A Japanese Man Was Hollywood’s First Sex Symbol

[Buntaro]

"...Hollywood's very first sex symbol — sex! symbol! — was Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa. But if the first sex symbol was a brooding Japanese man during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s,"

A Japanese Man Was Hollywood’s First Sex Symbol So Stop Emasculating Our Asian Leading Men

As someone who would gladly die smothered in Daniel Dae Kim’s beefy mommy milkers, the desexualization of Asian men completely truly befuddles me. Onscreen, Asian men are whittled down to little more than asexual tapeworms via neutered stereotypes: the weirdo foreigner (Silicon Valley’s...

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[thomas]

Very interesting, thanks for posting this! I had to look up "miscegenation". More on Sessue Hayakawa:

Sessue Hayakawa - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[nice gaijin]

Very interesting, thanks for posting this! I had to look up "miscegenation". More on Sessue Hayakawa:

Sessue Hayakawa - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yeah miscegenation is fortunately a term that is no longer heard in the states, but our parents and grandparents definitely heard it.

 

[Buntaro]

The woman in the photo must be mentioned. She was Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American, and a big Hollywood star before WWII. She was the biggest East Asian ("Oriental") star of Hollywood in silent movies and 'talkies'. She was turned down for the role of Olan in Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth because the producers decided to use a white actress in 'yellowface'.

The following link contains the word miscegenation!

Anna May Wong - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[johnnyG]

As something of a movie buff, this thread offers great info--thanks!