

































 

 

 

 

 

Sanitizing Yellow Peril      

How Asian Pornotroping Erects White Saviorism 

Yunchi Li, University of Toronto, ‘25 

 

 

Abstract: This essay extends Black feminist theorist Hortense Spillers’s (1987) concept of 

pornotroping to an Asian context, examining how cinematic tropes perpetuate Asian 

fetishization. Focusing on the hypersexualized portrayals, namely the Lotus Blossom and the 

Dragon Lady, as manifestations of Asian pornotroping, it explores how these depictions 

construct abject female Asian subjectivities. Through an analysis of the hypersexualized 

tropes in Madama Butterfly (1904), Miss Saigon (1989), and The World of Suzie Wong 

(1960), I argue that Asian pornotroping emerges as a legacy of Woan’s (2008) concept of 

White sexual imperialism. This legacy not only incites and justifies White Saviorism but also 

imposes a destitution/sexuality matrix onto Asian subjectivities, signaled through physical 

features or cultural markers. Ultimately, Asian pornotroping obscures the colonial violence 

inflicted by the West on the Asia-Pacific in the 20th century, reinforcing a colonial narrative 

of a progressive, humane Occident contrasted against an underdeveloped, backward Orient. 

  

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  



 Black feminist theorist Hortense Spillers (1987) coined the term “pornotroping” to 

describe how Black suffering is turned into a visual spectacle for entertainment, tantalization, 

and shock value. Alexander Weheliye (2014) expands on this concept, proposing that 

cinematic pornotropes visually inscribe abjection onto Black bodies, enfleshing them as sites 

of otherness and transforming them into eroticized commodities whose fetishization is 

inseparable from their racialized identity. These portrayals construct a framework where 

racialized bodies are othered and commodified, reinforcing a narrative of fetishization that is 

inseparable from their identity. 

Inspired by Spillers’ analysis, this paper examines the simultaneous racialization and 

fetishization of Asian women in Western cinematic productions. While Asia encompasses a 

multitude of diverse cultures with distinct histories, value systems, economies, and religions, 

cinematic portrayals often homogenize these differences into a singular, universal 

representation of “the Oriental woman” (Rajgopal, 2010, p. 144; Shimizu, 2000; Tajima, 

1989). Transposing Spillers’s concept to the Asian context, I introduce Asian pornotroping to 

analyze how Western cinematic tropes contribute to the fetishization and abjection of Asian 

women. 

Asian pornotroping refers to the process by which stereotypical narrative tropes inscribe 

a destitution/sexuality matrix onto Asian subjectivities and bodies. This process employs 

organic (e.g., bodily features) and inorganic (e.g., clothing, furniture, language, cultural 

practices) ethnic markers to accentuate Asianness and its perceived destitution. In this paper, 

I radically appropriate the term “destitution” to encompass not only material deprivation that 

renders survival nearly impossible, but also a perceived moral and sexual depravity—an 

extreme lack of respectability—projected onto impoverished, racialized subjects by European 

colonial discourse. Expanding the term in this way highlights how imperialist imaginaries 

collapse poverty and sexual excess into a single racialized figure of abjection. This 

framework allows me to trace how Asian femininity is constructed not only as economically 

lacking, but also as sexually degraded, and thus in need of rescue, containment, or erasure. 

Stereotypical tropes for Asian women can be classified into two archetypes: the Lotus 

Blossom and the Dragon Lady (Tajima, 1989). The Lotus Blossom archetype depicts passive, 

submissive, self-sacrificing, and hyperfeminine Asian women who exist primarily as “love 

interests for white men” (Tajima, 1989, p. 309). These characters are often portrayed as 

virginal prostitutes, readily available for white male sexual consumption. In contrast, the 

Dragon Lady archetype portrays domineering, seductive, and politically dangerous Asian 

women who wield their sexuality to manipulate white men, either for personal gain or as 

agents of “conniving Asian males” aiming to undermine Western civilization (Shimizu, 2000, 

p. 59). 

Despite their apparent differences, characters in both archetypes often share 

commonalities: participation in sex work as concubines, prostitutes, or seductresses—

professions that render their sexuality easily accessible. As my analysis will demonstrate, the 

Lotus Blossom and Dragon Lady are two sides of the same coin, distinguished by whether 

their sexuality is deployed for the benefit of white men or personal political agenda. These 

tropes construct abject Asian female subjectivities, assigning a perverse hypersexuality to 

Asian women as an inherent characteristic that starkly contrasts with the normative and 

morally superior sexuality embodied by white women on screen (Shimizu, 2000). 



