There’s a thin line between having a preference and fetishizing in the dating world — women of color know this all too well.
Fetishization is the process where certain physical traits of women of color become objectified and hyper-sexualized to fit the dominant stereotypes.
Some stereotypes include being submissive, sexually inhibited and sexually available.
Women and gender studies professor Lynn Fujiwara talks about her own experience being fetishized in a relationship as an Asian-American woman.
“After six years of being in a relationship with someone, it finally dawned on me to ask him, ‘What about me are you attracted to?’” Fujiwara said. “He said, ‘It’s because you’re exotic.’ I was blown away and never imagined that that was what was going on through that person’s head.”
She believes that mainstream media plays a big part in perpetuating fetishization.
“I think the media is chock-full of fetishizing women of color as ‘sexually available’ or ‘sexually there’ to please,” she said. “women of color are usually perceived as the hypersexualized character or the background performance.”
She also believes that when someone is being fetishized, they’re not being viewed holistically.
“You’re reduced to one dimension of your being,” Fujiwara said. “Your presence and who you are is made for someone else’s pleasure.”
As an active member in the University of Oregon’s Multi-Ethnic Student Alliance, senior sociology major Ellen Rojc, shares how burdening it is when people fetishize those who identify as women of color or multi-ethnic.
“Fetishizing is problematic especially if there’s an individual that is romantically interested with the fact that you’re multi-ethnic or a woman of color rather than you the individual,” Rojc said. “That makes it very uncomfortable.”
Fujiwara acknowledges this discomfort and also shares how fetishization can hinder the expression of women of color sexuality.
“When women of color want to express their sexuality, they’re expected to not buy into this dominant exoticness stereotype, which doesn’t allow them to own their own sexual expression,” Fujiwara said. “That is why, there’s work now to make race-positive sexuality so women of colorFeth can claim their own sexuality.”
Jeremiah Favara, a graduate teaching fellow for the gender media and diversity course, sees himself as an ally contributing to this kind of work. He offers some advice to students going into the media field.
“Be critical about media as a consumer and producer, be open to conversations and seek out viewpoints other than your own,” Favara said. “Think about your own position and how it speaks to these differences between us.”