This ‘paper’ will debunk that ‘study’, using actual data: by FrostyDux
Recent social media trends have put a spotlight on the tag ‘Oxford Study’, which is based on article entitled “The New Suzie Wong: Normative Assumptions of White Male and Asian Female Relationships’. This article has become known as the ‘Oxford Study’ ostensibly due to its publication via the Oxford Academic, the academic research platform of Oxford University Press. The current context by which the reference ‘Oxford Study’ is used in social media is to assert that there is conclusive research proving Asian Females (AF) are more attracted to White Males (WM) than any other race in the context of romantic relationships. Indeed the connotation goes further to insinuate that Asian Women are to some extent even programmed to or inherently more attracted to WMs specifically. ‘Oxford Study’ is by far the most used tag when viewers are presented with online content depicting AFWM relationships.
The purpose of this paper is to address the misinformation currently in public discourse both around the actual findings of the article as well as the meaning that has been created around the ‘Oxford Study’. Conclusions on AFWM relationships based on factual data applicable to the topic will also be presented. It should come as no surprise that the internet and social media have once again misconstrued information to fit a narrative that is popular amongst viewers and generates attention, regardless of validity. The publishing of this paper hopes to counter the narrative that there exists a bias among AFs towards WMs when considering romantic relationships, specifically a bias borne out of factors beyond ones own control.
‘Oxford Study’ is one of, if not the most, used tags when online content features an AF and WM couple. Commenters using this tag often do so in a derisive manner, relegating the featured person or couple into a statistic. The idea of using the tag in this manner is the belief that the ‘Oxford Study’ was a study that produced scientific evidence proving Asian Females prefer White Males over any other race in their romantic relationships and that somehow it was inescapable that the Asian Female is in a relationship with the White Male. As we will see in this paper, both the idea of such a preference and assumption that the ’Oxford Study’ proves this preference are both patently false.
The basis of the ‘Oxford Study’ tag is an article titled ‘The New Suzie Wong: Normative Assumptions of White Male and Asian Female Relationships’ (hereafter referenced as the ‘article’, or ‘original article’), and any who read through the article will quickly realize it does nothing to prove an existence of Asian Female preference for White Males. This is obvious as the article itself clearly states that it is only a study of commercials. Indeed the article is an examination of five TV commercials, hand-picked by the two authors to represent various types of AFWM relationships seen in Western media, specifically the United States. The study assumes to be true that ‘the Asian female being subservient and romantically associated with the White male has become internalized in society today’, and examines how these five commercials represent different aspects of that view. Focus is purely to highlight how Western Media depicts AFWM relationships in commercials to further and reinforce a narrative which the article itself does not prove.
The publication date of the article is May 2010, with cited materials as far back as 1960. This puts the article at nearly 15 years old as of this paper’s publication with cited materials going back over 60 years. The age of research does not necessarily determine its validity. However, human relationships are based upon numerous factors which are ever-changing such as ideas of attractiveness and societal norms. Views, data, observations or other prevailing thoughts from over half a century ago do not necessary reflect upon current society. It is widely accepted that beauty standards and societal norms are changing at a rapid pace and are different than those of over 60 or even 15 years ago [1,2,3,4].
Since the focus of the article was merely to add a dimension to an assumption it itself did not seek to prove, this paper will focus instead on addressing the current assumption that the ‘Oxford Study’ is proof that amongst Asian Females there is a preference for White Males regarding romantic relationships. References to the article will also be made to address the points relevant to current connotation.
Using more recent data which examines specifically the relationships of both Asian Female and Asian Males in the United States it is clear that in fact Asian Females overwhelmingly select Asian Males as their romantic partners even within a country that is predominantly White. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that their Asian Male counterparts are almost as likely to find romantic partners outside their own race which is not a narrative associated with the Oxford Study.
First let us address one of the major points in the article. This point can be summarized by saying Western media overwhelmingly portrays Asian Women as the overly sexualized, subservient love interest of White Men, and Asian Men as the punchline. This reality remains true today as it did 14 years ago. Numerous studies and articles have been written on this topic demonstrating AAPI actors are still woefully underrepresented in Western Media[5]. This paper feels no need to cite and review evidence of this point as any casual search will produce ample evidence for the curious reader. Advertising works[6], and given the tendency of Asian Females to be depicted as the love interest of White Males in any media from commercials to movies to print, it should come as no surprise that this is an assumed norm. This is a point covered very well in the original article. What should also be considered are both the source and target audience of Western media. Using Hollywood executives as the proxy for the source of Western Media we can see the makeup is predictably old, white and male[7,8]. The target audience for Western Media should also come as no surprise as being dominated by Whites in the US. They are the largest racial group in America and while minority buying power is growing in the US the lion’s share (well over 70%) still belongs to White households[9]. One conclusion to be drawn is that Western media is created by old White Men to be consumed by White households, and bears no reflection of the values and behaviors of minorities in America.
