A new day, another story where minority women are objectified, sexualized and treated as less than human. Yes, I’m angry. No, I will not say his name. While the news outlets spotlight a side where a man’s family explains he HAD to murder six Asian women to satisfy his sexual desires, and brush it off as time to bring awareness to mental health conditions.
Mentally ill is not the same as White Privilege.
Here are their names; Delania Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaoji Tan, Daoyou Fengm, Julie Park, Hyeon Jeong Park, Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz. These people didn’t come home after work on Tuesday night.
The bigger issue here is this isn’t the first time Asian women have been sexualized by misogynistic men due to their appearance and what they do for a living. And it’s STILL not being addressed. This is part of the reason the #METOO movement was created. We can’t walk to our cars alone, we can’t wear short skirts, we have to carry pepper spray 24/7, and we can’t go to work and try to make a living either.
There is an epidemic of men who don’t know how to respect women. Maybe this is a feminist standing up for minority women, and all women. Maybe this is the moment you realize Asian communities deserve to be treated like human beings.
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My heart breaks heavily for these women and the people who were hurt. It hits deeply in women because so many of us deal with being hypersexualized on a daily basis, when all we want to do is just want get ahead.
When I was 5, I was told I didn’t need to be smart cause I was pretty. When I was 14, a boy told me I had ‘dick sucking eyes.’ When I took my first writer’s assistant job, my boss asked if he could have sex with me.
And in the middle of a pandemic six Asian women were killed because a man never learned how to humanize women. Men don’t protect women. They NEVER have. And the made up story they tell themselves is detrimental to women’s success and opportunity to live a normal life.
This is toxic culture disguised as men with mental health conditions. We are not your fetish. We are human beings.
Jessica Velle reports on entertainment, politics, social media and stories relevant to the Latinx community. She can be reached at Jessica@reel360.com.
