Tila Tequila: Not Really Feeling It

I’m going to have to write this post without a pic.  Because if I included a pic, it would have to be one of the subject, Tila Nguyen, aka Tila Tequila, and I find her repulsive and gross.  As many of you probably have heard by now, Tila Tequila accused her boyfriend, Shawne Merriman, of choking her and keeping her in his home against her will over the weekend.  Merriman says that the charges are false and that he was simply trying to keep her from driving drunk.  Tila says that she wasn’t drinking because she is allergic to alcohol, but the man who owns the nightclub where the two were hanging out said that several employees saw Tequila drinking tequila and vodka.  Which raises two questions–first, there’s a difference in the two stories, and we’ll have to wait to hear what the truth is.  Second, why would you change your name from Tila Nguyen to Tila Tequila if you can’t even drink the stuff?

Okay, okay, that’s not the point of this post.  I’m writing about this topic because I’ve seen several complaints in the blogosphere and on Facebook about sexism and racism directed at Tila in the aftermath of this incident, as well as some complaints about racism against Merriman, who is black.  It’s the two sexualized minorities–Asian women and black men, and so emotions are bound to run wild on a topic like this.  My blogging colleague Antisocial Ladder does an excellent job of covering some of the sexist and racist comments here.

So here’s my view:  If Merriman did choke Nguyen, he should face charges, and the court should ignore all the innuendos in the press and on the blogosphere.  Violence against women is wrong.  Period.  If Nguyen is lying about the assault, she should apologize.  That’s basically it from a legal perspective–crime is wrong, and it shouldn’t matter who did it or who was victimized by it.  I hope racial and sexual stereotyping doesn’t affect any court decisions in this case.  I agree with the Facebook complaints that racism and sexism comes out of the woodwork in cases like this.  I also agree that people on the blogosphere are dehumanizing Nguyen.  I’m not disputing any of this.

With all this being said, however, I think that people would be “dehumanizing” Nguyen regardless of her race or gender, and I feel that people are blowing the innuendos out of proportion.  Don’t get me wrong–everyone should get due process–but the fact is that Nguyen sells smut for a living.  People are treating her as a sexualized Asian woman because she herself created and profited from that image.  People in the blogosphere are dehumanizing her because she dehumanizes herself for a living.  She has made loads of money selling herself to the lowest common denominator of society’s tastes.  I remember when her show came out on MTV; I was floored by the tastelessness of the concept, especially given the fact that she’s really not even bisexual.  I was disgusted, and gay people around the world should be disgusted.

I have no problem with Nguyen’s freedom of expression.  If I don’t like something, I won’t watch it.  However, it’s hard to make her case into a feminist cause.  She’s being treated in an inhuman fashion because she herself portrays herself in an inhuman fashion.  She’s chosen her path, and it’s cause and effect.  I think this is true of all people who pimp themselves out as Nguyen has done, regardless of race or gender.  Did flags fly at half-mast when John Holmes died?  Did Asian America mourn over David Carradine?  People look down on people who pimp themselves out.

In conclusion, I hope the courts do their job.  I just don’t think the public will ever follow.  Karma exists.  The cold, hard moral of the story is that if you want the public behind you (and I don’t know if she does), don’t pimp yourself out.

(Haha…I should probably follow my own advice and shut this blog down.  I know people are praying for me to fall.  Oh well.)

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