Monday, January 7, 2008

Anne being sensitive person of color

It's complete! The Asian Fetish has come full circle!

There's a woman named Sascha Rothchild, who for all intents and purposes, is white. I discovered this demographic fact when I googled her name and found a video of her reading from an old diary on Get Mortified! - a weekly open mic, wherein everyday people tell embarrassing stories. (Advance apologies if the two Sascha Rothchilds are wholly unrelated.)

Anyway, this woman has a piece in LA Weekly's "La Vida" section - a column, wherein... everyday people...tell...embarassing stories. In her piece, Rothchild writes about how hard it had been to find a man, much less falling in love at first sight. How hard it was, that is, until she met and went on two dates with an Asian-American stuntman she affectionately refers to as The Ninja. She fantasizes about their prospective Korean-American life together (which, speaking as a half-Korean, makes her a masochist), and attributes his love-making skill to the fact that he happens to be a martial artist. She's endeared by his Asian respect for parents, his Asian modesty and his almond-shaped eyes...

At first glance I'm offended by the ninja nickname, because it's uttered by a white chick. But then as I read this thing I start to feel bad, like I'm reading another entry from her Diary - Year 13 (Dear Diary, You aren't going to believe this, but I met and fell in love with an oriental!). But then...I start to wonder if this wasn't:

a. Just a joke (at the end of the piece it turns out the guy never calls her back and she was had.)
b. Ironic (i.e. she's actually married to Guy Aoki now)
c. Post-ironic (i.e. LA Weekly was saying "Asian dudes are the new Asian chicks")

But finally, I just wondered, "why?"

Why was this published? Why did she write it? Why is it shocking that she'd fall for an Asian dude? Why why why?

Because the only way this story is interesting is if you think falling in love with a ninja is silly, exotic, unlikely, or offensive.

And folks, it's none of those things...because as we all know, ninjas are invisible.




(Thanks for the heads up, Ryan. And thanks for the vid, Sarah.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just for the record, my college friends and I (of many different shapes, sizes and colors) were all hooked on Asian guys when you were still a sparkle in your tochan's eye. As a result, many of us have lived our adult lives with last names most of our relatives are unable to pronounce let alone spell.

Loved the footage on the ninja parade. All good things come from California.

Anonymous said...

I checked out the article you mentioned and the gentleman in question was LITERALLY dressed as a ninja on a photo shoot. Hence his nickname. Sorry to spoil the conspiracy theory.