Congratulations, King: 1st EVER Winner of the bigWOWO award! In doing so, he invented the category of “creative interference.” (Check the sidebar for my new page for award winners.)
It’s not often that someone sends me something so funny that I cry! I literally had tears in my eyes when I saw this one. Here’s King’s winning entry to the unplanned contest (see text below for explanation). Click the image to see the full size version:
In an earlier post, Robert clued us on to Apple’s new advertising campaign. If you check out the new iPhone video, as King mentions, you have not one…but TWO Asian Female/White Male pairings in a ROW. What are the chances of that?
AF/WM Couple #1
AF/WM Couple #2
These ad campaigns somehow avoid casting any male whatsoever of Asian descent. But again and again, they keep dropping the same old memes on top of our heads.
Chatting with the same old patterns
(Janet Cao pics from here; thanks, Robert!)
I mean seriously, is this Apple, or is this a casting call for Red Doors where Asian men need not apply?
Anyway, King saw the latest and greatest Apple advertisement, and he decided to take action.
"This Changes Everything?" Sheesh, I see NO changes!
King, with his never-ending wisdom and skills with Photoshop, decided that he would portray different. Breaking the cycle of AF/WM samsara, he graciously gave this lonely, beautiful Asian sister a handsome Asian guy to talk to, and he stuck the White dude with David Spade. LOL!!!
And y’all will be happy to know that King did this on a Mac, while I’m also writing this blog post on a Mac. Using the Man’s tools to subvert the Man’s message!
I hope you will all join me in extending a warm congratulations to King–the first ever winner of the bigWOWO award for creative interference!
Edit 6/24/2010: Here’s Kobukson’s work (from below):
Related posts:
But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Asian American men aren’t hip, dontcha know? But Asian American women make nice accessories. Like an iPhone.
Anyway, congrats King. That is an accolade well earned. It even looks like you wrote “Back” with the brush tool instead of typing with the cursed ComicSans font. I bow down to the king.
Just standing with my friends, Leon, just standing with my friends…
2 Thumbs up for King.
America seriously does not give a shit about Asian/Asian-American men. If you guys have ever checked out http://www.asianmalerevolutions.com, the creators of the site address this issue how AMs are unequivocally invisible to the U.S. by examining advertising. Its the same old cliche mix of ethnicities for any organization or company to be claiming it to promote “diversity”.
-White guy
-Black guy
-Asian girl
-White girl
God forbid throwing an Asian guy in that mix. They only have room for one ethnic minority male.
One other note.
Black women or latinos are also not permitted in this ideal group.
Well, of course, I was just having a bit of fun with the image swap here, but I do think this is both a problem and an opportunity. For one thing, I couldn’t believe how obviously and recklessly Apple has been promoting the Asian Woman/ White man pairing in so many of their ads. There is nothing presented for balance, in fact the only variation that I’ve seen is one ad that includes an Asian woman/ Black man pairing.
Apple is a huge company with gigantic media footprint. Apple is seen as a trend setter, a bleeding edge, super savvy, technology company. When they promote these kind of ads, people are likely to see them as “cool” and cosmopolitan—something to aspire to.
Now, how many Black man/White woman pairings have you seen on Apple ads? That’s right, NONE! But why not? Surely this pairing exists enough today to be shown. The reason, of course, is that there would be hell to pay from Black women, and Apple knows that! The first question to be asked would be, “Why can’t you show a Black man with a Black woman?” Apple would be painted as insensitive to minority issues, and to have cluelessly promoted a controversial image. It would be seen as a gaffe, and Apple doesn’t like gaffes.
So why does Apple so happily display WM/AF pairings, given that the imbalance is so many times more acute than with BM/WF pairings? Because there is relatively NO BACKLASH. There will be no calls for boycott, no awkward apologies, no recall of commercials. They know that that they can get away with it, so they do it.
Backlash? Hell, our brothers promote this stuff themselves!
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/07/the-end-of-history-and-the-last-asian-man/
We willfully make ourselves invisible in order to promote the status quo. I don’t know if there was a greater irony in the history of ethnic studies…
Someone recommended that we send a letter to Steve Jobs. Maybe we should.
jaehwan,
I think you should. You have my support.
what annoys me is the Sony ads with (almost) no Asian people, just models working on products.
