Asian Fetishism Strikes Again

So we're all pretty horrified by this right now:



Seriously I linked to it so you'd know what I was talking about, but if you haven't heard it, don't click it. It's THAT BAD. It's offensive and ridiculous, and not ridiculous in an "haha this is so ridiculous!" way but in an "oh my god this makes me want to cry" way.

And if you don't think it's offensive, well, you've got a problem.

From what I gather (I first came across it on Jezebel so most of my knowledge of the firestorm surrounding this video is from there), the band is serious in making it. It's not a joke or satire. It sounds like it has to be, but apparently, it's not.

My guess? Either it's a publicity stunt and by linking above I'm playing into their sick little game (and it's totally working), or they'll come out and claim in a week or so that it was "a joke - can't you all take a joke?" when it actually wasn't intended to be anything other than serious.

Or maybe it really was a joke and they're playing it straight for now. I find that hard to believe because it's just too tone-deaf. It's not funny. But let me be clear: even if it's a joke, it's not funny.

That wouldn't make it better. It's not a funny satire, if it is one, it's still racist. The tone of it isn't celebrating difference, it's just listing stereotypes while a sexy Asian woman takes off her clothes. That's not effective satire. The point of satire isn't to list stereotypes and act like you believe them - it's to explode them from the inside: and that is absolutely not what they're doing. And if it's a publicity stunt, it's doubly racist. And even without going into the racism any deeper than that, it's horendously sexist. So it's like a double-whammy offensive!

And it's proof that fetishism (in this case of Asian women) still exists and is still a HUGE problem, despite all those creepy expats and Internet randos insisting that it's not. Even if it's a joke. 

There's one good thing to come out of all of this, though. I found this wonderful video:




(It has explicit lyrics - if you don't want to hear some swear words, don't click).

This is a fun video - it celebrates rather than denigrates. It blows up stereotypes while shouting out to cultural diversity. The world needs more of this and less of that dreck above.