Why This White Female Randomly Kissing Japanese Men Is Problematic

So I am sure many of you would have watched this video or seen the video come across your news feed. Where I get where she is coming from and I guess at the least she has good intentions, the whole premise of the video is wrong and problematic.

Now before I continue I need to disclose that my criticisms have nothing to do with shitting on WF/AM, because this video isn’t really about that and my criticisms have nothing to do with that.

My issue which is shared by others is really on what she did in the video and how it seriously borders if not is sexual assault. This type of behavior does not help in changing the Asian male stereotype. She is aggressively attacking them, which actually pushes the stereotype of Asian male passiveness. It also diminishes real, meaningful AMWF relationships, because she’s limited Asian men as a fetish…

Now, let me put a scenario into your minds – imagine if the genders were reversed. A white male (who wants to raise awareness for an issue of how Asians are portrayed in the film industry in the US) makes a video of himself in Japan randomly kissing Japanese women – oh hey doesn’t that sound slightly similar to say the “David Bonds” of the world? Obviously this Leela Rose intentions are a little more “innocent” than say the “David Bonds”, but still it wreaks the same stench in many ways.

The other issue which is problematic is that this “random-ness” borders as I said earlier sexual assault. Unless the Japanese men she randomly pashed were actors, it is really without their consent and therefore sexual assault. If a man did this and randomly kissed women, regardless of race it is deemed sexual assault so I want to be fair and say it is the same thing in this case.

Also, many of the men she pashed may be married or have girlfriends, so how is this ethically moral? I mean if she tried to do that to my husband, god, she would have to deal with an angry and extremely irate me. She appears to have no concept of relationships and boundaries and this is extremely distasteful.

Leela is also unintentionally pushing her white privilege in Asia. Let’s face it, white people (male or female) are somewhat revered in Asia and seen as more “superior”. She knows that and is just plodding her way through Japan flaunting this “privilege”. This is no different from what white men do when they head to Asia purposefully looking for Asian women, and clearly Leela is festishsising Asian men by making this video. Its great she loves Asian men, but by going around and sexually assaulting Asian men, isn’t helping her cause at all.

Lastly, I still do not see how this video spreads awareness of how Asians are portrayed in the US/western film industry? I watched it and its just her randomly kissing and passhing Japanese men without consent – how does this work towards the cause?

I rest my case. But I guess she still has her Asian male admirers…..

Images via Leela Rose’ Facebook page