Yeah the CEO is no Asian, but I bet 70% of the company is.
Guys, I support Jaehwan’s letter too, but that’s not stopping me from writing my own. Because when Jaehwan’s single letter reaches the mailroom of Apple Computer Inc., someone will read it briefly, and put it in a stack, and when no other letters come stating the same complaint, then it will go directly into the trash. Large corporations don’t listen to one person, they listen to demographics, they fear mobs and bad press. That’s the way it works.
Apple Public Relations
(408) 974-2042
Apple Inc.
Public Relations Department
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
It’s relatively easy to respond to perceived injustices by rallying a campaign to “improve your game” and sleep with White women, as a means of ethnic activism for “Your People.” But I’ve got news for you—most guys want to “improve their game” and sleep with women, whether you call it activism or not. It’s easy to look at every Asian woman as the faithless enemy, and then respond with a plan that involves, night clubs, bars, wingmen, and multiple-partner sex fantasies.
But when corporations like Disney, Apple, and perhaps even Sony, dump multiplied millions of dollars into advertising and marketing campaigns that reinforce the meme that Asian women should be with non-Asian men, then it’s time to DO SOMETHING. Write letters, make phone calls, network, get the AA blog community on the job to stop it! Start with just one company, and beat on their door long and hard until they have no choice but to open it.
This is where relatively few people can actually make a big difference. Hundreds of letters or phone calls bother companies who wonder how many people are thinking the same thing but aren’t writing. Activism is always a smaller part of the larger ethnic community effected. Believe me, writing or calling when an issue is still hot and fresh to the public, will make a lot bigger dent than you and your buddies walking around some night club with a tipsy White girl on your arm, that everybody else in the place has already slept with.
I urge you to take the time to complain and take the chance of actually changing policy. The mass media is where these battles are truly fought. Letters are cheap, emails even cheaper.
Just a thought from a concerned friend.
Go after these guys!
What’s the big deal? These are models not real people. Calm down everyone. There’s no need to get upset.
Not only black men with white women went go down well with the American public, neither would white women with any other kind of race like Middle Eastern guys or Hispanic men. You don’t see them having a heart attack or this issue. Do we? But I have seen swimsuit adds featuring white men and black women in catalogs or newspaper insert.
I’ll see if I can get a letter out this week.
Me too!
Sieg,
Us “illegals” and “terrorists” are not invisible to the extent Asian guys are. In fact, we’re quite the hot topic nowadays. We’re gonna steal your jobs AND your wimmin.
On a real note, I’m gonna send out a letter as well.
I don’t know how to do it, but it’d be great to take King’s photoshopped ads and make them go viral.
Maybe those in the blogosphere that care could try to use tem as spoof advertisements.
Hey, Nottyboy!
Where have you been keeping yourself?
Heya, King!
Mostly catching up with my paperback and DVD collection offline, but lurking once in a while.
How’ve you been?
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Hey Notty,
Nice to see you! Glad things are well!
It’s relatively easy to respond to perceived injustices by rallying a campaign to “improve your game” and sleep with White women, as a means of ethnic activism for “Your People.” But I’ve got news for you—most guys want to “improve their game” and sleep with women, whether you call it activism or not. It’s easy to look at every Asian woman as the faithless enemy, and then respond with a plan that involves, night clubs, bars, wingmen, and multiple-partner sex fantasies.
This is a phenomenon that needs it’s own word – Vergeltungsliebesgeschichte
I love a good satirical piece. Good job, King.
Here’s my “interference”.
http://yfrog.com/3uappleoriginalj
And y’all will be happy to know that King did this on a Mac, while I’m also writing this blog post on a Mac. Using the Man’s tools to subvert the Man’s message!
Then y’all be super-duper happy to know that I did this on a Hackintosh.
Buwhahahahahahahahaha!
@ Notty, hahaha reading… and books even?! You’re becoming an egghead! Come back to the internet and argue with us
Good to hear from you, man!
