Week 9_Natalie Lortz_ASA 114

BBSing, otherwise known as a place where you can get to know someone sexually, in the most intimate way, while also fear and or expecting your partners to be lying about their name, identity, and location. Beyond the fellow human beings that fabricate their portfolios, there are also "sysops", system operaters that can tap into personal conversations. When it comes to BBSing, Tsang's motto is, "Treat every conversation as public, and every partner as HIV positive". Additionally, Tsang argues that BBS challenges notions of privacy and obscures lines between private and public. One appeal of BBSing lies in reinventing identity (for sexual pleasure). Online, you can easily change aspects of your identity. Another appeal is that it replaces bar hopping and creates a more convenient social space for queer males as well as a few females. Asian participants find that when they switch their ethnicity to "Caucasian" online, they get more responses. This is unsurprising, since gay society in the U.S. is catered for the young middle class white male. As a result, other groups of color are treated as an exotic alternative. This is evidenced by self-proclaimed "rice queens", gay men with a fetish for gay Asian males. Fetishism is described as a "frozen form of desirability. Asian males' feminine perception serves to fuel their desirability for gay white males. In addition, Asians' submissive reputation creates a unique category for them. Further, he says, "Asians are so specialized that for some, fellow Asians are not even on the shelf". This reminds me of the Asian women and white men coupling. Perhaps the same can be said for the heterosexual Asian women who prefer white males over Asian males. Granted, in a heterosexual context, Asian males' feminine stereotype also plays a role. However, I believe it can be argued that the idea of Asian males, queer or heterosexual, categorize them as specifically submissive and unusual to the point of exotic fetishization for sexual desirability by other racial groups or of dismissal for romantic partnership by their own racial group.