Such depictions are deeply rooted in the legacy of colonization and White sexual 

imperialism. White sexual imperialism refers to the systemic Western domination of 

developing nations that historically forced women in these regions into circumstances where 

sexual submission to white men became one of the few practical survival strategies available 

(Woan, 2008). This dominance was deeply intertwined with existing patriarchal structures in 

Asia, which had long conditioned women to occupy subordinated roles in both social and 

familial hierarchies. Colonial and imperial occupations exploited and intensified these 

entrenched gender hierarchies, leveraging them to facilitate and justify the extraction of 

Asian women’s bodily, sexual and emotional labor. By framing this exploitation as culturally 

inevitable, imperial powers deepened women’s subjugation and reconfigured patriarchal 

oppression to serve colonial objectives. 

This intersection of patriarchal oppression and colonial exploitation laid the foundation 

for Asian pornotroping, embedding narratives of destitution and sexual availability into the 

racialized portrayals of Asian women. These portrayals not only naturalized the 

marginalization of Asian women but also reinforced colonial and imperial hierarchies under 

the guise of moral and civilizational superiority. 

This paper argues that Asian pornotroping positions Asian women as helpless and 

sexually available, serving to incite, reinforce, and justify White Saviorism—a narrative 

framework that portrays white individuals as moral and heroic figures rescuing the “helpless 

Other.” Through close readings of Madama Butterfly (1904), Miss Saigon (1989), and The 

World of Suzie Wong (1960), this paper shows how the pornotrope recurs across different 

media forms to obscure the brutality of Euro-American imperial violence in the Asia-Pacific. 

These cultural productions perpetuate a colonial discourse that frames the West as 

progressive and humane while depicting the Orient as patriarchal and backward (Said, 2019). 

In doing so, they sustain and legitimize European colonial dominance and later American 

global hegemony. This legacy is evident in policies and practices that perpetuate harm, such 

as discriminatory immigration laws, sexual/racial violence against Asian women, and the co-

opted use of human rights discourse by neoliberal administrations. Rather than protecting 

marginalized communities, this discourse often justifies state intervention that polices sex 

workers and survivors of sexual violence, frequently to their detriment. 

 

Historical Contexts: The Colonial Foundations of Asian Pornotroping 

In this section, I trace the historical development of the submissive yet hypersexual “Pan-

Asian” woman stereotype and situate it within real-life historical contexts. I examine how 

Orientalism shaped the Eurocentric lens through which Europeans viewed Asia and its 

peoples during colonization.  

Madame Chrysanthème and Prostitution in Meiji Japan 

European fantasies about “Oriental women” originated in colonial literature (Tracol-

Huynh, 2010). These works emerged after Europeans established spheres of influence in Asia 

as traders in the late 17th century (RamageTeach, 2020). A critical entry point is Madame 

Chrysanthème by French naval officer Pierre Loti, published in 1887. Drawing from Loti’s 

real-life experience of cohabitating with a young Japanese girl in Nagasaki in 1885 (Suzuki, 

2023), the novel depicts a French naval officer’s paid one-month marriage to a young 

Japanese geisha during the Meiji era.  



By portraying Japanese women as simultaneously infantilized, hypersexualized, and 

subservient, Madame Chrysanthème articulates early Orientalist stereotypes that later 

crystallized into the cinematic archetypes of the Lotus Blossom. The novel’s depiction of 

Japanese women as objects of fascination and consumption for European men reflects 

broader colonial attitudes that racialized and fetishized Asian women. 

A deeper understanding of the historical context when the novel was written sheds light 

on the societal and economic conditions of the time. By 1885, the Meiji government legalized 

prostitution as a state-regulated industry, imposing taxes to generate revenue (Stanley, 2012). 

Many rural families, struggling with poverty, continued to sell their daughters into 

prostitution, both domestically and overseas, as they faced criminalized abortion and 

infanticide (Narayan, 2016). While these young women endured significant oppression and 

hardships in their roles as sex workers (Mihalopoulos, 2012), their incomes often supported 

their families, enabling them to fulfill cultural expectations as “dutiful daughters” (Stanley, 

2012, p. 85). The young Japanese women who inspired Loti’s novel may well have been 

resilient, breadwinning daughters from impoverished backgrounds, whose labor underpinned 

the rapid growth of a modernizing Japan. 

