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1. Modeling » Comment on Does this look like a mixed Asian to you? by Neil on 18 Oct 2007 at 12:33 am

   [...] Kasima wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFor all you know, they could be asking for those qualities in a model, because they’re want to parody it, or use it for an article on stereotypes. Sounds far fetched? Imagine the conversation that may have happened, if Carmen chose to … [...]

Comments

1. Wendi Muse wrote:

   wow…three things come to mind a) hybrid??? wtf…he’s not a mutant or an eco-friendly car, he’s a human being…b) why does it seem like they just need a hapa guy for sex appeal? (i think i saw “shirtless” up there a lot)…and c)seriously, why a centaur? it just weirds me out…all of it… i guess we’ll have to wait for the final results, but this seems unusual for hyphen…

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:19 am ¶

2. Jasmine wrote:

   So if they were looking for a Hapa female, would the concept have been a mermaid instead of a centaur? Was the creative team watching “Fantasia” this weekend when inspiration struck?

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:24 am ¶

3. Mireille wrote:

   I thought this post was going to be about how Fantasia had characters of mixed origin. I was really disappointed after actually read it.

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:24 am ¶

4. Lyonside wrote:

   Because mixed-ethnicity folk are HYBRIDS? Like cars and mules? or we’re mythological in nature (and portrayed as randy to boot)?

   Wow. And you just know they’re going to find an Asian/European model, right? Because the mass media doesn’t seem to acknowledge ANYONE mixed-Asian who isn’t at least 1/2 white… (well, OK, except Kimora Simmons).

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:49 am ¶

5. Stef wrote:

   I figured since it was the Winter issue, they were giving a shout out to all the Sagittarians out there.

   j/k

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 1:28 pm ¶

6. Fiqah wrote:

   Jasmine: Get out of my head with the “Fantasia” thing!

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 1:36 pm ¶

7. justin wrote:

   The cover could be joke. I can imagine a hapa centaur vomiting rainbows, It doesn’t seem like anything subtle.
   They could do achieve the same thing with Jessica Alba and the dog faced boy from Dark Angel.

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 2:10 pm ¶

8. Yolanda Carrington wrote:

   It sounds heterosexist as all hell to me. Men are only attractive if they’re muscular? By whose standards?

   And yeah—why does the candidate “ideally” have to be mixed-race? What a way to boost Asian men’s self-image!

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 2:15 pm ¶

9. Sara wrote:

   Lyonside, I’d assume they’re p0king fun at those kinds of sentiments by exaggerating them.

   Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 2:30 pm ¶

10. Neil wrote:

    other than my initial discomfort over the association of mixed-race with the word ‘hybrid’, i feel like this thread is another case of over-analyzing and passing judgement before seeing the final product.

    it’s one thing to be a blog about analyzing and disseminating pop culture and all it’s intrinsic biases, but posting something like this is irresponsible, and is only going to bait people into cynicism before they even know the intended usage.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 2:30 pm ¶

11. Danni wrote:

    Neil,

    In most situations, I really don’t think that the end justifies the means. This is the means, and it is extremely problematic, offensive, and inconsiderate to mixed-race individuals. I don’t care if the article winds up being amazing, the vocabulary and framework that they’re using to recruit models is problematic.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 3:11 pm ¶

12. brad wrote:

    Lyonside,

    I think you’re forgetting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who is African-American and Samoan. Rarely, is Johnson’s African heritage noted except in the occasional interview he does with Ebony or Jet.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 3:29 pm ¶

13. gatamala wrote:

    posting something like this is irresponsible, and is only going to bait people into cynicism

    Neil, if you haven’t noticed we’re already cynical.

    On that note, I don’t know what the centaur is about. Perhaps it’s just the creative idea for the cover. When I think of the human part of centaur, I think of buff. 1/2 man 1/2 bird chest won’t cut it. The 1/2 & 1/2 thing does provoke a side-eye….

