Since the first contact between the Eastern and Western world, there has been a Western representation of Asians that has affected Asians and Asian-Americans to this day. The racialized view of Asians —that was created by the western fascination with the ‘erotic’ otherness of Asians— has created stereotypes and a long history of discrimination and racial discourse for Asians. From Asian immigrants escaping government corruption from their birthland, to Asian-Americans living in a western society as an obvious racial minority; all Asians alike understand their inability to total incorporate themselves into a western world. However, in recent times, Eastern Asians have incorporated themselves into Western society as “honorary whites”. This leeway has allowed further acceptance and involvement in Western society but it’s still limited. There are still many problems Asians need to faces, whether it’s being a racial minority but even sexuality as well. As homosexuality has become a generally accepted sexual orientation in Western society, it is still a very touchy subject to other societies and minorities. With gay Asian men as being a sexual and racial minority in the Western society, this raises the question of how their identity is affected? In this literature review, there will be an investigation into whether the racialization of Asians in Western society affect gay Asian men’s identity in a positive or negative way. By looking at 3 academic journals as well as readings from Sociology of the body textbook by Claudia Malacrida & Jacqueline low, this investigation will factor in topics on being both gay and Asian in a Western society. 

Being a racial and sexual minority in the Western society, gay Asian men face constant backlashes that challenge their masculinity, sexuality, and ethnicity. These factors can affect them negatively as there are constant elements that other them from the ‘norm’. By looking at these factors in detail, this can further illustrate how they affect gay Asian men negatively.  

Emasculating Asian men by only seeing them as feminine is something all Asian men face, regardless of sexual orientation. Not only that but this idea of masculinity in Western society has affected men of all colour either by making them seem hypermasculine or femininizing them. In Being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man: Gay Asian Men and the Intersection of Race, Gender, sexuality, and Class, Chong-Suk Han masculinity —that formed from a Eurocentric view —as “defining white, middle class, early middle-aged heterosexual men” (Han, 2006: 84). This idea of white masculinity set unfair standards for other men of colour as it “defines others as feminine, the opposite of masculine or failing at achieving masculine norms” (Han, 2006: 84). This hegemonic form of masculinity was created from a homophobic, racist and sexist lens of European men. As Asian men are feminized as “early Europeans marked “oriental” men as feminine through Eurocentric racialization (Han, 2006: 84), Asian American men are still portrayed as asexual and/or feminine. Not only that but when Asian immigrants first came to America, Asian men were continued to be feminized through “domestic work and infantilizing Asian men by limiting their ability to vote or marry” (Han, 2006: 86). These factors still have perpetuating discrimination as Han mentions “Asian men stop doing domestic work in Western imagination, they nonetheless remain sexless” (Han, 2006: 86). Even today, there is a limit representation of Asian men in mainstream American popular culture as Asian men. 

Another negative effect on gay Asian men is the fear of their sexual identity in the Asian community. Sumie Okazaki compiled statistics and studies on Asian American sexual orientation in her article Influence of Culture on Asian Americans’ Sexuality and how Asian minorities face the fear of rejection in their community and family as the stigma of homosexuality may affect how the Asian community sees them. One study revealed half of 13 Japanese gay men were open with their family regarding their gay identity (Okazaki, 2002: 39). Further studies also show 57% of participants in another study were more comfortable in the lesbian/gay community than in the Asian American community and identified more as a lesbian/gay individual (Okazaki, 2002: 39). This fear of opening up about their sexual identity may be due to the backlash against the homosexual community like during the AIDS crisis and previous studies on homosexuality as a mental disorder. Peter Conrad further illustrated that these stigmas regarding homosexuality in his article Continuity: Homosexuality and the potential for remedicalization. Conrad states “the gay lifestyle – fast-track gay male lifestyle – a reservoir of existing fear of homosexuals. The new stigma, due to alleged health reasons (AIDS) , led to discrimination in employment, medical care, insurance, and schools” (Conrad, 2016:88). The idea of a gay lifestyle has created a further discrimination against gay minorities of colour. Okazaki mentions “Hispanic and Asian American gays and lesbians were also found to fear the social disapproval of their homosexuality more than their white counterpart” (Okazaki, 2002:88). Giving evidence that minorities are reluctant to connect with their racial groups, which may disconnect them from their racial identity. 