Colonial Regulation of Prostitution in the Asian Colonies 

In the European colonial discourse, native women across different colonies were 

portrayed as sexual trophies, each marked by distinct sexual traits (Tracol-Huynh, 2010). 

Women in Asia were characterized as both victims of their own culture and threats to 

Western morality (Howell, 2000), articulating the destitution/sexuality matrix central to 

Asian pornotroping. This racialized portrayal served to justify European colonial authority, 

imposing strict control over Asian women’s sexuality (e.g., registration, regular health 

inspection, sanitary incarceration) under the guise of “paternalistic intervention” (Howell, 

2000, p. 335). Such regulations entrenched these stereotypes and deepened economic 

precarity, positioning Asian women’s suffering as natural within a colonial moral order. 

These colonial infrastructures helped construct both the Lotus Blossom and the Dragon Lady 

as an Asian female ontology.  

In addition, children of interracial unions posed a threat to the racial boundaries essential 

for sustaining colonial authority and White privilege (Stoler, 1989). In response to these 

anxieties, colonial authorities often assumed custody of these children, who were portrayed as 

“[unhappy] beings by definition” (Stoler, 1989, p. 648). Racial prejudice was reframed 

through a veneer of pity, enabling a humanitarian logic that legitimized intervention. 

European feminist women played a key role in this process, advocating for the removal of 

interracial children from indigenous communities deemed degenerate and corrupting (Stoler, 

1989). By casting racialized subjects as both pitiable and threatening, this discourse 

constructs an ontological framework that justifies their ongoing policing and exploitation. 

Since the mid-1950s, the American military capitalized on this colonial legacy, 

employing indigenous women as sex workers and maids in Rest and Recreation centers 

around their bases (Enloe, 2000). Regulated through racialized and sexualized policies, 

prostitution had evolved into a full-fledged industry under its presence (Enloe, 2000; Tracol-

Huynh, 2010), exemplifying current ongoing exploitation. 

 

 



Eroticizing Destitution: Asian Pornotroping on Scene and Screen 

Building on the historical contexts previously examined, this section analyzes how Asian 

pornotroping functions in three landmark Euro-American productions: Madama Butterfly 

(1904), Miss Saigon (1989), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960). These works collectively 

construct an eroticized image of Asian femininity shaped by imperialism, patriarchy, and 

poverty. Not only do these narratives hypersexualize Asian women, but they also framed the 

women as victims of their own cultures, in need of salvation through White Saviorism. By 

romanticizing racialized suffering, these productions reinforce the White Savior narrative 

while masking the systemic violence that creates the very conditions of destitution they 

portray. 

Plot Summaries 

Madama Butterfly. Premiering in 1904, Madama Butterfly is an Italian opera by 

composer Giacomo Puccini, adapted from Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème (Van Rij, 

2001). The opera tells the tragic story of Butterfly, a 15-year-old Japanese geisha, and 

Pinkerton, an American naval officer stationed in 1904 Nagasaki. Their contract marriage 

excites Butterfly, who converts to Christianity in anticipation of their union. Her conversion 

enrages her Buddhist relatives, who subsequently renounce her. Undeterred, Butterfly 

consummates the marriage, wholly believing in a future with Pinkerton. 

Pinkerton soon departs Japan, leaving Butterfly behind. Remaining faithful, she 

rejects a marriage broker’s offer to wed a wealthy prince and patiently awaits Pinkerton’s 

return, giving birth to their son during his absence. Three years later, Pinkerton returns, now 

accompanied by his American wife, Kate, who offers to take the child. Heartbroken yet 

composed, Butterfly agrees to relinquish her son on the condition that Pinkerton visits her 

one final time. After securing this promise, she takes her own life. 

Miss Saigon. Inspired by Madama Butterfly, this French musical by Boubil and 

Schönberg (1989) is set in Saigon near the end of the Vietnam War. The story follows 17-

year-old Kim, an orphan forced into sex work at a brothel run by a hustler known as the 

Engineer. During the bargirls’ contest for the title of “Miss Saigon,” a disillusioned American 

GI Chris meets Kim, who is portrayed as an innocent virgin. Initially hesitant, Chris tries to 

pay her to leave, but after learning of her history of loss and displacement, he vows to take 

her to America. They fall in love and spend the night together. 