    (this pic looks like the result of a drunken hookup between Aladdin and My Little Pony)

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 3:51 pm ¶

14. LaLa wrote:

    I don’t think Hyphen is using a hapa guy for the hapas-are-hot sex appeal. If you follow the mag, almost any guy who appears on the cover is shirtless and used for his sex appeal:

    http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/features/issues/fall05/index.php

    http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/features/issues/winter03/index.php

    They are known for their quirky (and often tongue-in-cheek) covers. So I’m going to wait to see it before passing judgement. I don’t find this offensive. Not yet anyways.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 3:59 pm ¶

15. Neil wrote:

    Not to assume I’m being utterly optimistic about this magazine’s intentions, but you don’t really know what they’re planning to do with a Hapa muscular centaur. That alone should give you pause before jumping to conclusions.

    For all you know, they could be asking for those qualities in a model, because they’re want to parody it, or use it for an article on stereotypes. Sounds far fetched?

    Imagine the conversation that may have happened, if Carmen chose to commission someone to actual draw the picture posted with this article. (I’m assuming she just found the picture online):

    Carmen: Yeah, so I’m looking for you to draw me a picture of a young male tween with blue skin, and with the body of a horse with legs that look like bellbottoms.
    Artist: Um….. alright?

    now, with no idea what the intended use is, you could come up with a billion different hypotheses on what sick and twisted uses Carmen has for such a specific picture.

    honestly, when i saw ‘mixed-asian’ in the title, and a blue skinned centaur in the picture, I initially thought that Carmen was posting something she found online regarding South Asian stereotyping. being Indian myself, I immediately saw that picture as being the punchline of some racist Shiva or Krishna joke. obviously, after reading the article, i realize that the picture is completely separate from the article.

    all i’m saying is that if we can find problematic things in everything, if we’re persistent enough. but if racial activists are to be taken seriously, we need to be reasonable about things, and try to not always bash the means before we know the end.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 4:11 pm ¶

16. Neil wrote:

    good lord, my typing is terrible! i swear i’ll proofread next time.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 4:13 pm ¶

17. Gregory A. Butler wrote:

    “It is my truth that I am a Centaur-American”

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 8:36 pm ¶

18. merq wrote:

    Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t think the centaur concept necessarily has anything to do with the model’s hapa identity.

    Also, I’m glad Gatamala pointed out that gym memberships are mandatory in centaurland.

    Also, I noted that the first mention of the model’s ethnic identity simply states “Asian American.” Only on the second mention do they add “ideally Hapa/mixed.”

    Now, you’d be well within your right to wonder what’s so “ideal” about that, but I believe that, while problematic, the Hapa reference has nothing to do with the centaur concept.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 8:54 pm ¶

19. Colin wrote:

    So wait, was that photo was added to an email asking for photos of topless Asian American males? Odd…”That’s right, we want a centaur!” Just weird. I don’t understand this nearly enough to be honest.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:48 pm ¶

20. James wrote:

    I honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about and I’m confused as to why everyone is mad. Is it because the guy is hapa or the guy is a centaur? Or that people equate a centaur to a hybrid car?

    Well the cover makes sense for the hybrid theme. Hapa/centaurs are hybrids of something. Besides, Hyphen has an entire history of weird covers/photos so its something we should all come to expect.

    Posted 17 Oct 2007 at 10:59 pm ¶

21. Seng wrote:

    That’s speciesist! As if there aren’t any Centaur Americans out there that are totally qualified for this photoshoot but instead they want to make one out of a Asian American and a horse. Did they even take half an effort to look for a Centaur American before posting this?

    Posted 18 Oct 2007 at 2:37 am ¶

22. Neil wrote:

    actually Seng, that would still qualify as racist, since an american centaur and an asian-american centaur would belong in the same species.

    Posted 18 Oct 2007 at 8:45 am ¶

23. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    Sorry to be super-late with this response, everyone.

    I decided to post this because this email has been circulating on various listservs for mixed people. Jen (Chau) is the one who forwarded it to me.

