In Disciplining Corpulence Through Aesthetic Labor, Amanda M. Czerniaski briefly touched upon the idea of body image and acceptance in the context of plus-sized modeling. Similarly, Jean Kilbourne spoke of eating disorders and the obsession with thinness in her documentary Killing Us Softly. Kilbourne spoke about the development of eating disorders amongst young Fiji women upon their exposure to American television and pop culture.

Kilbourne may be correct in saying that the US has a public health problem with regards to eating disorders and unhealthy body image. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the US is the only place in the world that maintains and perpetuates negative body image ideals.

In many East Asian countries, the concept of beauty is intricately connected to weight. In East Asia, women are expected to be slim. Their weight is constantly policed by people around them, which essentially pressures them to have a potentially unhealthy perception of their bodies.

In What’s the Ideal Girl Like? by Off the Great Wall, Mia, Yi and Dan discuss dominant beauty standards in China. Yi, a Chinese American woman who went to school in China and the US, says that girls in China are more insecure about their bodies than similarly-aged American girls.

“The girls in China have a more unhealthy image of their bodies compared to the girls here… when I was in China, I could feel like the girls were really tense about their bodies and when I came to America… the girls were much more confident about themselves.”

Later in the video, Mia, Yi and Dan state what ‘ideal’ skin tone means in China. Their description alludes to 白富美 (rich, white, beautiful), a phrase that divulges the implicit connection between whiteness to beauty and wealth in this linguistic context.

“You’ll stay indoors if you’re rich, and therefore you’re pale. And if you work in the fields, you’re obviously a farmer and poor and you are also dark and dark has a negative connotation.”

Jaemin of Asian Boss asks young Korean women about dieting in What’s the Ideal Weight For Korean Girls? One of the women interviewed says that it is an ‘established fact’ in the dance world that the ideal body weight (in kilograms) is “quite simply, your height (in centimeters) minus 115.” Such standards are not unheard of in other East Asian countries either, which prompts one to question why body positivity and acceptance has not gained the same traction as it has in the US.

As/Is, previously known as Buzzfeed Boldly, produced a video where Asian American women share their perceptions on body image. One of the interviewed addresses the way in which Asian women such as herself receive confusing messages that distort the perception of their bodies.

“It’s funny because my mom will be like, “here’s all this food, don’t go hungry. But don’t overeat. But finish all the rice on your plate.”

Messages such as these unintentionally serve to complicate the relationship East Asian women have between food and their bodies.

There is a lot to unpack regarding body image and acceptance in an East Asian or Asian American context. Here are a few resources that pertain to body image in East Asia or Asian America;

https://wearyourvoicemag.com/body-politics/body-image-body-positive-movement-southeast-asia-asia-pacific

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/body-image-asian-americans/

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/03/132628275/Asian-Americans-And-The-Quest-For-Thin

Originally published at thegeopoliticsofbeautynyu6.wordpress.com on March 21, 2018.

From Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4 to Cohen, Wilk and Stoelje’s Beauty Queens on the Global Stage, the theme of whiteness as a beauty ideal appears to be recurrent. In Miss America, National Identity, and the Identity Politics of Whiteness, Banet-Weiser claims that beauty pageants such as Miss America are complicit to the idea of whiteness as a national identity. Banet-Weiser points out repeatedly that the ideal of beauty is bound by whiteness historically and presently, that “whiteness remains the standard against which all other racial categories are measured” (69). Banet-Weiser argues that national identity politics privilege whiteness, policing it as ‘normal’, especially when contrasted against other identities. Banet-Weiser concludes that the “Miss America contestant’s body represents a well-managed collective white American body” (86). The theme is reiterated by Cohen, Will and Stoelje, whose collective research yielded findings that contestants across the globe are universally held to beauty standards with western ideals. “Western models of femininity, beauty and civility can and do inform beauty contests” (10).

Therefore, it is not difficult to conclude that beauty pageant contestants are expected to conform to a beauty standard that upholds rich white women as the ideal. We know that national identity politics privilege whiteness. But what does this- the western beauty ideal in a beauty pageant halfway across the world, or that whiteness is privileged in identity politics- mean in a global, or more specifically, an East Asian context?

As an international student, I’ve always been intrigued by the dichotomy between the desirability of light or tanned skin, depending on where I am in the world. The existence of tanning beds and tanning salons still amuses me, as does the idea that white women go to the beach in the summer just so they could get their ‘perfect tan’.