@ Kobukson Haha! nice job!!!! this has so many possibilities! Sometimes the best way to fight a thing is to simply make it look ridiculous, eh? Send it to the Onion.
Haha! Kobukson, that’s awesome! I’m putting it in the main post so everyone can see it!
B.
:: le sigh! :: What sane woman in the world doesn’t have a weakness for tech geeks!!!
Lolz. I can only assume that’s a rhetorical question, TZ
Clearly ALL sane women love tech geeks!!
http://seat42f.com/images/stories/tvshows/BeautyAndTheGeek/Season5/beauty-and-the-geek-season-5-cast.jpg
Hi Jaehwan,
Thanks for the welcome. I’ve been lurking on and off, and t’s great to see your site growing.
I had to change my name since there appears to be a more consistent Robert on the site now
Related to this post, cmon king, you could have left the images alone and just changed the headline to “iChase” couldn’t you?
Congrats!
“@ Notty, hahaha reading… and books even?! You’re becoming an egghead! Come back to the internet and argue with us Good to hear from you, man!”
Nothing literate, but at least they’re books, lol.
Old Robert–
You’re not old! Haha! It’s good to hear from you! And “iChase” would’ve been hilarious!
” We’re gonna steal your jobs AND your wimmin.”
@nottboy: how do you plan on doing that? Kidnapping them?
I hope you meet a bitchy and cheating white woman that will put you in your place I bet that’ll teach you to idolize women that you don’t know nothing about. While I wasn’t writing here, I was trying to give a white woman another chance. Nothing has change, they are still the selfish and cheating bitches they always been. I’m sticking with your women for now on. But I object to the way you guys using white women as a political ploy.
I assume, by “they” you mean ALL White women, eh Sieg?
Sieg,
If these women are all cheating on you, might it not have something to do with…you?
That was really my point. I am suspicious of anyone who has had “nothing but bad luck” with “X” kind of women (as if they’re all the same). It’s so much easier to blame the women than to do the necessary soul searching and honestly ask, “could some of this be me?”
Easy. DHV with a story of how you dodged La Migra, after training at an Al-Tijuana camp. Then you show them your dynamite stick. BAM. Makeout.
Wome love bad boys. And you’re such a nice guy, Ziggy. When will you learn?
Referring to the new I phone video. I like how they choose the more “asian” looking lady and white dude to be the handicapped couple. Pooooey.
I was waiting for someone to blog on this. I see white male privilege being linked with I-Phone and Asian females to adhere to “image”.
Again superficial racism is brewing again in the media, lets get some of our counter-offensive social media out there.
Someone in apple (perhaps marketing) obviously has a major Asian fetish and they are setting the marginalized norms for Asian men again.
There’ s been a few other disturbing commercial of White guy & Asian women marketing lately, ironically a few too many because as you know we live in the land of the sheepish, certain couples will try to mimic it.
Thanks, Ed! Actually, that reminds me–I still haven’t sent Jobs a letter. Hopefully I can write it soon, and hopefully he’ll turn away from those iPhone tech issues to help create a better message.
Am I the only person who doesn’t have a single Apple product? That’s right, no iTunes, no iPod, no iMac, no iDestroyYourPaycheckWithOverpricedGadgets. Best way to fight it is to not buy it.
@ Leon: I don’t own any Apple products either. I’m a PC girl all the way.
I’m a white girl and I personally would love to see more AM/WF couples. I would be chatting with an Asian guy on that phone. Had to throw in my 2 cents!
“Am I the only person who doesn’t have a single Apple product?”
Shame on you, Leon! The best way to fight the system is from within!!!
Disclaimer: King is a rabid Mac addict
@ Judy
Well, we all hope your wish comes true
I’m a white girl and I personally would love to see more AM/WF couples. I would be chatting with an Asian guy on that phone. Had to throw in my 2 cents!
Hi.
I am an activist-artisan-entrepreneur who is developing creative products to promote AM/WF and AM/*F relationships.
Here is an example of my work:
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8624/redthong.jpg
What do you think?
I too am a rabid Mac fan! (although I just have a Mac…I’m too poor to buy an iPad or iPod after buying it!)
