As I was walking through the school corridors, a dude approached me and said

“Hey, do you ever look in yourself in the mirror and realize that you look like a loli?”

For those fortunate enough to not be familiar with that term, a loli is a term for a little Asian girl who is clearly a minor but is portrayed in egregiously wrong ways.

I encountered him during my first week of school, and all I could think about was why he would say something like that to me, how I was expected to respond and act and was I supposed to  take it as a compliment?

Asian women are subjected to racial gaslighting most frequently when they are told that being hypersexualized is an innocuous compliment. Even if racial fetishization is the root cause, the high right-swipe rates of Asian women by men of all races on dating apps are frequently seen as a privilege. This is an outcome of a violent and imperialist Western history, in addition to being a direct effect of racism and sexism.

Sad to say, this wasn’t the only time I heard this kind of statement. The racial fetishization of Asians, especially East Asians, known as Yellow Fever, is well known. Asian women are disheartened, apprehensive, and wary of males with yellow fever who believe that being fetishized is a complement. It is presuming that in order for us to feel appreciated, we must get male affirmation.

But who exactly are these fetishists? Many of them are Weeaboos—people, primarily men, who are so enamored of anime and Japanese culture in general—that they have turned it into a fetish. Weeaboos are encouraged to continue harassing Asian girls by the frequent online mockery and joking about them and other Asian fetishists. If their behavior is not taken seriously, it conveys the idea that it is okay and that Asians should be seen as 2D women as objects to drool over.

Hysterical guys flood the comments when someone talks about the impacts of fetishization and how it must stop. They defend their bigotry and stereotyping by saying it is “only a preference.” They don’t understand the distinction between a preference and a fetish, which is to be expected from someone who spends their entire day online staring at cat girls.

The rationale says there is something unique about Asians if individuals consistently claim they prefer them over other races. And regrettably, that mentality is what makes people think less of them.

Asian Women are not your dolls, though.
We are not the expensive body pillow and  human figures you gather.
We are not your trophy subjects.
We do not fall within the pornographic category.
It’s time we take fetishization seriously and saw these weeaboos as the menace they truly are, not merely as internet niggles.