Asian American Girl: Indescribable Fear

By: Holly Ji

March 16, plastered all over the news and social media is a traumatizing reminder of what it is to be both a girl and Asian in America. The fetishization of Asian women is what caused the mass shooting in Atlanta. In the eyes of a white man, Asian women are submissive and shy. In the eyes of a white man, Asian women are to be conquered. In the eyes of a white man, Asian women are “sexual temptations” to get rid of. In the eyes of the media, the white man was just having a bad day.

The white man was just a kid with a sex addiction. Finally, in the eyes of an Asian-American girl, the gut-wrenching realization that society’s fetishization of her could mean death. The irrational yet horrifying thoughts of what will happen when her parents go out in public. The alertness, the emptiness, the paralyzing fear, and the disappointment when the topic is “too political for school.” You will see “allies” and support wash away, but this indescribable fear will never leave.