The following day, the bargirls arrange a Vietnamese-style wedding ceremony for Chris 

and Kim, but their union is interrupted by Thuy, Kim’s betrothed, an officer in the North 

Vietnamese Army. A confrontation ensues, during which Kim defiantly asserts that she is 

Chris’s wife. Soon after, as Saigon descends into chaos, Chris is evacuated, leaving Kim 

behind. Clinging to the hope of his return, she hides from the new regime while raising their 

son, Tam. Meanwhile, in the United States, unaware that Kim has survived, Chris marries a 

white American woman named Ellen. 

Kim’s circumstances take a desperate turn when Thuy discovers her and Tam, 

threatening to kill the boy and send her to a re-education camp. In self-defense, she kills Thuy 

and flees to Bangkok with the Engineer’s help. Three years later, Chris and Ellen arrive in 

Bangkok in search of his child. Upon learning that Chris has remarried, Kim pleads with the 

couple to take Tam so he can have a better life. She then takes her own life, dying in Chris’s 

arms. 



The World of Suzie Wong. This British-American romantic drama by Richard Quine 

(1960), follows Robert Lomax, an American architect who moves to Hong Kong to pursue 

painting. While staying at the seedy Nam Kok Hotel, he meets Suzie Wong, a bar girl who 

was abandoned by her family. Initially hiring her as his muse, Robert struggles with his 

growing feelings for her, torn between societal judgment and the romantic advances of Kay, a 

British banker’s daughter.  

As Robert gains a deeper understanding of Suzie’s circumstances, their bond deepens. 

Together, they navigate social pressures and personal hardships, culminating in tragedy when 

Suzie’s son dies in a landslide. In the end, Robert proposes to Suzie, marking a shift from 

their transactional beginnings to a romantic connection. 

Ethnic Dress as Fetish: Staging Poverty and Desire 

In all three productions, the use of ethnic costume in these productions does more than 

signify cultural identity—it visually codes Asianness as erotic, impoverished, and disposable. 

In Madama Butterfly, Butterfly is dressed in a kimono, and her relatives appear in traditional 

Japanese clothing. Similarly, Kim wears traditional Vietnamese garments, including “an 

ersatz Vietnamese wedding gown” (Shimakawa, 2003, p. 32). Suzie and her friends are 

costumed in tight-fitting cheongsam dresses. These outfits, as markers of cultural specificity 

and Otherness, anchor the characters’ identities in visual codes of exoticism. 

The costumed characters are bound by a fate of poverty and marginalization, associating 

Asianness with destitution. Butterfly’s unexplained financial hardship leads her family to 

commodify her, offering her to Pinkerton in a transactional marriage reminiscent of sex 

tourism. Kim’s situation mirrors this dynamic: orphaned and displaced by war, she is pushed 

into bar work as a means of survival. The broader context of U.S. military aggression is 

notably absent, shifting attention from systemic violence to Kim’s individual tragedy. Suzie’s 

sexual labor is similarly framed as inevitable, with no acknowledgment of the British colonial 

policies that shaped her vulnerability. 

Across these stories, violence against Asian women is aestheticized and normalized, 

presented as an intrinsic and culturally specific fate. The deployment of ethnic costumes thus 

signifies not only racial difference but also eroticism and disposability, framing these women 

as exotic and tragic commodities. 

Mapping the Tropes 

Hypersexualized tropes are pervasive across these productions, firstly through the 

recurring figure of the Lotus Blossom. Butterfly and Kim epitomize this archetype: both are 

teenage girls, and their youth is used to signify virginity and innocence. This attractiveness, 

crowned by extreme youth, is neither noted as problematic by the producers nor critically 

addressed within the narratives. Instead, the audience is left to rationalize these sexual 

transactions, obscuring the exploitation of their age and vulnerability as natural or inevitable 

elements of their environment. Their infantilization echoes Loti’s (1905) description of 

Japanese women as “dolls” (p. 20), accentuating passivity and a lack of agency. 

