Asian American Sexual Politics: The Construction of Race, Gender, and Sexuality [Hardcover]

Bravo! In a highly original analysis Rosalind Chou demonstrates that the hypersexualization of Asian American women and men links closely to white racial framing and domination. Asian American men face racialized castration, women exoticized sexualizationin both cases sustaining dominant images of white male superiority and virility while doing much damage to the self-esteem and health of Asian Americans. Significantly too, Chou concludes with a savvy assessment of Asian Americans coping and countering strategies for racialized and sexualized oppression.While a vibrant theoretical literature exists on the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality, little has been written about how individuals encounter and reflect on the connection between these forms of difference. Rosalind Chous provocative study fills this void. Drawing upon the lived experiences of her Asian American respondents, she demonstrates the persistence of white hegemonic notions of race, femininity, and masculinity, and the difficulty of developing counter frames to oppressive discourses.Basing her book on qualitative research she conducted with more than 60 Asian American women and men, sociologist Chou (Georgia State Univ.) examines various facets of Asian American sexuality. Chapters discuss key theoretical concepts, how internal home-culture factors influence the construction of gender and sexuality within the lives of the author's informants, and the role of external mainstream institutionsincluding the media, schools, and peer groupsin the development of gendered and racialized stereotypes. Separate chapters use informant interviews to describe the experiences of Asian American women and men. Another section discusses how gendered and racialized stereotypes influence the dating experiences of the author's informants. Chou concludes with an assessment of strategies that may be useful for Asian American men and women to combat stereotypes held by those internal and external to theirl1