However, in the gay community, Asian men still need to deal with racial stigma as the gay community favours white gay men than gay men of colour. This creates a form of power hierarchy as “white gay men are seen as price for gay men of colour” (Han, 2006: 93). Gay men of colour will feel the need to overcompensate to feel desires by providing sexual fantasies for gay white men who are older (Han, 2006: 93). By racializing themselves to be fetishized and using their young, the relationship between a gay Asian men and gay white men will “illustrate discrepancy of power in gendered interaction and age” (Han, 2006: 90). Han explains “gay Asian men are seen as exotic and culturally mysterious” (Han, 2006: 90) they are “socially constructed to be feminine, submissive, and undemanding” (Han, 2006: 90). These factors portray gay Asian men as submissive sexual partners for white male consumption and it has a heavy negative effect on their own identity. Their self-esteem and self-worth are negatively impacted as Han reports that gay Asian men feel the need to live up to white beauty standards as well as be internally racist toward themselves to be accepted (Han, 2006: 93). This will create extremely detrimental consequence for emotional and physical health like being victimized, engaging the unsafe sex and low self-esteem. 

Gay Asian men deal with various of stigmas that have a very negative impact on their identity, however, Han mentions in her article Asian Girls are Prettier: Gendered Presentation as Stigma Management among Gay Asian men that these stigmas create stigma management that counteract these discriminations. The idea of a niche community –gay Asian community – also show the support and reliance on those who are in the same position. With these factors, gay Asian men may affect their identity in a positive way.

Han explains that stigma management may enforce higher self-esteem by “using hypermasculine gender presentation to counter the stereotype of femininity as well as portraying a drag queen persona to embrace feminine stereotypes” (Han, 2009: 107).  While gay Asian men are familiar with stigma management strategies as a member of an ethically stigmatized group by using tactics as passing, distancing, and affiliating (Han, 2009: 108), gay Asian men are implementing new strategies to use in the gay community. By using a hypermasculine gender presentation, gay Asian men is “straight acting” (Han, 2009: 109). They are factoring in traditional straight identities such as sports, interest in cars, and anything that doesn’t clash with the gay stereotype. On the other hand, by using their femininity, gay Asian men are embracing drag queen roles as it takes advantage of their ‘feminine’ identity as Asian men. This works because their authentic look “contributes to … the inability of white audience members and judges to see them as anything other than female” (Han, 2006:83). By being passable as a woman in drag culture, gay Asian men gain recognition and notoriety as a way to overcome marginalization within the gay community. By being able to pass as a ‘real women’ in drag culture, there is also the argument on their exaggerated feminine gender presentation. As it may manage the stigma of race simply provides some gay Asian men with the opportunity to trade one stigmatized status (race) for another (drag), drag provides them with the benefits that give them the acceptable level of status and notoriety within the gay community (Han, 2009: 107)

The idea that being a minority –whether it’s sexual or racial— can disconnect someone from feeling like they don’t belong relates to the idea of normalization. The idea that to be part of society by being part of the majority by conforming distance sexual and especially racial minorities. As racial minorities appear physically different from the white Eurocentric beauty standards, sexual minorities who are of white origin has the ability to conform with the masses. Another theory to note in this research paper is the idea of discipline through medial institutions. With the AIDS affecting the majority of the gay community, medical institutions can surveillance – like the panopticon that was proposed by Foucault– the community to create research. By investigating how racialization of Asians in Western society affect Asian gay men’s identity in a positive or negative way, the factories of racialization, homosexuality and ethic shows what gay Asian men deal with. Han mentions that as gay Asians are racial minorities in the gay community and sexual minorities in the Asian community, gay Asian experience stigmatization because of sex and race (Han, 2009: 109). The 3 main challenges gay Asian men may experience is learning to manage the stigma of race from larger society, managing the stigma of homosexuality from both the larger society and Asian community and lastly, managing the stigma of race, once more in the gay community (Han, 2009: 107). These factors of everyday life challenges outweigh the stigma management that is created to deal with those factors by looking at these sources. Therefore, it is concluded that gay Asian men’s identity is affected negatively by racialization due to constant challenges regarding their racialized identity as being feminine, fear of rejection for their sexuality in their Asian community, and constantly competing against their white counterparts in the gay community. 

Bibliography: (MLA) 

Han, Chong-Suk. “Asian Girls Are Prettier: Gendered Presentations as Stigma Management among Gay Asian Men.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 32, no. 2, 2009, pp. 106–122. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.2009.32.2.106.

Han, Chong-Suk, and Chong-Suk-Han. “Being an Oriental, I Could Never Be Completely a Man: Gay Asian Men and the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Class.” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 13, no. 3/4, 2006, pp. 82–97. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41675174.

Limin Mao, et al. “Ethnic and Gay Identification: Gay Asian Men Dealing with the Divide.” Culture, Health & Sexuality, vol. 4, no. 4, 2002, pp. 419–430. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4005254.

Malacrida, Claudia, et al. “Continuity: Homosexuality and the Potential for Remedicalization.” Sociology of the Body: A Reader, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 86–91.

Okazaki, Sumie. “Influences of Culture on Asian Americans’ Sexuality.” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 39, no. 1, 2002, pp. 34–41. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3813421.