Hollywood has a history of portraying Asian women as exotic, sensual and overly-sexual.  In such movies as “Sayonara,” “Walk Like a Dragon,”  “Flower Drum Song,” “The World of Suzy Wong,” and “Come See the Paradise,” Asian women have an inherent sexual allure as they are viewed as exotic, mysterious, and subservient.  These Hollywood images of “comfort women” have spilled over into mainstream images of Asian women.  In result, Asian women are viewed for their sexual desire and hyper-femininity.
          Two main reasons that this image of Asian women has become so widespread are because of the American portrayal of Asian men, and exoticism.
          In American culture, there is a long-standing stereotype of the “weak, effeminate Asian male.”  As Gary Okihiro discusses in his book, When and Where I Enter, because of the portrayal of Asian men as feminine, Asian females came to be seen as even more feminine, to the point of hyper-femininity.  Also, the view of Asians in general as passive and subservient has contributed to this view of the super-feminine Asian female.  This combination of quietness and sexuality has led to the categorization of Asian women as exotic and sensual, as can be seen by popular portrayal in many movies and mainstream culture.
          Exoticism is the depersonalization and focus on cultural differences of Asian Americans as a type of sociological novelty.  These exotic and erotic characteristics are seen as attractive qualities as many men enjoy having an “exotic, mysterious” object from the Orient as their sexual trophy.  As King Kok Cheung points out in Conflicts in Feminism, “the stereotype of Asian women as submissive and dainty sex objects has given rise to an enormous demand for X-rated films featuring Asian women and the emphasis on bondage in pornographic materials about Asian women.”  This can even be seen by the abundance of pornographic sites if one types in the word “Asian” or “oriental” in any search engine, such as HotBot or MetaCrawler. 

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