Race as supplement: Surfaces and crevices of the Asian feminine body

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the wake of COVID-19, the violence toward Asians has prompted many to reconsider how Asian femininity is rhetorically configured in the US racial landscape. In this article, I argue that the ongoing Othering of Asians as “perpetual foreigners” is sustained through ostensibly positive valuations of Asian feminine aesthetics, particularly related to skin texture and sexual prowess, as supplements for white bodies. The Asian feminine is most legible when enacting stereotypical embodiments that evoke sensory/sensual stimulation. Analysis of prominent discourses related to wellness and beauty products demonstrates how the rhetoric of racial supplementation, the aesthetic fetishization of racialized anatomical features as augmentation for the white consuming body, renders Asianness as most rhetorically legitimate when performing stereotypical embodiments. Beyond the one-dimensional nature of these stereotypes, they normalize the substitution of aesthetic performance for ontological motivation, which constrains the range of available opportunities for Asian and Asian American rhetors.