One creator is shining a light on how awful dating apps and dating in general can be for Asian American women.
On May 28, Katie Dnos (@katiednos), a 24-year-old Korean American woman from the D.C. area, shared a video on TikTok documenting the aftermath of her decision to install “hinge as an asian on the east coast.” Needless to say, the results were cringey and racially charged.
Set to the well-known “DO A FLIP” audio making its rounds on the digital platform, Dnos posted a series of screenshots, including a photo and prompt she settled on for her Hinge profile, followed by a response from an unlikely suitor named Dillon.
“a beautiful asian, just my type,” Dillon writes, as “50+” Hinge “likes” are seen in the top-left corner of the screenshot.
In the final screenshot of the 13-second video, Dnos contemplates deleting the dating app.
‘Bro couldn’t even wait til AAPI was over’
Unsurprisingly, TikTok users who’ve seen Dnos’s video were equally appalled by Dillon’s comment.
“Imagine being the person who’s like, ‘yea, that’s the opener that’s going to get them to want to talk to me,’” @matthew.tamasi wrote.
“It’s 2023. Filter out the colonizers girl,” @herbavore replied.
“Bro couldn’t even wait til AAPI was over,” @aguadesandiapapi responded, referencing Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Fetishization is not appreciation
While Dnoes has managed to poke fun at the situation, the truth of the matter is that Asian American women, in particular, are often subjected to immense fetishization when it comes to dating. And if they aren’t being fetishized, they’re often overlooked or deemed not desirable enough to pursue. These differing ends of the spectrum can yield dangerous, sexually violent or aggressive behaviors.
“The idea that Asian women are desirable and exotic and passive isn’t just an innocent stereotype or a desirable trait to envy,” Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist and author of “Reel…
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