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Speaking to Refinery29, Chhaur, 33, described her experiences of men with “yellow fever” as “so cringe,” adding that it should “not be a thing.”
“Sadly, it is a thing and a lot of my ex-partners [who were European or Caucasian], even though they wouldn’t use that term, if you look at their past record of their exes, they were all Asian,” Chhaur, the daughter of Chinese and Cambodian immigrants, told the outlet.
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“Yellow fever” is a term used to describe non-Asian people’s sexual preference for Asians, particularly Asian women. It should also not be confused with the mosquito-borne disease of the same name. The term perpetuates the harmful stereotype that Asian women are submissive and hypersexual.
“I think there’s this thing of Asian women being submissive and really subdued and not really having much of an opinion,” the hairdresser from South Australia said. “I know guys who go for Asian women because they think they’re like that. But then they bump into someone like me and they’re like, ‘Holy sh*t!’ [Because] I’ve got opinions.”
Chhaur also shared her views on Asian stereotypes found in movies, notably Lucy Liu’s role in “Charlie’s Angels.” Having grown up watching the film, she recalled that Liu was “quite sexualized.”
Her interview with Refinery29 came just after her husband on MAFS, Cody Bromley, admitted in a recently aired episode that he was not attracted to Asian women. In the episode, aired on Feb. 2, Bromley explained, “I usually go for that blonde, surfy look. That’s just what I’m magnetized towards and what I’ve always gone for on the northern beaches.”
Featured Image via @selina_chhaur
