TGIF Feature: 2018 Haikus For Hotties calendar destroys the Asian male stereotype

STILL LOOKING for that perfect stocking stuffer for someone turns up a nose at the notion of dating Asian guys?

The Haikus for Hotties 2018 calendar is now taking orders. This is the third year this special calendar is being offered. Part spoof, part social commentary, it actually works as a calendar.

Haikus With Hotties is a calendar series that highlights the attractive and talented Asian men in media that often don’t get as much attention as they deserve.

The calendar counters the popular stereotype that attempts to emasculate Asian men: they can't be sexy, they can't be romantic, they aren't attractive. Or, to reference Steve Harvey, they aren't datable.

Haikus With Hotties is a series that celebrates Asian male hotness in all forms, mainly shirtless and lots of six-pack abs.

After the series launched in 2013 with Godfrey Gao, “Haikus With Hotties” released its first calendar in 2016 after a successful Kickstarter campaign featuring Yoshi and Peter Sudarso. 2017 brought a second calendar with a new twist: “From the makers of Haikus With Hotties now comes Haikus *On* Hotties.” 

For 2018, the fans have been invited to participate in the fun and write Haikus *For* Hotties. What started out as a joke has become a nice excuse to feature a variety of Asian American men doing interesting things in the media. 

For more information, visit www.haikuswithhotties.com.

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TGIF FEATURE: Playboy - Dating sucks if you're an Asian dude or black woman

The calendar, Haikus on Hotties, was created to counter the Asian male stereotype.

STEREOTYPES SUCK. An article in Playboy brought up that old, sad trope that Asian men are not desirable as romantic partners.

“We’re the product of a racist society,” Toronto-based matchmaker, Sofi Papamarko wrote in the Toronto Star recently, “and we’re going to have to work hard at being inclusive and open-minded in dating and in every other aspect of life if we’re set on making any progress at all.”

Papamarko, who operates one of the online dating sites that are so popular these days. Asian men, along with black women, she says in the Plalyboy article are the hardest ones for whom to find matches.

“When we see Asian men and black women having a harder time, part of it has to do with beauty standards and part of it has to do with the ways people are socialized to imagine how Asian men or black women behave inside and outside of relationships.”

This is pretty much old news. The only reasons to justify Playboy coming out with this  article this month is 1. that men's magazine might have seen the demographic data showing the growing diversity in the U.S, or 2. to boost the egos of its primarily white, male readership, (ie. Things may be bad but, thanks god I'm not Asian.)

However, it’s not just people on Papamarko's dating site who feel this way. The findings are pretty much the same as data taken from other dating sites. That doesn't mean that people are necessarily racist.

“Beauty is a cultural idea as much as a physical one, and the standard is of course set by the dominant culture,” writes OKCupid co-founder Christian Rudder. In a 2013 poll, the website surveyed 25 million website visitors. The study came to the same conclusion as Papamarko.

Long Duk Dong was played by Gedde Watanabe

Unforunately, despite leading-man heart throbes James Shigeta, Bruce Lee, Daniel Dae Kim and Steven Yeun, the image that persists in American culture comes from Sixteen Candles. Yup, that sex-crazed nerd, Long Duk Dong. 

A small survey of 350 Asian American men from 2015 pretty much echoes these results. Nearly half of Asian men have heard someone say “I don’t date Asian men” in their presence and many reported this dating preference within their own ethnic or racial group: East Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian. 

Another study at Columbia University tried to estimate how much men of different ethnic groups would need to earn to become as desirable to a woman as a man of her own race. With all other factors normalized, an Asian man would have to earn an additional $247,000 to stand on equal footing with his white counterpart. This statistic is less intimidating to a pediatric surgeon or venture capitalist than it is to, say, a freelance writer and part-time house-sitter.

Elliott Rodger and part of his journal.

Most recently, comedian Steve Harvey made a racist har-har joke based on the (in his view) the unattractiveness of Asian men. Harvey was mocking self-help books when he came across a title How to Date A White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men. He guffawed.  He found it laughable that a white woman could ever find Asian men attractive.

"That's one page, too!" he laughed at his own joke. "Excuse me, do you like Asian men? No. Thank you."

On the opposite end of the attraction scale were white men and Asian women, who are seen as more attractive dates. 

The role of media and pop-culture in shaping our concepts of beauty cannot be underestimated. From the time Renaissance artists began to reimagine Jesus in their own image to the time when David Carradine was picked over Bruce Lee to star in the Kung Fu TV series to the countless times when Asian men are not even considered for leading men roles in the movies and television. 

