Asian Fishing: The Origins to Today

By: Audrey Wisniewski

“Asian fishing”, in simple terms, is non-asian people using make-up or photo editing to make themselves have more East-Asian features. It is also dressing up in ¨stereotypical¨ Asian clothing in an appropriating way.

The origin of Asian fishing started with an aesthetic being made from the beauty standards in East Asia such as that East Asian women are small, pale, young, and submissive. When non-asian individuals try to mimic the “aesthetic '', they are automatically fitting themselves into this beauty standard without understanding the trauma behind it¨ (What is Asian Fishing?). The trauma mentioned is one that East Asian women have suffered through trying to meet these beauty standards, so much to the point of going through medical surgery to change their natural features. When non-Asian women or people make an aesthetic and try to copy this ¨trend¨, they are completely ignoring the pain they may be bringing up, or the culture they can be appropriating.

The more that Asian fishing gets embedded into Western culture, the more harm it does. Asian Fishing This video (move link here) shows a great example of what Asian fishing is and how to tell it apart from normal make-up looks. At the end of this video, the girl explaining the issue says that the Russian woman is also sexualizing East Asian people with her content. This is the harm that non-Asian people cause by Asian fishing. They are fetishizing a large group of people who then have to wake up and deal with that every day. ¨White people who adopt these traits, who play into the sexualization of Asian features and stereotypes (especially those surrounding Asian women) don’t have to face the very real effects this has on actual Asian women. Asian women are sexualized and harassed, and they can’t just wipe off their make-up and remove the photoshop as Asian-fishers do .” (Asian-Fishing).

While there are many who try to spread information about the harm and disrespect that comes with Asian fishing, many popular celebrities are still Asian fishing. Ariana Grande has had a big scandal with the way she does her eye make-up. With a global celebrity like her Asian fishing, it makes it seem ok to others that appropriatingOperating East Asian culture is okay and that it's an aesthetic. Celebrities that do this just spread more harm and hate than helping communities that support them. ¨The social media feeds of celebrities like Grande are highly curated. While posts could come directly from Grande, they are likely subject to more scrutiny than the average post, especially given her position as one of the most-followed people on Instagram¨ (Opinion). This adds to the point that Ariana reaches a huge audience that is influenced by her and her actions. So if she spreads something that can be harmful, others can take to that and start Asian fishing, which creates a never ending circle that hurts a lot of people.

Asian fishing has been a dangerous and harmful appropriation of East Asian culture and its women. Doing makeup that changes people's eye shapes to wearing culturally appropriated East Asian costumes and fetishizing East Asian women shows how damaging Asian fishing is and has become.

Image Cites

Ariana Grande

Eyeliner