Exploitedteenasians

Exploitedteenasians is a new play exploring sexual exploitation of Asian teenage girls and women in America, written and directed by May Adrales who has built her career around bringing Asian American stories onto major theatre stages.

At this crucial juncture, it is vital to address these issues. The recent murders of six young Asian women in Atlanta and discovery that nearly 1,400 children had been sexually exploited over 16 years by Asian criminal gangs in Rotherham are prime examples of how racist stereotypes persist and thrive against people of colour.

These stereotypes and exoticitization contribute to hate crime against Asians by providing fertile ground for violence to flourish. Microaggressions, erasure and stereotypes don’t directly cause violent incidents but provide essential conditions that breed it – for instance when white actors on American stages repeatedly sexualize and dehumanize Asian women from Madama Butterfly to its knockoff Miss Saigon? Bloody Mary gives her Polynesian daughter Liat away to an American sailor as though she were something to take or consume as seen when Bloody Mary gives her Polynesian daughter away to an American sailor as though she were an object to be taken or consumed.

Othering is an integral component of racism and xenophobia, wherein dominant groups (in this instance white Americans) perceive minority racial/ethnic groups as dangerous outside their place of belonging and worthy of being blamed for perceived threats to social stability. Pandemics exacerbate this dynamic as fears over contracting disease can lead to prejudicial attitudes against individuals different than themselves.