Fetishized A reckoning with yellow fever, feminism, and beauty

Yu, a former pinup model and lead singer of the rock band Nylon Pink, debuts with a searing memoir that expands into a broader look at the fetishization of Asian women in pop culture. In sharp, sometimes caustic essays, Yu recounts her entertainment career, examines her strained relationship with her father, catalogs her attempts to conform to Western beauty standards, and unpacks the skewed messages she received about Asian people in films ranging from Full Metal Jacket to Memoirs of a Geisha and the Austin Powers franchise. What sets Yu's musings apart, in addition to their ferocity, is the author's willingness to acknowledge her complicity in her own fetishization. "I'm still chiseling away at the layers between the pleasurable applause of the chauvinistic gaze and my feminist ideals, especially at an age when my physical attractiveness is quickly waning," she admits. "I know I'll be unraveling these unconscious beliefs... for a lifetime." It's an immense pleasure to read Yu as she does that unraveling with a ruthless gaze and a razor-sharp pen. This leaves a mark. Agent: Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Trellis Literary Management. (Aug.)

A former pinup model analyzes how her Asian American identity has affected her life and career. Yu, a Taiwanese American, wanted to become part of the entertainment industry at a time when Asian American role models were few and far between. Some who were successful catered to tropes that fetishized Asian women in service to white male "Asiaphiles" invested in the "myopic, generalized belief that Asian women inherently embody traits of submissiveness and obedience." Yu longs to embody the opposite of these traits but feels that her sexuality is the only tool she has to become the person she longs to be. She writes, "I felt the straightest path to empowerment was through courting the white male gaze." Yu's pursuit of success within a cultural milieu that degrades and fetishizes Asian American women traumatizes her on multiple levels. Most notably, as an up-and-coming model, she ends up at a photo shoot where the director sexually assaults her, films the encounter against her will, and releases the video publicly without her consent. The unprocessed trauma follows her through her successful career as a model, a coveted cameo in the movieThe Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and a member of the all-girl Asian American rock band Nylon Pink. Yu struggles with addiction, an issue that she connects with her desire to escape both the memories of her assault and the compromises inherent in pursuing a career dedicated to appeasing the white male gaze. This is a raw memoir, and Yu expertly balances visceral, emotional scenes from her life with trenchant social criticism. A disturbing but well-told memoir about the true costs of Asian fetishization. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.