    I don’t know if the Hyphen staff themselves sent it to those listservs, or if the email just wound up there via the grapevine, but it’s there. And how are mixed folks supposed to feel about it?

    I agree that we don’t know what Hyphen’s intentions are with this cover. That’s why I didn’t try to guess what their intentions were. I just said: “I don’t know what they were thinking with this cover concept.”

    But given that the Asian-American community has historically not been particularly welcoming towards mixed Asians, and they didn’t explain the cover concept at all, it raised an immediate red flag for me when I saw that Hyphen wanted to use a centaur for its “Hybrid” issue.

    As a mixed Asian myself, here was my gut reaction. First impression: wow, they think we’re freaks of nature, like centaurs. Second impression: of course they’d want a muscular build because mixed people exist only to be fetishized. Third impression: this is just offensive.

    I don’t speak for everyone, that’s just me.

    If Hyphen wanted to reach Hapa males, why not explain the concept a little more in this initial casting call? If I was a mixed Asian male aspiring model/actor, I’d want to know what the story was before allowing my image to be used in this way.

    Posted 18 Oct 2007 at 3:51 pm ¶

24. claire wrote:

    okay, guys, calm down.

    please note that i’m not speaking for hyphen because i’m no longer on staff, but as a cofounder of the magazine (one of two hapas who cofounded the mag, as a matter of fact), i do have a bit of an in.

    the call for models was written, at least in part, by stef liang, the (hapa) creative director of hyphen, who has been in charge of design, including covers, since the first issue.

    i don’t know specifically what stef and co. were thinking, since i wasn’t in on the discussion, but i can venture an educated guess:

    1. the issue is very distinctly the *hybrid* issue, NOT the *hapa* issue. hyphen editors will walk for miles to avoid hitting the usual aa magazine cliches. i know for a fact that they have one or two hapa articles in there, but i’m sure they’ll also have stuff on hybridity that has nothing to do with hapas.

    2. the centaur is a high impact image of hybridity, NOT hapaness. trying to get a hapa guy to play the centaur is (i’m guessing again here) an attempt to layer one type of hybridity upon another, or more specifically, a “real” hybridity onto a mythical one, or even more specifically, to point out the not-quite-reality of treating multiracials as hybrids.

    3. the request for a muscular guy is a recognition of the mythical tradition that centaurs are beautiful men (look at greek sculpture), and also of the fact that people are more likely to buy magazines with beautiful, half naked men on the covers, both.

    and whoever said above that you should wait and see before getting all up in arms had it right: if time magazine put out a call for hapa men to play centaurs for their hybridity issue, i’d fly to new york with you to picket their offices.

    but this is hyphen magazine, which has never been even the slightest bit reluctant, CARMEN, to feature and spotlight hapas as full members of the community. whether you like the mag or not, hyphen has earned the benefit of the doubt from you all.

    Posted 18 Oct 2007 at 5:30 pm ¶

25. Harry Mok wrote:

    I hope our Hybrid Issue creates this much buzz when it comes out, and we all get to see the cover.

    Thanks for taking an interest in Hyphen, and be sure to get Hyphen so you can judge for yourself.

    http://hyphenmagazine.com/gethyphen

    –Harry, Hyphen editor in chief

    Posted 18 Oct 2007 at 11:31 pm ¶

26. Seng wrote:

    Neil- An Asian American centaur is an American centaur. I’m not saying anything about making a non-Asian (American) centaur look “Asian” (which would of course be fuctup), I’m taking issue with the idea that no effort has been made to find an actual centaur.

    Posted 19 Oct 2007 at 2:38 am ¶

27. Kimi wrote:

    Are they trying to say that they are looking for a “mulatto” Asian Male. Mulatto 1. halve horse halve donkey 2. mixed person (usually black and white mix….so I’m confused here). I think it was a weird choice.

    Posted 21 Oct 2007 at 5:42 pm ¶

28. Anonymous wrote:

    Interesting how they consider hapas as Asian by default.

    Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 7:56 pm ¶