is to delineate how issues brought up in the film might particularly apply to Asian American women.

This essay will deal with several related areas. First, some of the mental health research focusing on how Asian American women perceive themselves in terms of physical attractiveness will be presented. Then, specific stereotypes of Asian American women will be discussed. These stereotypes and images will be shown for their contributions both to self-perceptions by Asian American women and perceptions of Asian American women by others. The connections between media images of Asian American women and their profound impact on this group of women will be explored.

Invisible or Exotic
Asian American women are forced to struggle with the consequences of both racism and sexism; although we live in a culture that often views racial differences through a monochromatic black-and-white lens. This can often lead to confusing feelings of being “invisible” racially and culturally in this country. Yet, at the same time, Asian Americans are often seen as foreign, exotic, or “different,” suggesting that, indeed, race and culture do matter and are noticed.

In a country in which supermodel Cindy Crawford is considered “exotic,” Asian American women may feel that the standard of beauty has little room for them. Indeed, recognizing and trying to integrate these differing, seemingly dichotomous messages can be a painful struggle leading to internal conflict and confusion. This conflict can lead to questioning at a fundamental level about self-definition, selfworth, and identity.

The “Model Minority”
One of the most prevalent stereotypes of Asian Americans in general is that of a “model minority,” denoting hard workers, good students, and a group that has little in the way of social problems that affect other minorities. Although there is recognition that this, as with most stereotypes, is limiting, inaccurate, and incapable of capturing the heterogeneity of this diverse Asian American population, the stereotype and its associated characteristics persist today. Not often discussed is one of the corollary assumptions suggested by this stereotype: that Asian Americans might have relatively positive self-concepts and healthy selfperceptions.

Although this may be true in a limited way for some Asian Americans with respect to academic success, psychological research clearly has demonstrated that Asian Americans tend to have poor body image, poor physical selfesteem, and negative self-concept as it relates to physical attractiveness. And although this affects both Asian American men and Asian American women, the focus of this essay will be the ways in which Asian American women are deleteriously affected by media images and stereotyped portrayals.

Negative Self-Image
Although a popular American saying claims that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” the incredibly narrow band of what constitutes beauty should give anyone pause to challenge that claim. Asian American women often struggle with feeling that they do not look “all-American,” and that the definition of being “all American” racially excludes them. Psychological research on Asian Americans and physical attractiveness has yielded two primary findings.

First, Asian Americans do not believe that they are physically as attractive as Whites. Secondly, Asian Americans often impart more positive qualities to Whites than to their own racial group. These conclusions should be horrifying and shocking to us as a multicultural and diverse society. They also should silence doubts that race is a potent factor in perceptions of attractiveness and that these messages are internalized to the detriment of individuals and our communities.

Changing Physical Characteristics In terms of specific characteristics that Asian American women cite as the most disliked on their own bodies are the physical features that are tied to race. In other words, the features Asian American women have described as most wishing they could change were those features that tended to differentiate them from Whites.

For example, skin color, as it is for other communities of color, also is a significant determinant of beauty in the Asian American community. Lighter skin is often valued and prized more than darker skin. Eye shape and size is also scrutinized and evaluated, with some Asian American women literally using Scotch tape to create an epicanthic fold on their eyes.

Nose shape and height, cheek shape, and breast size are other characteristics that are often criticized by Asian American women about their own bodies. Often Whites are seen as the “standard” for what constitutes beauty and there is much psychological distress and energy invested in how one can possibly achieve looking as White as possible. Many Asian American women tell stories about pinching their noses so as to attempt to achieve a “less flat” appearance. Others even tell painful stories of attempting to dye their hair blonde or of wearing colored contact lenses to change their appearance. Often some of these women will talk clearly about how they engaged in such behaviors to attempt to mask their own racial phenotype.

Sadly, Asian Americans are the most likely ethnic minority group to pursue cosmetic surgery. Many of the changes sought to be altered surgically attend to the very features described above – and these are changes that are inextricably tied to race. The media is seen as a potent force in bombarding Asian American women with White standards of beauty as a driving factor in seeking plastic surgery. There are even plastic surgeons who specifically target Asian Americans for their procedures in their advertisements. Some claim to be “Asian eye specialists,” while others suggest cheek reduction surgery for Asians who, by virtue of their ethnic background, possess “large amounts of cheek fat.”