Growing up in a society that valued whiteness- rendered in East Asian culture to refer to a lightness or paleness of skin- I can attest that more people are concerned with getting their skin to look lighter than they are with getting a good tan. All one has to do is look across the billboards at any major Asian city to notice an image of a smiling woman of East Asian descent, with skin considered light or pale by East Asian standards.

Light skin is favored in East Asian society, arguably to the point where people with lighter skin may be accorded a form of privilege that others do not have. Mixed race models with European/Caucasian ancestry may be given more opportunities than models who are fully Asian in descent.

The fixation of light skin is so ingrained in East Asian culture that Asian beauty brands and western beauty brands alike have produced skin-whitening products for their Asian Pacific markets.

The concept of whiteness in identity politics exists not in a vacuum, in that it exerts its influence on other countries and cultures. The intersection of race work and beauty work in East Asian culture is just as complex and worth looking into.

Originally published at thegeopoliticsofbeautynyu6.wordpress.com on February 19, 2018.

Yet I came to realize that this was false. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can choose to be a Christian- to proclaim Jesus as the Christ- but you cannot choose who you’re attracted to.

I’m Christian AND I’m queer.

Most of my friends at Gordon knew I had a personal reason for leaving. It was something I couldn’t tell them, for fear that they would all abandon me overnight. Yet the few whom I did come out to back then said they admired my courage for doing so.

Gordon College has been caught in the center of a madness which began when President D. Michael Lindsay added his signature to a letter addressed to the Obama administration, regarding discrimination in the hiring of LGBTQ+ individuals. More recently, two professors have sued Gordon College on accounts of their being denied promotions due to their LGBTQ-affirming stance.

It’s been almost two years since I transferred to NYU. I’ve been slowly coming out to people, some of whom are open and chill about it, and others who are much less so. I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised to find out that the Christians I’ve encountered in New York City appear to be so much more conservative than my friends at Gordon were.

I church-hopped frequently for my first four Sundays at NYU before settling with a church that was affiliated with the one I attended when I was at Gordon. I visited their fellowship meetings and small groups sporadically. I also came out to quite a few of them that first semester, garnering a set of mixed reactions.

I’ve had friends tell me they didn’t have a problem with it. Then again, I also discovered how closed-minded some of them could be. One of the leaders at fellowship, who was my RA at the time, completely flipped out at me. One of my friends from small group stopped talking to me altogether. I’ve had people tell me that they would pray for me to be rid of my ‘sinful desires’.

Last year, one of my small group leaders went on a full-blown rant about how he thought homosexuality was a sin. Someone from my small group said, ‘same-sex unions are unnatural’. When I asked her, ‘How do you know?’, her reply was, ‘because it’s not God-given’ — so I asked again. How do you know that it’s not God-given? Because for me, it definitely is. I see my sexuality as God-given.

I no longer go to that church. I also haven’t really found an affirming space where I can worship before God, just as I am. If I were to be completely honest, these experiences have made me reconsider whether I truly want to be a part of the church. I can continue to believe in God on my own, but I don’t want to be a part of what these people claim to represent. I’m reminded of what Gandhi said. “I like your Christ, but I don’t like your Christians.” So what does being Christ-like really mean? To live up to the unattainable standard of perfection, or to love as Jesus loved?

Christianity is becoming more institutionalized and less Christ-centered. We forget what is really important at the end of the day. If being Christian means to be judgmental instead of supportive, cynical instead of loving, I would rather not call myself one. If that’s what Christianity is, I don’t want to be a part of it.

I was doing my homework at the ARC just the other day, overhearing bits and pieces of conversation. There were people speculating about who their friends were hooking up with, a couple wondering if their friends have caught on that they’re an item… I drew in my breath. All I could think of at that moment was that I was the only queer kid in a space filled with straight students. At that moment, I felt like a true minority.

I went clubbing with a straight friend a couple of weeks ago. We stopped by the Hot Rabbit at Boots and Saddle. The place was packed with people, with more filtering in every passing minute. You had to shout over the music for anyone to be able to hear you. The lights were flashing and everyone was dancing like it was their last day on Earth. I’m too scared to approach anyone, worrying that all the pretty girls were straight and accompanying their gay male friends for a fun night out.

I notice a claw machine out of the corner of my eye. I make my way towards it and feed it a $1 bill. The machine buzzes to life and my senses are heightened. I watch as the blinker counts down the time I have left. I move the claw over a stuffed animal balancing precariously on another. I press the button, staring wide-eyed as the claw proceeded to grab it. As the claw ascended, the stuffed animal slips out of its grasp. I pound the window in frustration.

Originally published at www.theodysseyonline.com on October 11, 2017.