Society continues to allow fetishization of minorities

Opinion: Society continues to ANNA WILKINSoN

allow fetishization of minorities

ANNA WILKINSoN

Society has been proven to equate fetishization to compliments. Complimenting someone isn’t obsessing over someone specifically because of their culture or a specific aspect of their body. This is fetishization, and society continues to allow minority groups to be perpetuated and discriminated against.

However, many argue that laws such as the 15th,16th, and 18th Amendments prove otherwise. Even with this change to the U.S.’s founding law, minorities are fetishized more often than white males.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, fetishization is defined as “an unreasonable amount of importance that is given to something, or an unreasonable interest in something” and “a sexual interest in an object, a part of the body that is not a sexual organ, or a person as if they are an object.”

Racial fetishization is a mix of both these definitions as it emphasizes the obsession and sexual interest aspect of each respective definition. For example, minorities are compulsively fetishized for their skin color or stereotypes. While there are times when one can be appreciated for their skin color, these ordinances become an issue when it degrades the person their color or heritage with excessive fetishization.

María Valle-Remond, a senior, spoke about how they had felt personally fetishized by those around her when they identified as bisexual. Valle-Remond has also noticed the trend of minority group fetishization I referred to.

“I think it’s confusing how a lot of the time people will fetishize light skin black people and discriminate against dark skin black people. This just shows how there’s a lot of colorism when the reason for both is the color of their skin,” ValleRemond said.

This idea is not a new phenomenon. I have seen this obsession with skin color over various social media apps. For example, rather than complimenting someone using

adjectives such as beautiful, people tend to fall into the pattern of obsessing over skin tone rather than their holistic beauty.

Society’s issue is that they often label these habits of fetishization as “preferences.”

There is a difference between preference and objectifying someone by portraying them as an inanimate object. An example of a preference could consist of eye color or height, but overly obsessing over one group of people paints a different picture. In social media, the main group this behavior surrounds consists of people of color and genderqueer people. As a society, comments towards these people may come off as compliments, but in actuality, attach harmful stereotypes to that person.

“I think people of color tend to be more fetishized, especially women. Asian women are a big fetish for a lot of people, as is the idea of a ‘spicy’ Latina or a sassy Black woman, and it’s really gross,” Valle-Remond said.

People of color aren’t the only minority group being fetishized. As Valle-Remond discusses, genderqueer people also fall under the umbrella of groups that are subject to fetishization.

“I also think the same people who are homophobic sexualize queer women because of the idea of threesomes,” Valle-Remond said.

Over-sexualizing lesbians is not a new trend; it has been portrayed in media for decades — yet it is another thing that exemplifies the fetishization of women. On social media, I have seen comments on videos where male-presenting people are coming out that show the true color of fetishization. Comments such as “a win for the boys” or “two girls making out is better than one.”

A Pew Research Center study showed that around 56% of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) users on an online dating app received a sexually explicit message or image they did not ask for, compared with 32% of straight online daters who say the same.

To continue this trend, Pew Research Center also found that about four out of ten LGB online daters (41%) say someone has called them an offensive name on one of these sites or apps. While this could just be considered harassment, the search for LGB users could also be proof of over-obsession with these users.

This is a stereotypical portrayal in television and film as well: girls make out, and boys go crazy. Not only is this harmful to lesbians, but it continually places women under the idealism of being objects. The biggest issue with the fetishization of lesbians is the fact that their sexuality and identity have become another thing catered to men. With the one thing that should be pretty much exempt from men, society instantly conforms it into something that men can find pleasure in.

Overall, minority groups, specifically people of color and queer people, share the common ground of fetishization. As a society, there are a few steps we can take to limit this pattern of fetishization. Instead of overly fixating on either stereotypes, skin color, heritage, sexual identity, or preference, we can appreciate the beauty in people in other ways. Now, this doesn’t mean to totally exempt this aspect of someone’s life completely; it means that we can find ways to appreciate a person for the whole of their being, rather than fetishizing them for one part of their identity.

ANIKA MARINo