Since the average age of a Hollywood executive is over 50 years old[7] it can also be asserted that any views stemming from their own personal experience which influence and inform most of Western Media is disconnected with the views of younger Americans[10]. Given the context that within America media is created by White Men, for White households, and unwaveringly portrays Asian Women as the love interest of White Men, it is eye-opening to review the resulting data for impacts on Asians.
Data show that even within this context, the majority of Asian Women (64%) still choose Asian Men as their romantic partners[4]. Consider also that Asian Women outnumber Asian Men in the US, to the tune of 53% (9.4M) to 47% (8.3M) which means by default over 11% of Asian Women would have to select non-Asian parnters in the United States[14]. Accounting for this difference, we see that the percentage of Asian Women who actively choose Asian Men actually rises to over 72%. The last factor when looking at these particular data is the behavior of Asian Men, who marry non-Asians at a rate of around 21%[4]. This would lower the nominal number of Asian Men available to Asian Women at ~6.6M. If we applied the 64% of Asian Women who chose an Asian Man to the nominal number of 6.6M of Asian Men not married to a non-Asian, we can argue actually over 91% of Asian Women that have Asian Men to choose from do in fact choose Asian Men. Since it is impossible to determine if the 21% of Asian Men marrying non-Asians would have been selected by Asian Women, or vice versa, it is more accurate to say that the percentage of Asian Women who actively choose an Asian Man as their romantic partner is between 72% and 91%.
Lacking data, for the purposes of this paper we will split the difference and conclude approximately 81% of Asian Women actively choose Asian Men as their romantic partners in the United States. This data overview points to the surprising conclusion that despite the constant and unwavering messaging suggesting AFWM relationships as the norm in Western Media, Asian Women overwhelmingly prefer Asian Men as their partners. Building upon this theme, additional data show this AMAF pairing does not happen easily in America and is the result of active choice, whereas the AFWM relationship tends to represent lack of choice for the Asian Woman.
Asians make up only about 7% of the population in the US[11], less than 1 out of every 10 people in the US you meet will be Asian and roughly half of that will be an Asian Female. Given this fact it is extraordinary that over 81% of Asian Women choose Asian Men as their romantic partners. Data show that Asians in the US tend to live near each other in high concentrations along the coasts and in specific states (California alone has about a third of the total Asian population) [12]. Numerous articles have been written about experiences of Asians growing up away from these areas, in predominantly white areas. The prevailing experience and stated opinion of these Asians is the preference and relief in moving to areas with more Asians[13]. This makes the concentrations of Asians not a result of chance but of conscious actions by Asians in the US to live near each other. Data additionally show that the intermarriage rate between Asians and Whites declines dramatically when accounting for rural vs metro areas. As stated by the Pew research center ‘In contrast, for Asians, the likelihood of intermarrying is higher in non-metro areas (47%) than metro areas (28%), due in part to the fact that the share of Asians in the marriage market is lower in non-metro areas[4].’ This drop of over 40% strongly suggests that as Asians move into areas with a larger Asian population, they can more easily act upon their preference for Asian partners. It also shows Asians, including Asian Females, select non-Asian partners such as Whites in those situations where their first preference of Asians is less abundant. Collectively these points highlight the lengths at which Asians will go to live near each other and select each other as romantic partners and is counter to the ‘Oxford Study’ narrative of Asian Females actively preferring and seeking out White Men. Data can shed additional light on those minority of Asian Women who do not choose Asian Men as partners in the US.
Asian Females who do end up choosing a non-Asian partner exhibit distinctive age patterns. More than half of newlywed Asian women in their 40s intermarry (56%) and close to half (46%) of those in their 50s and older also intermarry. Compare this with 42% of those in their 30s and just 29% of those women younger than 30 intermarrying[4]. A clear correlation can be seen where the rate of intermarriage between Asian Women and non-Asian Men increases as the Asian Woman’s age increases. This is an interesting data point considering the average age of a TikTok user is 24[15] and a similar average age for Instagram users[16]. The age discrepancy between social media users and Asian Women who tend to have non-Asian partners is staggering, and is a situation where social media has caused intense focus on and spread far and wide the ‘Oxford Study’ narrative which does not reflect the reality or thoughts of most its users. As for the increases in intermarriage rates for older Asian Women, there is no data to understand their position. However we can observe that these generations came of age in an era before the internet was a part of everyday life and widely available. The lack of this access meant less exposure to other media which display relationships involving Asian Females in a more realistic manner, and increases exposure to Western Media messaging around AFWM relationships and the reductive portrayals of Asian Men. This was also an age where job mobility was more limited vs current standards[17], perhaps reducing their ability to move into areas with higher concentrations of Asian Men. Until there is available data these are merely theories as to why older Asian Women tend to choose non-Asian partners but the pattern itself is clearly defined by data. With this clearer view on who the intermarrying Asian Women are, we can take a look further into the data to see whom they ultimately select as partners.
