I am sick of the media’s whitewashing of beauty

“You’re so pretty for an Asian girl!” Boys have said this to me my entire life. I shyly tell them thanks, not knowing that these backhanded “compliments” would soon make me feel not good enough for the White population but too good for the Asian population.

I remember looking for an Asian character that I could relate to on television. The character didn’t have to be a boy or a girl, the character didn’t even have to be South Korean, I just wanted someone who looked like me that I could relate to. But of course, the only person I could ever find in the mainstream media was Mulan. I was always Mulan at parties, playdates, get togethers, you name it. I could never be Belle, my favorite princess. I had to be Mulan, and for the most part, I had to act like a man. I wanted to be pretty!

And then, yellow fever happened. Yellow fever fetishized the Asian population into solely sexual, superficial items. I am not just my race – my race and my culture are a part of who I am. It took me a while to stop casually accepting to go on dates with these boys because I thought that’s just always how it was going to be.

This “compliment” boys gave me is not a compliment at all. In fact, not only does it make it sound like you’re not all that pretty, but it also degrades the beauty of an entire race. Not that I need validation from a fairly insignificant teenage boy, but I am pretty. Not pretty…for an asian girl.

The media has completely controlled the standard of beauty, shifting it favorable of the Western race. Flowing blond hair, striking blue eyes, fair skin. That’s what everyone wanted. But the world isn’t like that. America, the melting pot of cultures, isn’t like that. The media should have fair representation of all races in different characters. No more of that minor character who was a stereotypical Asian nerd. Give me something to connect to. Give me depth and emotion to these characters. I mean, we’re people too!

I don’t want another young Asian girl staring up at the TV wondering why she looks so different from everyone else. Wondering why the only person that looks like her only has two lines, and these two lines probably relate to a math problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Emma Watsons, the Blake Livelys, the Jennifer Lawrences of the world. But I know there are qualified Asian actors and actresses, too, and when I google “famous actresses,” I want to see a mixture of races, of backgrounds, of cultures. Characters are meant to represent the American culture on television – how can only one race successfully represent a mixing bowl of races?

And to all the minority women out there, I say that these skewed standards of beauty are absolutely worthless compared to our strength, intelligence, and dangerously good looks. It’s just a shame that the rest of the world keeps whitewashing the media.