Beyond their youth, Butterfly, Kim, and Suzie are characterized by unwavering fidelity 

to their American “husbands,” even in the face of abandonment or alternative possibilities. 

This self-sacrifice reinforces their portrayal as emotionally dependent and lacking autonomy. 

Their devotion erases individuality, reducing them to vessels of longing whose lives and 

happiness hinge on the return of white men, thereby advancing the White Savior narrative. 



In contrast, the Dragon Lady trope surfaces in Miss Saigon through the depiction of the 

Vietnamese bargirls. In the opening act, numerous women appear in “string bikinis” 

(Shimakawa, 2003, p. 32), performing overtly erotic gestures to attract American soldiers. 

The accompanying lyrics frame them as manipulative figures who view GIs as their “tickets 

out” of Vietnam (Boubil & Schönberg, 1989). These representations mark the women as 

opportunistic threats to national and racial boundaries, echoing colonial anxieties around 

miscegenation and cultural contamination. 

Suzie, dubbed a “prostitute with a heart of gold” (Shimizu, 2008, p. 60), oscillates 

between both tropes. In the bar, she wields her sexuality to attract attention and money, 

taking on the qualities of the Dragon Lady. In her relationship with Robert, however, she 

reverts to the submissive and emotionally loyal Lotus Blossom figure. Her persistent sexual 

availability, in contrast with the white female characters who symbolize respectability and 

autonomy, reinforces a racialized dichotomy between eroticism and virtue. 

Orientalist Logic and the Villainization of Asia 

These productions reproduce Orientalist tropes that glorify Euro-American values while 

degrading Indigenous ones, framing Western intervention as redemptive and desirable. In 

Madama Butterfly, Butterfly converts to Christianity and praises it while mocking her maid’s 

devotion to Japanese gods, calling them “fat and lazy” (Puccini et al., 1904). In Miss Saigon, 

the Engineer performs the satirical number “The American Dream,” fantasizing about 

American excess: “The American dream... sweet as a new millionaire... fat, like a chocolate 

éclair... girls can buy tits by the pair.” In The World of Suzie Wong, Suzie and her friends 

express delight in Robert’s American imports, reinforcing the desirability of assimilation. 

Throughout these narratives, Euro-American culture is cast as modern, liberating, and 

aspirational, while Indigenous practices are dismissed as backward, irrational, or corrupt. 

This dynamic is reinforced by the villainization of other Asian characters, particularly the 

patriarchal, possessive, and violent “Asian men.” In Madama Butterfly, Butterfly’s relatives 

disown and humiliate her for converting to Christianity. In Miss Saigon, Thuy embodies the 

oppressive patriarch: he refers to Kim in objectifying terms, shames her as a traitor, and 

ultimately threatens to kill her child. In Suzie Wong, Suzie is abandoned by both her father 

and the father of her child. These portrayals frame the suffering of Asian women as rooted in 

their own cultures, erasing the structural violence of imperialism and war. By positioning 

white men as saviors liberating Asian women from patriarchal oppression, these narratives 

obscure Western complicity in gendered violence and reproduce the illusion that Euro-

American societies are free of misogyny. Ultimately, they sustain an Orientalist logic in 

which imperial power is framed not as domination but as benevolence, where the celebration 

of Occidental modernity relies on the portraying Oriental traditions as violent and regressive. 

The Erased Mother and the Illusion of Rescue 

In these productions, White Saviorism is exemplified by the adoption of mixed-race 

children by white couples. In Miss Saigon, the song “Bui Doi” describes these children as 

“conceived in hell and born in strife” (Boubil & Schönberg, 1989). The clinical term 

“conceived” erases the circumstances leading up to conception, reducing it to a biological act 

of reproduction. This language sanitizes the violence and exploitation embedded in these 

relationships, making questions about consent unfathomable within the narrative. Instead, the 



song calls for American responsibility, declaring, “We owe them fathers, and a family, and a 

loving home they never knew” (Boubil & Schönberg, 1989). 

Yet this condescending call for accountability ignores the devastation the U.S. military 

inflicted on native women, whose exploitation enabled the very familial bonds the musical 

seeks to normalize. Can one truly speak of fatherhood and family when these relationships 

were forged through sexual violence and exploitation? Can a home be considered loving if it 

is built on the erasure of indigenous mothers and their autonomy? By cleansing the violent 

origins of these children’s existence, the narrative recasts them as victims of circumstance in 

need of rescue by white “families.” 