Indeed the data show when Asian Women do intermarry, a White Male is the predominant choice. Asian/White pairings account for 15% of all US intermarriages, with 11% of that AFWM and 4% AMWF[4]. Other Asian/non-Asian pairings are insignificant in number compared to this. Although this might seem like a significant number, in practice it is exceedingly rare. Applying the 34% of Asian Women that do marry non-Asian men based on 9.4M Asian Women in the US, we see there are 3,384,000 Asian Women in the US that select non-Asian men as partners. If we further narrow in on an age group of 18-49 that are likely to marry (63% of the total Asian population[4]) the number is reduced to 2,131,920. Against a total population of 348M in the US, this figure represents 0.0061% of the population (see chart below). Keep in mind this assumes all the Asian/non-Asian marriages are Asian/White, which they are not. Based on such a small percentage of the population it is astounding to note the amount of attention garnered by the ‘Oxford Study’ and the insinuation that AFWM pairings are common within the US. It is also interesting to note that the Hispanic/White pairing which make up over 40% of intermarriages within the US over a much larger population base (18.7% of the US population is Hispanic)[18] do not have any such social media tag. The same observation can be made of Hispanic Female and Black Male pairings which are four times as likely than the Hispanic Male and Black Female pairings[4]. One possible explanation lies within the original article detailing Western Media’s obsession with depicting AFWM relationships, perhaps extending such targeting to Western social media as well.
This chart has 16,393 black dots and 1 red dot, representing the 0.0061% of the US population that is AFWM
As this paper has shown, there is clearly no demonstrable preference Asian Women have for White Men regardless of what narrative Western Media consistently promotes. While part of the basis for the article, that Western Media strives to portray Asian men and women in specific manners, remains true, the assumption that there exists within the Asian Female community in the West a preference for White Men does not bear out in data analysis.
Having proven the fallacy behind the ‘Oxford Study’ tag, it is important to dig deeper into the false claims being attributed to Asian Women when this tag is directed at them. That sentiment is clearly captured in the film used as a reference in the original article’s title, ‘The World of Suzie Wong’. The film is classic white savior with the added dimension of portraying the Asian woman as a submissive, highly sexualized prostitute desperate for attentions from a white male. She is a flat character who’s only value and role in the film is to be a sexual object ready and willing to submit to a white male. This film is often criticized because it perpetuates harmful stereotypes of Asian women by framing Suzie as both a submissive, exotic figure and a sexualized, dependent character[19,20]. This portrayal reduces Asian women to simplistic tropes that serve Western fantasies, failing to offer any sort of realistic depiction of Asian femininity. Despite its attempt at romance, the film reinforces imbalanced racial and gender dynamics that have long been criticized in both Western literature and cinema. These are the sentiments associated with the ‘Oxford Study’ tag, and can be readily seen in the comments section of any such video. It is important to note the film’s debut date of 1960[21], putting it decades out of touch with reality but in line with many of the cited materials within the original article. There are no relevant or recent data to show that any of these sentiments are actually carried by Asian Women.
This paper concludes by stating an obvious, but perhaps overlooked aspect drowned out by social media and general media noise. Asian Women are capable of, entitled to, and do make their own decisions regarding their own relationships. Relationships are established for myriad of reasons and are to be respected. They are not for outside forces to unduly influence or stigmatize. The data show a simple fact that as a group, Asian Women show no preference for White Men. This does not preclude White Men from being the partner of choice for any individual woman. The data also show that the predominant partner of choice for Asian Women are Asian Men, even in a Western country such as the US. This does not equate to Asian Women then ‘belonging’ to Asian Men. Data are general, and are not determinant of individual choice. The hope of this paper is for any reader to, when presented with an ‘Oxford Study’ tag, help dispel the stigma that bas been attached to Asian Women in Western Media and not perpetuate racial tropes borne over 60 years ago still present today. #frostydux