Week 18!! Crazy how Mondays come around seemingly so much faster than Friday. Today's microaggression/memory is when I (along with most WOC) am called "EXOTIC."

Like what I said in my instastories, as child that term wasn't as prevalent in the bay area, but once I became an adult and moved to the Midwest...oh my did that change. (Here's a picture of me at 6 yrs old before the exposure of what I will learn in my later years.)

I was so aware that my asian-ess was and is for some men a novelty, and that came through them by drawing attention to my "exoticness". In the dating scene, I was consistently trying to sniff out any hint that a guy had "yellow fever" or had a thing for Asians. It's an awful experience to encounter someone who fetishizes an ethnicity. It's SO incredibly dehumanizing to be diminished to a caricature of what westerners thing about Asian women: this sensual, other worldly, submissive creature.

It's really disgusting, and media and history shows how far back this kind of dehumanizing potrayal exists. Read the article link in my profile to learn more about how the world "exotic" is rascist.

Another reason why it's so harmful is because it assumes and upholds a "right" kind of beauty that you're not. You are exotic because you don't fit into the normal white American beauty we all know and can recognize. Feeling like a foreign object of desire is not flattering at all...it's actually pretty scary.

We all need to stand up for upholding the dignity of WOC by being intentional to HONOR our cultures and differences. Maybe try complimenting a woman for a characteristic that is uniquely hers. There are so many empowering ways we can really compliment each other.
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#TWmemorymondays: A painting inspired by a memory every Monday of 2018. Connecting abstract art to real life. Week 18/53. 'Exotic' / 8x8 in / mixed media on paper