“Bui Doi” thus functions to justify the removal of children from their Vietnamese 

mothers under the guise of care. Robbed of motherhood, Butterfly and Kim both take their 

own lives, ostensibly so their children can live better lives with their white American parents. 

The productions offer no compelling rationale for their deaths, framing their self-

abandonment as tragic lovesickness and further erasing their agency.  

These deaths, however, serve a symbolic purpose: they sever the children’s ties to their 

Indigenous societies, eliminating any cultural or racial ambiguities that might complicate 

their assimilation into Whiteness. In doing so, they preserve the icon of the monogamous 

white nuclear family. This echoes colonial practices that institutionalized mixed-race children 

to reinforce racial boundaries, confining Asian women to the realm of disposable sexual 

objects.  

The films analyzed in this paper reveal a consistent pattern: Asian pornotroping frames 

Asian women through intersecting narratives of racial otherness, hypersexualization, and 

victimhood. Across these productions, Asian women are depicted as both desirable and 

disposable, their worth tied to their function within Western male fantasies and imperial 

storylines. These representations do more than entertain—they construct a cultural grammar 

of racialized power that reinforces White Saviorism and colonial ideologies. By 

romanticizing Asianness as synonymous with sexual availability and passive suffering, these 

works obscure the structural violence and imperial exploitation that produce the very 

conditions of Asian women’s destitution.  

The consequences of these portrayals extend far beyond the stage or screen. The 

stereotypes they normalize fuel real-world prejudice and contribute to an ongoing continuum 

of violence against Asian women globally. As the next section demonstrates, Asian 

pornotroping is not confined to the realm of art—it has tangible, often harmful impacts on the 

lives of Asian women, particularly in diasporic contexts across Euro-American societies. 

 

Violence Made Aesthetic: The Real-World Impact of Asian Pornotroping 

White Saviors and the Commodification of Colonial Ideologies 

The portrayal of white men as saviors in cultural productions serves as a potent 

ideological tool to validate imperialism and colonialism. Shelby Steele (2006) defines “White 

guilt” as the discomfort experienced by white Americans when confronted with the legacies 

of racism and colonialism, particularly as these legacies erode their “moral authority” over 

racial and social justice issues (p. 24). This loss of perceived legitimacy creates a “vacuum of 

moral authority,” compelling white Americans to seek redemption by demonstrating that they 

are “not racist” (Steele, 2006, p. 27). However, this redemption often manifests as 



performative acts that center themselves as saviors, reframing their complicity in systemic 

violence as benevolent intervention. 

Asian pornotroping capitalizes on this logic, converting White guilt into a profitable 

storytelling device. These narratives recast colonizers and imperialists as compassionate 

rescuers, shifting focus from structural violence to individual heroism. By centering 

racialized suffering and White rescue, they offer audiences a vicarious sense of moral 

redemption. 

The financial success of these productions reveals how colonial ideologies are 

commodified and consumed. Despite longstanding critiques of its Orientalism, Madama 

Butterfly remains a cornerstone of the opera repertoire, with over 900 performances at the 

Metropolitan Opera by January 2024 (Chiu, 2019; Metropolitan Opera, 2024). Miss Saigon 

was similarly lucrative, entertaining over 31 million people across 18 countries by 2011 

(Chung, 2011), and setting a record £4.4 million in single-day ticket sales during its 2014 

West End revival (Clark, 2013). 

This commodification is particularly insidious in its ability to both entertain and 

legitimize. These narratives mask structural violence while presenting imperialism as morally 

redemptive, transforming the colonizer from oppressor to hero. By packaging imperial 

conquest as romantic salvation, Asian pornotroping offers audiences both escapism and 

absolution, allowing empire to be consumed as spectacle, empathy, and virtue. 

Yellow Fever: The Racial Fetishization and Violence Against Asian Women 

Asian pornotroping fuels yellow fever, the racial fetishization of Asian women that 

operates at the intersection of racism and sexism. This fetishization subjects Asian women to 

a continuum of violence, ranging from sexual racism in online dating (Williams, 2004), to 

street-level harassment and threats (Yuen, 2023), to racially targeted physical and sexual 

assault (Geranios, 2000; Kim, 2015), and even murder and terrorism (Chang & Yuen, 2021). 

