hardboiled

race to disgrace: countdown to asian american sellouts

by brian lau

Long have philosophers spent sleepless nights pondering over one of this world’s greatest questions, one of life’s most elusive mysteries: what would an Asian American version of Paris Hilton look like? That is, someone whose only discernible talent is making bystanders question what her talents are. While imitators have come and gone, those of us who study these types of things (i.e., me) have been waiting patiently for our prodigal daughter to arrive. Well, the wait is over - hardboiled is proud to announce we’ve found her and her name is Tila Tequila.

And the wait was well worth it, because in many ways Tila embodies all the things we dislike about Paris and then some. They’re both immensely popular, unbelievably talentless, and vaguely alien-looking. But there’s something extra about Tila that lets her kick it up another notch. The self-proclaimed “Queen of Myspace,” Tila has translated her popularity on the social networking site (over 2.3 million friends) to a record deal, appearances in mainstream movies, and her own TV show. All the while, she manages to be problematic on so many levels.

Our main beef with Tila isn’t that she’s successful for nothing – we’re haters, but we have our limits. Rather, we’ve got problems with how she’s become successful. By playing off hypersexualized images of Asian women and bisexual women, Tila’s found success at the cost of essentializing both her race and her sexual orientation. And that’s enough to earn her the number four spot on the countdown.

To Be Bi or Not To Be
On her MTV reality show, “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila,” Tila brings sixteen men and sixteen women to live together with her and compete for her affections. The big reveal is that Tila is bisexual, and the show details the numerous efforts of the contestants to get with Tila (and each other).While Tila’s bisexuality has come into question (a recent article in the New York Post claims she’s not only straight, but that she’s in the middle of a relationship), regardless, her presentation of herself as a bisexual contains numerous stereotypes about bisexuals, including the assumptions that they are constantly horny and always in a state of indecision regarding the sex of the partners they choose.

Playing the Race Card in a Game of Strip Poker
Tila, who is credited with being the first Asian Playboy Cyber Girl, has built her career around looking particularly amorous, to put it delicately. In a photo spread for Stuff magazine, Tila poses wearing little and carrying a big sword. The image immediately plays up stereotypes of Asian women as hypersexual beings, and hits both the Geisha Girl and Dragon Lady archetypes with its implied aggression and passivity.

And it’s not enough that she plays into exoticized images of Asians; in the video for her first single, “I Love You,” Tila, brandishing a riding crop, is seen straddling a faceless black man, included for the sort of sexual healing all black men are supposed to supply. Again, we find the histories of people of color being hypersexualized carried through to the current day with Tila’s work. No Talent Necessary

In researching information about Tila for this article, I had the privilege of listening to some of her music and watching clips of her show. While it may not be a legitimate reason to call her a sellout, I feel it’s important to emphasize just how talentless Tila is. From her song “Fuck Ya Man”: I don’t know why you think I wanna rape ya boo / but then again if I was you, I would hate me too / I’m a badass bitch and y’all get nuthin’ / Y’all need to tell ya boy sumthin’ … biatch! Rakim on the mic, she is not.

On some levels, it’s difficult to call out Tila as a sellout for a couple of reasons. The daughter of poor Vietnamese immigrants, Tila has undoubtedly had a rough upbringing, and thus there’s a certain degree of admiration we feel for her success. Furthermore, we must be careful in calling Tila out as a sellout because we run the risk of setting boundaries on things we shouldn’t. hardboiled isn’t in the business of policing acceptable sexual behaviors, and while I may not be looking to bring home a girl who would dry hump my grandma (though it certainly would make for an interesting Christmas), it’s a much more dangerous path to enshrine a particular type of sexuality and demonize all who deviate from that type.

Still, in Tila’s case, it would be hard to do anything else but criticize the image she promotes. That dual image of the dominant Dragon Lady and the submissive Geisha Girl, the hypersexualized woman who caters to the white man, is the same image that has supported sex trafficking from Asia to the US. That same picture is seen in the teenage girls forced into prostitution in their home countries to fuck rich tourists. Tila didn’t create these images, but that doesn’t get her off the hook for making her money and finding her fame off of them.