YouTube and Raging Asian Women

When blogging, does one start with the good news or the bad news first? Maybe I better rant now and make up for it by sharing something very cool later.

Begin rant:
So I realize that YouTube is not exactly the mecca of high culture. And is in fact pretty much just a site where college students go to laugh at videos of babies getting kicked into the air by break dancers or watch the L Word illegally, etc....but when I typed "Asian Women" into the search engine today for kicks, I got a lot more than I expected.
Here are just a few captions, because they say much for than I ever could:

• "Asian women on the beach, my perfect asian brides. Start Asian dating with these single women."
• "Asian women make great wives start with penpals then meet the mail order brides in these video clips."
• " Tower of Power drives this photo montage of smiling Asian women. It's my second try at this type of thing. I would appreciate comments. Thanks."
• "Dear Asian women lover, The new 2007 Asian Angels calendar is here! Featuring 6 of the most beautiful Asian models of the world, sinfully dressed in scantily clad lingerie!"
• "asian woman wants a discount" (ok, so that stereotype is true)
  
• "Come and venture out with me to view the webcams of some very gorgeous Asian Ladies hoping to meet Mr. Right (You) from accross the Pond (Pacific Ocean). These Ladies are courtesy of Asian Date Doctor who can share with you important doos and donts when courting Asian women (18 years and older) overseas."
• "crazy asian woman:
  01:11
  the description says it all. dont be offended or anything." (my personal favorite)

Ok, sorry that went long...the thing is, 95% of what you find is semi-nude sexploitation (videos of beautiful asian women not created by themselves), foot fetish videos (I have nothing against foot fetishes, I just don't understand why a foot has to have a race), and mail order brides. It's disturbing really. "Don't be offended or anything"? Are you serious? The webcam ad has to win for ridiculousness, with it's clarifiers (You=Mr. Right, Pacific Ocean=Pond, 18+=Asian women to "date") . I'm sure a similar list would result with any search that was: (insert racial/ethnic origin)-women. This exoticization and subsequent exploitation of all racial/ethnic minority women's bodies is infuriating. Not only does one have to deal with objectification as a woman, but you ad on the stereotypes and discrimination that comes from being a visible minority. I guess you could say the same thing about blondes. But the problem here is where the hell is a young Asian American girl supposed to look for positive role models. Where is a HAPA girl supposed to look for positive role models? She might not identify with Mia Hamm and she might not identify with Dr. Yang on Grey's Anatomy. I would also say that having the main positive role model on TV for Asian American girls be a doctor/in med school perpetuates the model minority myth. (Disclaimer: I don't watch Grey's)

Now, I didn't find all negative stuff on my search. I found a video of a group of amazing East-and Southeast-Asian womyn, who call themselves Raging Asian Women (RAW). They are performers of Taiko Drumming. They are also activists, non-profit, and promote social justice through their performances. Check out their website, and here is a compilation video of performances and little bit about RAW.

They fuckin rock. That's all I have to say.