Race Preference or Race Fetish?

While at Otakon last weekend, I got to indulge myself a bit more in the various cultures of Asia. Late Saturday night, we decided to camp out in the film room, to check out three different movies – a South Korean comedy, a Chinese/HK fight flick, and a South Korean melodrama. In, another friend, decided to join Hae and I during the films, so we were all present for most of the films.

In the last half of an amusing but flat gangster melodrama, a hot guy debuted on the scene.

My head whipped toward Hae in the darkened theater.

“Who is that?” I hissed.

“Eric from Shinhwa,” she replied, “He’s cute right?”

In swung across us.

“No he isn’t,” she said, “the main character is much hotter.”

“Yeah, but he’s old,” Hae managed to reply before we started getting dirty looks from other Otaku.

After departing the movies, we spent the rest of the night in our hotel, watching music videos and comparing pictures of Asian stars.

Do I have a fetish?

Are Hae and In fetishizing their own race?

The idea of fetishizing one’s own race is another charged idea. Growing up, I was taught that “black is beautiful” and that edict guided most of my ideas about attractiveness and appeal until I became an older teen. Many of my friends still cite same race preferences in dating (though most of us actively dabble other places.)

Why is it that a preference for certain characteristics – like locs, a thicker/thinner body type, skin tone – are more acceptable with your own racial group? Is it fetishizing if a dark-skinned black male only dates light-skinned black women? Is it fetishizing if my Korean friends express a preference for Korean men only? Or Korean men and white men only?

There are no answers in this post, unfortunately – just some things I am thinking about.

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