1 September 2014

Strange and bizarre: Asia in Western media

So I tweeted about this piece of news on Twitter the other day....
I find the picture disturbing to look at. It grabs attention and traffic of course, as is the priority with online news these days, but as a woman looking at that, it is uncomfortable. Not to mention the topic of the article itself is a pet peeve of mine. Although I really had no idea that's how it was going to show up in the Twitter feed. I retweeted it via my phone so it only showed me two links (one for the article, one for the "picture"), technology. *facepalm* (I've chosen to leave the picture out of this here.)

Anyway, on with this pet peeve... The West has had a long and disturbing* fascination with Asia. In this specific case however, it is on Japan and all other aspects of  its culture that are considered "not normal" to the Western eye. It ticks all the boxes:
  • journalistic news value of human interest through the 'weird' and 'bizarre'
  • objectification of women and the female body (an issue that concerns the West more so than the East)
  • conforms to the (mis)conception that Japan (and to a broader extent, the entire Asian region) and its people are subordinate/secondary/abnormal to the West.
I'm not saying that I agree or find the aims of said charity to fundraise legitimate, but I think an alternative story could have been published instead of this one. It has certainly fulfilled its purpose of grabbing attention. Though at the same time, an opportunity for understanding, nuance and context is lost. Given that most newsrooms are understaffed these days, I can see how it could be pretty tough to find something to write about on a slow news day I believe there are some principles that should still be held on to, especially now that everyone is more interconnected.

*jump to Page 5 for the section beginning on East Asia
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