Talk:Asami Sato/@comment-67.127.247.68-20120428221148

So now that I've seen Asami in action, I'm glad they decided to portray her as sweet and kind. I think when people were hoping that she would be snobby or "bitchy," it becomes problematic for a number of reasons. First of all, it's cliche and it becomes dehumanizing caricature for people that are bitter due to personal bad experiences. Being wealthy and/or traditionally attractive does not automatically make you an evil person somewho devoid of virtue or intellectually vapid. On another level, I'm seeing people on tumblr equating Asami with Megan Fox and the mainstream standard of American beauty. People are whitewashing Asami on a subconscious level when they do that. The American standard of beauty, though slowly becoming more inclusive, has traditionally been a blonde haired, blue-eyed Nordic, with porcelain or tanned skin (depending on the era). That is not what Asami is. Asami, with her incredibly Japanese name, Geisha complexion, and raven locks, is representative of alpha Asian women and I am perfectly happy to have her as someone I could have looked up to when I was a little girl. Growing up, I always felt Asian women were portrayed (in the American media) as either no good seductresses, invisible/non-existent, downright unnattractive, or hardly ever in legitimate relationships with hot Asian guys. Asami is a great rolemodel; she's an Asian babe with a sexy, virile and masculine Asian man. This is not done on American television. If you have been a member of the Asian American community for a prolonged period of time or been to some forums, you know that Asian American men and women have been systematically torn apart from each other due to socially oppressive attitudes and racism in ways that are unique to our community. As a Eurasian female, I am not saying only Asians should be together, but the reality is that the cliche of handsome Asian man with beautiful Asian woman has never existed for us the way it has for whites. Please do not cite popculture from Asia, that doesn't count because we are working on changing a mainstream American perception. We have long been denied a tradional, healthy sexuality in the eyes of the mainstream and it has negatively affected our self perception. Case in point, go to youtube and watch some videos where physically attractive, self-hating Asian women are dissing Asian males as undesirable. I find that disturbing and if Masami can make that stop, I'm all for it. So yes, when I saw somebody on tumblr say that Asami and Mako looked like royalty together, it made me smile. It was reminiscent of Zamunda from Coming to America, but with an Asian flair. In some ways, I find it interesting that the current setting for the Avatar universe looks more like Shanghai/Chinatown-esque because it's like a nod to the Asian American experience as opposed to perpetual foreigner myth where Asians can only be Asian in an overseas Asian context. It's nice to see somebody actually acknowledge that part of our history and psyche. In that regard, she is a breakthrough in the American media and a welcome one at that. Call her a "China doll" or "Asian Barbie" as if it's supposed to be derrogatory, but I would have been so happy to have had one growing up because all I saw were blonde barbies. Also, the special edition, token Asian barbies looked nothing like me. I think I would have been even more pleased if they had an Asian Ken that looked like Mako.The urge to procreate is a very base one and is so simple, we hardly acknowledge it in such terms, but Asian American society has had a warped sense of it since the days when we were nothing but bachelor societies with only a handful of hookers who couldn't become legitimate wives (look it up if you have to, Asian men were denied women so they couldn't have babies). I guess that leaves me filled with (L)ust, if you'll pardon the expression. So, Byrke, if you can be brave and do the unpopular thing for the greater good, you will officially become my heroes. They are taking that dark era in our history and turning on its head.