We should be outraged by claims like this that so clearly delineate that race has a definite impact on the definition of beauty. Therefore, when assessing or discussing standards of beauty, mental health researchers and media scholars need to make sure their definitions and investigations cover the broad spectrum of issues beyond weight that deal with body image. And in our daily lives, we need to be vigilant of who is being portrayed – and who is not being portrayed – in the media.

Representation Lacking
Indeed, part of what makes the media images of Asian Americans so potent is that the images that do exist are so extremely limited in scope and so often defined by a trite stereotype. Asian American women are often only seen in a handful of roles and parts: kung fu expert (or kung fu expert’s daughter), news anchor, or mail-order bride. Take a moment and consider our current national demographics (of which Asian Americans constitute approximately three to four percent) and racial makeup and diversity within various localities in the U.S.

Then consider some of the popular television shows and advertisements that run currently – many of which are set in a variety of large, urban cities, where there is known to be sizable populations of Asian Americans. Yet Asian Americans are rarely on-screen presences; they are generally neglected or if they are seen at all the are merely “background color” to the actions of Whites. Thus, the relative invisibility of Asian Americans in the media heightens the pressure on any of the few images that do exist.

Dragon Lady or Selfless Woman
In terms of gender- and race-specific stereotypes, Asian American women are often seen in one of two dichotomous images. One of these stereotypes is embodied by an Asian American female character on television currently. Playing a lawyer on a show about lawyers and their professional and personal lives, this woman has been said to represent a “Dragon Lady.” The Dragon Lady is a particular image that entertwines race and gender into a stereotype that connotes an innate mysteriousness and exotic eroticism.

The Dragon Lady is seen as being able to charm and seduce men (often White men), yet is deadly in her intentions. This character in the television show is known for growling at her co-workers and has ensnared her boss with sexual tricks she performs with her long, flowing black hair. Perhaps, one might argue, this Asian American character is simply unusual, as many of the other characters on this particular show are. However, there are so few Asian American women portrayed in the media that this image certainly carries more power than if it were merely a portrayal that Asian American women could weigh and evaluate against many other images. Additionally, this portrayal is a stereotype, and one that is specific to Asian and Asian American women. The other stereotype of Asian American women is one in which they are portrayed as submissive, delicate, and meek, always putting other’s (especially men’s) needs before their own. A classic example of this stereotype is the main Asian female character in the Broadway musical, Miss Saigon. (As a side note, there is often a lack of separation on the part of the public as to the difference between Asians and Asian Americans. This lack of distinction is erroneous but as a result, there is often a blending of images and perceptions, such that Asian Americans are seen as Asian.)

This female character falls in love with a White man, bears his child, and ultimately kills herself so that he and his new White wife can take the child and raise it as their own. Such a “selfless act” should be seen for what it really is: integrally tied to race and gender. After all, a role reversal with a White woman and an Asian man would be seen as ludicrous. Yet that such an image of behavior for Asian women is seen as noble, attractive, or worse yet, perhaps genetically innate is both disgusting and racist.

The connection between submissive, powerless Asian women and sex was mentioned in the documentary by references to the sex trafficking of Asian women. Asian American women are often seen in this manner and the sickening link from submissiveness to bondage and torture was horrifyingly illustrated in the pornographic image of an Asian woman who was shown lynched and hanging from a tree.

Psychological research has shown that when Asian women are portrayed in pornographic material, they are often shown in situations where they are being tortured or abused. Research has demonstrated that the pornography with women of color often varies the content dependent upon race. Thus, Asian women are depicted in wartime scenarios, as prostitutes or sex slaves, often as helpless and passive.

In conclusion, this documentary video calls for all of us to be revolutionary as we challenge media images around us. It calls for us to be critical consumers of what we take in. In addition, broadening our attention to always include cultural messages or implication within media images and portrayals is necessary if we strive to be inclusive and representative of the diversity that truly surrounds us everyday.

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