It’s hard because once a franchise or institution grows too big, it’s sometimes hard for a boycott to work. Look at Abercrombie and Fitch or the Last Airbender. You almost have to to appeal to a large company’s sense of fair play.
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Asian males do exist! Well only in Apple Store China website…
http://www.apple.com.cn/iphone/features/facetime.html
Wow. It looks like they use the same Asian woman too. It’s just that the American version has a White guy. That’s very interesting.
Yeah, that is interesting…I’d like to know the thought process behind making the decision of the change of the male. I also wonder which one came first, the American add (probably) or the Chinese one?
What’s the big deal? Apple’s ad is merely reflecting what it’s actually like in the Bay Area in terms of dating and work relationships. They’re not creating or shaping those trends. It’s relatively rare to see a WF/AM couple, even in the Silicon Valley. What’s really weird, if you think about it, is that there aren’t any WM/AM pairings on the phone, even though in reality this is a conversation very likely to actually happen when people in the Bay Area get on the phone for work. And why aren’t there any white female/Hindu male pairings? That’s actually not uncommon in the Valley, either.
So, anyway, talk to white women about it if you have a problem with it. They’re the ones making the choices. Hell, maybe I should start talking about it with them for you. Seriously, guys, you can have them if you want to deal with their jacked cultural values.
Does life imitate art or does art imitate life?
I’m writing a letter to Apple. Won’t start blogging again until the letter is done.
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Asian guy with that Asian gal in iphone display!
http://l.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2011/01/06/iphone-leak.jpg
this is from the front of yahoo at the moment, they have an asian guy in the pic but I don’t know where the picture is taken.
looks like China… *yawn*
You know what is amazing is how you asian guys are so obsessed with what asian women are doing all the time. For God’s sake, when are you going to quit obsessing about who I am dating?
Secondly, when was it the goal of the American ethnic population to always cling to our own groups, so that the men can somehow feel better about themselves?
Bottom line, is that you asian guys are more obsessed with asian girls than anyone else. Do you not have better things to do than to sit around counting the ethnicities of Apple advertisings and counting the asian women and white men??? And then, when there is an asian guy / asian girl pairing you all run around emailing eachother all excited..
You are obsessed with asian women!
Ugh////////
정말이야 한국남자 그래 우리 오빠가 그냥 나한테 개속 찬소리하고 ..
너.. 한국 남자 대이트해 라고나..
sorry, my Korean is bad.
Kimbapper:
That’s gotta be one of the best screen names I’ve seen! Thank you!
You wrote:
Bottom line, is that you asian guys are more obsessed with asian girls than anyone else. Do you not have better things to do than to sit around counting the ethnicities of Apple advertisings and counting the asian women and white men??? And then, when there is an asian guy / asian girl pairing you all run around emailing eachother all excited..
I agree with you 100%, although I don’t think there is anything that Asian guys can necessarily do about it.
Check out my views on the obsession here:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2010/05/asian-women-and-the-invisible-chain/
@Kim
If there was just one, just ONE AF/AM couple featured in the I-Phone Ads, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.
But there isn’t. Not one.
Kimbapper–I agree with Many things you have said and can relate to many of your expressions of frustration in this and the other thread.
Secondly, when was it the goal of the American ethnic population to always cling to our own groups, so that the men can somehow feel better about themselves?
As an AF the goal of clinging together so one gender can feel better about themselves begins when I think about the fact that the hyper-sexualization of AFs and the emasculation of AMs is based on race. My race.
It’s my belief that an AF with a WM in the advertisement above does NOT, as some may interpret it, represent the fact that Apple’s execs are forward thinking and see past racial boundaries. It points to the contrary. In order to see it, one does have to pay attention to the ethnicities of Apple’s advertising, boring as that may sound. And one must also count the number of gender/racial pairings. The pattern those numbers reveal point to the fact that the people who were involved with the decision to feature an AF/WM pairing are operating as part of a larger mindset: that AFs are good enough to date WMs and AMs are not deserving to be a part of the picture at all in the United States unless they are nerds, etc. Apple’s execs are no exception.