Despite its racialized nature, such violence is often institutionally dismissed or erased (Kim, 

2015), compounding Asian women’s systemic invisibility, dehumanization, and 

marginalization. 

The psychological toll of fetishization is equally profound. Women targeted by yellow 

fever often report feeling depersonalized and otherized, wherein they are simultaneously 

“treated like an object interchangeable with other objects” and held to distinct and racialized 

standards of physical appearance and sexuality (Zheng, 2016, p. 407). These experiences 

create persistent cognitive dissonance, forcing Asian women to question their value as 

individuals while expending “psychic and emotional resources” to navigate a world shaped 

by fetishistic desire and racial projection (Zheng, 2016, p. 409). 

Militarized Prostitution and the Legacy of Asian Pornotroping 

Sexual violence is a weapon of war (Frazer & Hutchings, 2019), and women’s sex work 

has long supported predominantly male militaries (Vine, 2015). Militarized prostitution, a 

system historically intertwined with Asian pornotroping, continues in contemporary contexts. 

In camptowns around U.S. military bases in South Korea, poor Korean women and trafficked 

Filipino women work under exploitative conditions, including confiscated passports, arbitrary 

fines, and wages below minimum standards. These practices echo colonial regulatory 

frameworks, sustained by the same racist and sexist beliefs that have long justified the 

extraction of labor and intimacy from Asian women. 



Recent crackdowns by U.S. and South Korean authorities have pushed this labor 

underground, exacerbating precarity rather than addressing systemic exploitation (Vine, 

2015). This continuity reveals how Asian pornotroping extends beyond cultural production 

and into state structures of control. Like the stage or screen, the military re-enacts these 

dynamics, casting Asian women as simultaneously available and discardable, and reframing 

domination as protection. 

Since the 1990s, global recognition of sexual exploitation in wartime as a human rights 

violation has grown (Frazer & Hutchings, 2019). However, this discourse is often co-opted to 

justify carceral and imperial interventions. In U.S. anti-trafficking movements, punitive 

policies are reframed as feminist and humanitarian (Bernstein, 2012). These campaigns 

depict Global South women as victims of “backward traditionalism” (p. 62), reinforcing the 

idea that they require rescue by Global North states. In this way, human rights discourse 

replicates the logic of Asian pornotroping by turning the suffering of racialized women into a 

vehicle for White redemption. 

The persistence of militarized prostitution and punitive politics masked as 

humanitarianism show that Asian pornotroping is not confined to media. Whether through 

camptowns, anti-trafficking campaigns, or foreign policy, these systems reproduce racialized 

and gendered hierarchies. By framing domination as care, they allow state power to eroticize 

suffering and obscure structural violence. 

 

Conclusion 

This paper applies Asian pornotroping as an analytical concept that constructs a demure, 

hypersexualized, and subservient Asian femininity in service of the imperialist sexual, 

emotional, and narcissistic consumption. These narratives inscribe a destitution/sexuality 

matrix onto Asian women, framing them as both helpless victims and hypersexualized 

commodities. By reinforcing this dichotomy, such portrayals obscure the systemic violence 

of White sexual imperialism and glorify Western intervention as morally superior, 

perpetuating colonial hierarchies and erasing the complicity of Western patriarchy. This 

dynamic is not confined to the screen or stage but extends into real-world practices, such as 

militarized prostitution and the contradictions within U.S.-led militarized humanitarianism. 

Future scholarship could employ this framework to examine how Asian pornotroping 

impacts portrayals of Asian men. Do these narratives also perpetuate emasculation, 

hypermasculinity, or exoticization? How do they intersect with the colonial legacy explored 

in this paper? Additionally, the internalization of these tropes by Asian individuals 

themselves remains a critical area of inquiry. Du Bois’s (2008) concept of double 

consciousness offers a lens to explore how Asian individuals reconcile their identities with 

dominant Western portrayals or resist these narratives through activism and alternative 

storytelling. 

Understanding the broader social, psychological, and systemic impacts of Asian 

pornotroping is vital to dismantling the colonial and patriarchal structures it sustains. By 

critically examining these narratives and their intersections with global systems of power, we 

can better address the enduring harm they inflict on marginalized communities and contribute 

to the creation of more equitable and inclusive cultural representations.  



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