With that onslaught of propaganda that's so deeply ingrained into the American psyche, it is no wonder most Asian men in the U.S. are not seen as serious dating material. Getting over that self-hatred is like a rite of passage for Asian/American men. Some never dig themselves out of that hole and you end up with an Elliot Rodgers, who went on a killing spree.

“All of this centers on Eurocentric beauty standards, which privilege those who are white or are white adjacent in appearance—things like lighter skin, light colored eyes, thinner noses, certain jawline shapes,” Shantel Buggs, a PhD Candidate in sociology at the University of Texas, told the Toronto Star. 

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Oh, by the way, for you ladies ... and guys. Here's a link If you want a copy of, the  2017 Haikus on Hotties calendar at the top of this post. It was produce out by Dragonlady Productions.

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Haikus on Hotties: Reimagining the Asian male?

This calendar is available by clicking here.

YOU KNOW that tired old stereotype for As an males that won't go away? The sexless, nerdish, unwanted, inconsequential and laughable one? The one that keeps popping up, even today?

There are a couple of efforts to counter that stereotype and I have mixed feelings about it and would appreciate your feedback.

There is a calendar (just in time for gift-giving) featuring Asian men, the  2017 Haikus on Hotties calendar put out by Dragonlady Productions, an all woman crew. It features hunky Asian guys in various poses emphasizing their muscular physiques, rippling abs and their come-hither smoldering gazes.

Actor Yoshi Sudarso, who is featured in the calendar and in a short film called "It's Asian Men," lamented the roles that Asian actors are assigned: "There's the evil Yellow Peril stereotype, like Fu Manchu. And then there's the stoic monk-like martial arts master and the nerd, like Long Duk Dong, 'Sixteen Candles.' It's kind of the most notorious example."

Asian/American men very rarely get the romantic lead. (Tony Leung Ka-fai. in The Lover, James Shigeta in The Crimson Kimono and Steven Yeun in TV's The Walking Dead are exceptions.)

At best, they are the best friend, the helpful computer geek or the loyal chauffeur or servant. No one that matters, just characters in the background while the (usually white male) lead is the hero and gets the girl.

The success of the calendar led Dragonlady Productions' to create a short film called "It's Asian Men," that features Sudarso and three other Asian/American. It is a parody of the movie Magic Mike, that centered on male strippers.

“I just really want people to notice the talent that they have as well as their good looks, because there’s a lot of actors like that available,” Korean/American director Ahn told NPR. “They just aren’t being recognized by mainstream entertainment.”

Well, thanks! But ... and here's my dilemma.

I see what the women of Dragonlady Productions is trying to do to break that stereotyped that has dogged all Asian/American men that I know. Asian men have been so negatively portrayed in America that it might take an extreme measure in order to counteract that image.

But in doing so, and with such a strong emphasis on the physical appearance of the men - I mean, they are handsome and well-built - they don't look like your average-looking Asian male any more than the Victoria Secret models look like the average American woman? 

The infamous Long Duk Dong (Gordon Watanabe) of 'Sixteen Candles.'

Aren't the women objectifying men? They are doing what society has been condemned for doing to women by emphasizing their physical appearance to the point that they are no longer human beings that we care about but mere objects for whom we lust?

I know, I know. There are some Asian/American guys who will welcome the new image and say, "Alright! Make me a sex symbol. Objectify me all you want!"

The roots of the sexually, impotent Asian male stereotype is worthy of a book - several books - so I won't go into detail here. (I'm assuming readers of this blog are familiar with the reasons that image came to be.) In short, it came down to white males being sexually threatened by Asian males so popular media - controlled by white men - began to belittle the sexual prowess of Asian men.

Thus, the negative stereotype for Asian males has become so ingrained in American society that several studies have shown that Asian males are the least desirable on online dating sites (even among Asian women!) despite Yeun, Bruce Lee and a growing number of other good-looking men. The physically appealing Asian men have been out there all along and they just need to have attention heaped upon them to counter Sixteen Candles' Long Duk Dongs of pop culture. 

Even with Dragonlady's admirable effort, the scale is still heavily tipped towards Bonanaza's Hop Sing and Two Broke Girls' Han Lee. Certainly, a calendar of hot guys - no matter how well-intentioned - can't undo the negative stereotype but any small step to correct that can't do any harm, right?

I don't look anything like the guys in their calendar or on this short video accompanying this post. Are we replacing a negative stereotype with an impossible-to-achieve physical appearance? Is too much emphasis being placed on abductor muscles rather than on the values, intelligence, humor and personality of an individual?

Am I right? Or, am I wrong? Or am I just overreacting?

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