You know how things come in threes?

First we had Crew Girl. Then Dang! And now we have East of Eden (currently #2 on netflix top 10). Did anyone see this sht?

Normally, I actually like watching historical “poor white people” pieces. I love me some miserable old-timey white people struggling through poverty, family dysfunction, horrible working conditions, incest, murder, whatever compelling story. Generally, I don't have to sit there wondering, “Okay, what fresh new way are they going to shit on Asian people this time?”

But here we are with East of Eden.

And apparently even historical white misery isn't safe anymore.

So let's go through this sht...

#2 — Dramatically Smaller

First, yes, Lee is physically small compared with the major white men surrounding him.

This guy Hoon Lee (as can be seen in sharp height contrast to his show bestie Jon Hamm on Your Friends and Neighbors) seems to be the new Hollywood darling ala Ben Wang, Ke Huy Quan and the other AM shrimps. Internet says he's 5'll but there is no fukn way.

Being short isn't inherently negative. There are plenty of short men who are badass.

But we're not looking at one isolated characteristic. We're looking at a pattern.

The Asian male character is physically smaller, he's socially subordinate, and he's placed in a servant role within a white household.

And that combination is worth noticing.

#6 — Subordinate to white dominant characters

This characteristic is usually subordinate to big yt villains.

But in this case Lee is family's servant.

By old timey standards, he's basically the woman the house. He cooks. He cleans. He takes care of the house. He raises the kids. He basically becomes the person holding this dysfunctional white family together.

Bonus: His mannerisms and speech patterns when talking to the kids is like a nagging mom

#8 — Desexualized

He’s a Chinese dude in the US at the turn of the 20^(th) century duh

#10 — Miscellaneous negative portrayal  - Holy fk!??

And then we have Lee's backstory.

His mother disguised herself as a man to come to America and was pregnant with Lee.

When she was discovered to be a woman, the other Chinese railroad workers raped and killed her?!!!!

Bravo y t 👏👏

You managed to desexualize us and make us violent rapists at the same time!

And Lee is born in the middle of this horrific situation.

There was his long speech about the Chinese workers pent up anger being unleashed but WTF??

Anyway…not the smoothest segue but let’s talk about…

The “Cool But…” Asian Character

I would guess most non-AM oblivious to what we’re aware of would be like”wtf are you talking about? Lee was (insert all these non-masculinity positive traits)

I think there's a particular type of Hollywood character that deserves its own category.

I'm calling it the “Cool But…” character. Or the Cool Character Shield

This is the Asian character who is given so many positive characteristics that it becomes almost socially impossible to criticize the representation.

He's cool!

He's funny!

He's brilliant!

He's brave!

He's the emotional center!

He's the one who saves everybody!

He's everybody's favorite character!

And then you try to point out that he's also small, nerdy, foreign-coded, sexually nonthreatening, subordinate, emasculated, or otherwise trapped inside a bunch of familiar Asian stereotypes.

And the response is:

“Wtf are you talking about? He was COOL!”

That's the shield.

And I think Data (a teenage ke huy quan) from the 80s movie The Goonies is a perfect example.

Data is awesome.

He's inventive. He's brave. He's hilarious. His gadgets save the day.

But he's also a small Asian kid whose entire character is built around being the foreign nerd with gadgets.

You can acknowledge both things.

Data can be cool AND his portrayal can participate in a larger pattern of how Asian boys and men are represented.

Those aren't mutually exclusive.

And I think that's where discussions about Asian representation often get derailed.

You point out the pattern and suddenly you're accused of saying you hate the character.

No.

I'm not saying the character sucks.

I'm saying look at the characteristics Hollywood keeps giving Asian men.

And Lee is almost a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Because if you criticize Lee's portrayal, someone can immediately respond:

“But Lee was the best character!”

Yes!

He was brilliant.

He was compassionate.

He was loyal.

He was funny.

He was emotionally intelligent.

He was the moral center of the story.

He was arguably the most decent man in the entire family.

That's not the argument.

The argument is that all of those positive traits coexist with a very specific shtty construction of Asian masculinity.

Sorry about my greasy hair.

I'm 24 and for now I haven't found a cut that looks good on me.

Do you have haircut recommendation for me? What do you think would be cool on me? For now I have the perfect lenght hair to try anything. For example I'm torn between a cut that frames my face and bangs.

And btw do you think I should shave the facial hair?