The Gender Divide is a complex issue, and one that deserves more thought from many in our community. On one hand it emasculates the men and on the other hand it hyper-sexualizes the women. Two sides of the same stick and it hits us all because it’s the Asian stick. It labels some as “the good ones” and some as “the bad ones.” But we’re being labeled, not doing the labeling and the titles we are labeled with always begin with “other.”
Believe me, I’m totally with the women on the whining issue and how unattractive it is. I get that. But we have to give the guys credit—they’re not making a fuss about nothing. There IS a legitimate gripe, it’s not their imaginations running away with them. There really is something going on.
Now there are definitely men who latch on to the issue so they can have something to gripe about, which may be something you’ve had to deal with. Some may have trouble expressing their thoughts and feelings on the subject (they are guys, after all
) and I could see where it might come out as something like “You need to respect Korean men.” There are also those who spew venom at any AF in their general vicinity because they mistakenly see our general hyper-sexualization as something to be envied and they’re resentful. There are definitely some men who post here on bigwowo who IMHO should get a life. But the AM who runs this blog and several others who frequent it are not guilty of the crap-flinging. There are several men around who are sweet, kind, intelligent, funny, articulate, thoughtful–guys any girl would be lucky to end up with. So please don’t lump them in with the punks who are too short sighted to see that they are contributing nothing positive to the community.
Take some time. Try to block out the negative ones and listen to what people like jaehwan, N, Leon, Ben (I and II), Kobukson, Larry, and others have to say. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Wow, how much does RiceCakeRabbit have your back, AMs?
Good lookin’ out.
@RCR
That’s a fantastic response. It’s exactly whats AMs wants to say but anger and envy/jealousy always get in the way of typing such a persuasive and intelligent response (and I’m as guilty as anyone in this regard). Once a hint of double standards is sensed, the brain just automatically goes into Cavemen mode for me. But thanks a bunch for having our backs!
It might sound crazy, but it’s quite heart-warming reading through your response. (and also Tz’s response on the other thread that is hijacked into an IR debate, mixed with me and Bryan’s discussion on this herb/root thing that we have no idea about).
RCR,
very eloquent and insightful post, thank you. reason is sometimes a slave to the emotions. with hot button topics, it’s easy to get into that knee jerk, pavlovian response. it’s harder to judge slowly.
Thanks, RCR!
I <3 RiceCakeRabbit.
I <3 RCR too!
Lol! How can anybody not <3 RCR??
(I'll exempt Urb4n, of course)
You guys <3 way too easily. But I would say RCR has potential.
Haha! Come on mT, feel the <3!!!
mT,
I second King. C’mon, feel the <3! I’m feeling it!
A for effort, but got nothing on you know who on MM, and especially not on Julia Oh or missmel – the good old days of APA internet.
(am i getting nostalgic or just getting old?)
MM’er,
What is it with rating people? Really. It’s like me saying, MM’er, you’ve got nothing on Alpha Asian or TMM. RCR is a real person. Once you’re in the club, you’re in the club. No need to rate people or compare. It’s not a competition as to who can get MM’er to like them better.
that’s sort of ‘ironic’ coming from “Mr. rate Asian-American books/authors gold, silver, bronze”
have you read the essays by Julia Oh and missmel? RCR go nothing on them.
C’mon MMer,
RCR just made an excellent post and excellence is excellence. Period. Sure her political leaning isn’t quite as uhmm, “pure” as you know who from MM but she came across well and spoke her mind the way it is. That’s what matters, right?
wow its like a secret club here in bigwowoland, insider references to oher posters and all…
cuse me *raises hand
who is “you know who from mm”, and who is “missmel”?
Haha! These are people from modelminority.com and thefighting44s.com. They stopped blogging/commenting a long time ago. I don’t know if their old posts are still around. mm’er can probably link them if they are.
mm’er:
How is it even possible to rate people? I rate works, not people. I wasn’t a fan of Jean Kwok’s novel, but I’m a big fan of Jean Kwok.
