Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty

Such an eye‑opening and heartfelt read. It made me think about things I’d noticed but never fully understood before. It hit hard but was super easy to connect with. Highly recommend this one.

An absolute killer read! Cuts deep and hits some incredibly important issues. What an inspirational story.

Great read! Growing up in Asian in the 90s I found that a lot of the themes here really spoke to me. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Kaila Yu’s bold and compelling memoir/essay collection that confronts racism, objectification, and representation titled Fetishized: A Reckoning With Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty. I didn’t know who Kaila Yu was before reading this book, but it was interesting to read about her career transformation from an import and pin-up model to musician and lead singer for the band Nylon Pink to eventually a writer who is able to reflect and distil how social stereotypes like the model minority myth and the dragon lady shaped her own motivations and career choices with a critical eye. Although reading about the social issues Yu critically examines in this book is challenging, she presents them in a kind of autobiographical manner, connecting her own experiences to the larger issues and supporting her observations and conclusions with research and statistics to further bolster her points. This approach that bridges both memoir and critical essays makes the entry into discussing serious social problems and issues easier to approach as a reader. Furthermore, Yu’s style and descriptions are rooted in a kind of humor and relevance that also lessens the tension, but still makes readers appreciate and sympathize with the gravity and weight of these issues. I’ve read a few of these kinds of these books that could be both memoir and essay based, and I really appreciate them for teaching since they can make great texts to help students not only develop critical insights into social situations, but also to help them see how as a writer their own experiences can be an entry point for interrogation of issues and events in society. Yu’s book reminded me of Alice Bolin’s recent essay collection Culture Creep in that both writers begin with their own experiences as a framework for examining how women are represented and portrayed in popular culture, and what kind of influence women in popular culture like singers, actresses, reality television personalities and social media influencers have on shaping young women’s own ideas about themselves, their careers, and expectations for relationships. Furthermore, Yu’s examination of Asian stereotypes, representation, and treatment in society also reminded me Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings, Jane Wong’s Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and Viet Thanh Nguyen’s A Man of Two Faces, books by Asian American writers and scholars who explore their experiences growing up, as well as the kind of art, literature, and film/television representations that shaped their own ideas and approaches to art and writing. Chapters in Yu’s book would pair well with other chapters from any of these memoirs to provide students with a multifaceted perspective of race and identity, and in particular how popular media and literature can shape ideas about racism and stereotypes.Yu’s book is also interesting in that her experiences take the narrative further to show how these stereotypes and representation shaped her own behavior and choices. She frequently mentioned that her decision to become a pinup and import car model was an attempt to challenge the model minority myth, the belief that “Asians are quiet, intelligent, high achieving, and hardworking… to it Asians against other minorities”, which was interesting to consider. Yu further examines that Asian women are often left to fit into 2 categories—the model minority or the hypersexualized Asian woman, like a dragon lady, whose stereotype she traces to colonialism, imperialism, and war. The second essay, “Geisha”, examines the myth of the hypersexualized Asian woman with the book and film Memoirs of a Geisha, which was published in the late 90s, and turned into a film in the early 2000s. Yu examines how Arthur Golden, the American male writer, perpetuated stereotypes about Asian women and sexuality with this book, and how audiences failed to note many of the disturbing elements of the story, but rather recognized the kind of abuse and violence in the book as a love story. Yu examines how her own experiences with older men, and in particular in how a specific girlfriend would pressure Yu into pursuing hooking up with older men. She also notes that “The book affirmed that pursuing glamor was not just worthwhile, it was required…”, which is also a recurring theme throughout Yu’s book. The idea that Asian women needed to fit into these stereotypes and act and look certain ways to make them worthy to the male gaze nudged Yu into pursuing a career in modeling and altering her look to fit into these stereotypes. I appreciated her candidness in examining these ideas and seeing how her own desire for attention from men was shaped by these earlier representations. Yu also critiqued The Joy Luck Club, noting that it was one of the first novels about Asian American experience to be taught in schools, but also that was made into a popular film. Unlike Memoirs of a Geisha, The Joy Luc...

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Beautiful writing! A necessary look at what it is to be Asian in America with brutal honesty. The theme of self love was strong as this book went on and the entire book has an empowering vibe. This is a must read book and is relatable for all women these days. There were definitely humorous parts but also parts that made me gasp.