Good Read: Asian American Women And Health

There's a really good post by Jen at Disgrasian on a study recently published talking about Asian American women and the statistics dealing with attempted suicide:

But if you're an Asian-American woman who has struggled with depression her whole life like I have, it's not unclear to you, is it? You don't need this study, published in 2007, to tell you that we own some of the highest rates of depression and suicide because we're pushed to achieve. Or this one, published in 2008, to tell you that Asian-Americans are less likely than any other group to seek treatment for mental health disorders. You know this already. You know it in your bones. Personally, not scientifically.

Definitely great to see someone like Jen come out and write about the normalcy of just talking about it - not giving a fuck - and letting it breath.

Check it out in full here.

AskMen's Most Desirable Women List: Any Asians?

The site Askmen.com came out with their list of the top most desirable women for 2008, as voted on by users (which according to their stats had 5 million votes). So was there anyone on the list rockin' the Asian persuasian?

Here's the breakdown of who made it and where they stood on the list:

• Vanessa Minnillo #97
• Zhang Ziyi #94
• Mallika Sherawat #67
• Padma Lakshmi #66
• Cassie #62
• Vanessa Hudgens #61
• Reon Kadena #50
• Nicole Scherzinger #48
• Aishwarya Rai #27
• Maggie Q #17

That's not bad actually - a solid 9.9% with two either in, or near the top 25. If we can get the numbers up a little bit on the Asian male side with other lists - things may be looking up.

Victoria's Secret: Where the Asians, and sexy versus sexual object

With the help of the DVR, the Victoria's Secret Fashion show was watched, sometimes fast-forwarded through, and the bottom line is simply this - where were the Asian models? Does Victoria's Secret really expect the world to go on believing that they can't find any Asian women for what they (and CBS) bill as the "sexiest night on TV"?

Or does Victoria's Secret just think they don't belong there?

In addition to not having any "featured" models who were Asian, when they also went across the country to college campuses searching for young women to walk the runway, where one girl was picked to actually be on the show - they were almost all white - there was one Asian girl out of almost 30.

One.

Sexy versus Sexual Object

We all want to be sexy in our own way - smart sexy, slim sexy, geek sexy, big and beautiful sexy - but there's a big difference in being looked at as sexy, versus a sex object.

If you look at some of the media images and portrayals of Asian women today, it has to be confusing at times for young Asian women who aspire to be a top model in the fashion industry. On one hand, good enough for the massage therapist role, the submissive comfort woman role - the sexual object media role - but not good enough for the supermodel role, the your name in lights travel the world your an IT girl go endorse products role.

It's a dual message in some cases of being good enough for a media image of a sexual object, but not necessarily beautiful and sexy.