"So have you caught Yellow Fever yet?"OK, what's the deal with gay guys and race?
"I'd be all over you if you weren't white skinned."
"I'm really into Western guys; I bet you have a huge dick"
"It's a little hard being here 'cause I'm really only attracted to, like, Thai guys or you know Southeast Asians"
"It can be stressful in Itaewon because everybody's after the Western guys, so people get really competitive"
"I just hate it when I'm talking up some guy and he's like, 'Sorry dude, I'm a rice queen¹.'"
Now, racial consciousness (and prejudice) is all-pervasive most places - in Korea 'race' is basically the distinction between Koreans and 'others' (the idea that people could be legally but not ethnically Korean or vice-versa is a real brain-twister) - so you expect it in a demographic that crosses social boundaries, but in the gay world it's subject to a kind of eroticization that can become really strict. [It is worth noting that all of these comments come from the international Itaewon district where people go searching for the Other and where elements of gay culture comes steeped in the broader American context]
Granted, I don't think it's all bad - in a speech I went to by ex-porn star and PhD Annie Sprinkle, she suggested that the porn industry had done more to ease race relations in the United States than any civil rights group - but it's clearly problematic and, personally, I just don't get it. I suspect it has something to do with people subconsciously looking for their exes, or with post-capitalist consumer culture and the internet-dating window-shopper effect, but if anyone could explain it to me that'd be great.
¹As I'm aware that the much of my readership isn't actually gay, for your edification here is a brief glossary of racially-charged gay terms:
Rice Queen - (Typically) White guys who are only/predominantly into Asian guys
Sticky Rice Queen - Asian guys who are only into other Asian guys
Minute Rice - No explanation necessary
Rice Cooker - Gay establishment attracting mostly Asians
Potato Queen - (Typically) Asian guys who are only into white guys
and the term's been taken further with Bean Queens, Curry Queens, and Queen of Spades, but you get the idea.
3 comments:
OK maybe I'm a moron, but what's a Queen of Spades?
"A gay man primarily attracted to black men."
I've never actually heard this though, and I think it's more of a British thing... I just needed another 'queen' term.
jajajaja, me cague de la risa con este post. i can only imagine what a rice-a-roni would be....
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