I really have no idea what you’re talking about. I agree with James. RCR speaks from the heart, and she’s still here doing so, despite the fact that some guys aren’t treating her with as much respect as she deserves. That’s all that matters.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you could learn a lot from RCR, mm’er.
you can call it \ad hominem\ all you want, but in my bigoted mind there’s truth to \the personal is political.\ are you going to have tea with Amy Tan and say she’s not all that bad?
(unless you’re talking about those authors who write completely 180 of what they believe, which makes no sense to me.)
FYI, for those uninitiated:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2010/05/sister-can-you-lend-an-ear-by-julia-oh/
http://www.thefighting44s.com/archives/2004/08/14/ode-to-smart-strong-and-sexy-asian-men/
-Jaehwan and Crazymmer
thanks
“you can call it \ad hominem\ all you want, but in my bigoted mind there’s truth to \the personal is political.”
In that case, I hope you find a beautiful, good looking, POLITICAL TRACT to keep you warm at night.
Jesus Christ, I wish there was an IGNORE option for blogs.
Who rang the cukoo bell to call the cukoos to roost?
I have to laugh because, though it’s sad laughter. For all their flag-waving, people like crazy are playing right into the hands of the villainous YT by pissing all over the growth of an authentic AA community. Hm, maybe HE is the real doppelganger here!
Totally agree with RCR. Speaking in general, this blog is being overrun by nutcases. Unfortunately, people can’t stop feeding the goddamn trolls. I’m outta here.
This blog is all about you guys. I think crazy mm’er is harmless though illogical, and I think AOR will follow the rules, but if you want me to start deleting guys like “Chris,” then we can do that. I’d prefer not to ban people unless they really get annoying (I keep thinking maybe they’ll learn something), but Chris is clearly breaking the rules and lying to everyone, and…well, I feel sorry for AOR/Oriental Right. Part of me thinks that a guy who can find beauty in Ishiguro’s writing still has potential to turn his life around.
Never mind. I’m deleting Chris’s last two comments. He needs to get a new hobby.
looks like I was right again: the 44s internet virtual harem is starting up again – everything to appease the female readership and censor. and you criticize China for censorship?
In that case, I hope you find a beautiful, good looking, POLITICAL TRACT to keep you warm at night.
sure, no other stereotypes but to resort to YT’s racist caricatures of the sexless AM. who needs YT when you have other Asians who are more racist against Asians?
Racist caricatures of the sexless AM? You just rated people based on…comments. That’s a good recipe for sexlessness.
does your wife care that you’re more concerned with some random idiot’s sex life online than you do about your own?
I don’t care about your sex life, not at all. I’m just commenting on how your sexism imperils your sex life. I don’t know why people don’t take my advice.
Anyway, as the Super Nanny might say, “Crazy MM’er, do you need a time out?” Seriously, you’re starting to annoy a lot of people here, you drive a lot of the women away, and it’s getting tiresome to see a guy suffering as you do. Maybe it may make sense just to take a short break? I do think you have potential, but like everyone here seems to agree, you’re so blinded with rage that you’re stuck in purgatory right now.
Maybe take a week off and then come back?
Seriously, you’re starting to annoy a lot of people here, you drive a lot of the women away
like I said, just like the 44s virtual internet harem.
you’re right. i’m not going to comment anymore with all the apologism.
lastly, who are you to state what’s sexist or not?
Take a week off and let your mind clear. Everyone here is telling you the exact same thing. That’s gotta say something with regards to sexism. And yet you continue to use demeaning terms like “harem” against women who are simply expressing an opinion.
I do hope you’ll eventually stay and add constructive comments, so if you think it would be helpful to talk by phone/podcast, we can do that too.
I am a white male.
I would just like to say to the people that make these commercials, ‘do you take responsibility for your actions?’ Its just so terrible to hear about some Asian women having problems with men ‘seeking/targeting them’ based on some Hollywood movie they saw or some Apple commercial. I think its so regretful. Maybe those actors are in a relationship in real life, and maybe race isn’t an issue for them. However, the commercial does portray a very unhelpful stereotype for society as a whole, not just for the Asian community. It’s so backward and I hope they come to their senses..
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LOL. YOU MAD CHO?