Yue Qian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. University of British Columbia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

University of British Columbia provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR. In fact, this is now one of the most popular ways heterosexual couples meet. Online dating provides users with access to thousands , sometimes millions, of potential partners they are otherwise unlikely to encounter. It is fascinating to see how online dating — with its expanded dating pools — transforms our dating prospects.

Can we broaden our social network to a variety of backgrounds and cultures by accessing thousands of profiles? Or do we limit our choice of partners through targeted searches and strict preference filters? When photos are readily available for users to evaluate before they decide to chat online or meet offline, who can say that love is blind?

Before I started my research project about online dating in Canada, I did a micro social experiment with my partner. We created two profiles on a mainstream dating app for heterosexuals: one was a profile for a man that used two of his photos — an Asian man — and the other profile was for an Asian woman and used two of my photos. Each profile included a side-face photo and an outdoor portrait wearing sunglasses. One reason we used side-face photos and self-portraits with sunglasses was to avoid the issue of appearance.

In online dating, discrimination based on looks deserves a separate article! Read more: Does being smart and successful lower your chances of getting married? This reality took an emotional toll on my partner. Even though this was just an experiment and he was not actually looking for a date, it still got him down. He asked to stop this experiment after only a few days. Such experiences are not unique to my partner.

Later in my research project, I interviewed many Asian men who shared similar stories. One year-old Chinese Canadian man told me in the interview:. So yeah, it feels bad …. Gender differences in romantic relationships are especially pronounced among Asian young adults: Asian men are twice as likely as Asian women to be unpartnered 35 per cent versus 18 per cent.

This gender gap in romantic involvement among Asians is, in part, because Asian men are much less likely than Asian women to be in a romantic or marital relationship with a different-race partner, even though Asian men and women appear to express a similar desire to marry outside of their race.

The gender differences in patterns of romantic involvement and interracial relationship among Asians result from the way Asian women and Asian men are seen differently in our society. Asian women are stereotyped as exotic and gender-traditional. Women who have no Asian male friends or interactions are limited to societal and media portrayals of Asian men that aren't flattering. Just this year, comedian Steve Harvey joked about how no one would want to date Asian men.

Unfortunately, this bias may continue for some time. But seeing Asian men in leading romantic roles could help. The most prominent one I can recall was Jet Li's character in the movie, "Romeo Must Die" where he was initially to kiss the late Aaliyah but the ending was re-scripted to a hug when producers feared mainstream American audiences would find the kiss too uncomfortable.

On the flip side of this equation, Asian women rank highest in terms of desirability. Once again, age-old stereotypes of Asian women as being submissive, docile, and sexually exotic play a role. But it's also true that Asian women have long been cast alongside white men in movies, television, and even the nightly news. Just ask yourself, when was the last time you saw an Asian-American male anchor with a white female co-anchor? To further complicate the problem, as online dating becomes more the norm than the exception, the image of the Asian man as emasculated, lacking confidence , nerdy, and asexual may be heightened.

Until women sit down and have real interactions with Asian men, America may continue to perpetuate unfortunate caricatures of Asian men. Sam also speaks on Asian cultural issues. For more information please go to the following website. Sam Louie is a therapist in Seattle who specializes in multicultural issues and sexual compulsivity. But who we end up becoming and how much we like that person are more in our control than we tend to think they are. Sam Louie MA, LMHC Minority Report. Dating Asian-American Men Asian men rank lowest in terms of online desirability.

Posted June 2, Reviewed by Abigail Fagan Share. References Sam also speaks on Asian cultural issues. About the Author.

Online: Sam Louie's Speaking website , Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter. Read Next. Back Psychology Today.

Yue Qian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. University of British Columbia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA. University of British Columbia provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

In fact, this is now one of the most popular ways heterosexual couples meet. Online dating provides users with access to thousands , sometimes millions, of potential partners they are otherwise unlikely to encounter.

It is fascinating to see how online dating — with its expanded dating pools — transforms our dating prospects. Can we broaden our social network to a variety of backgrounds and cultures by accessing thousands of profiles?

Or do we limit our choice of partners through targeted searches and strict preference filters? When photos are readily available for users to evaluate before they decide to chat online or meet offline, who can say that love is blind?

Before I started my research project about online dating in Canada, I did a micro social experiment with my partner. We created two profiles on a mainstream dating app for heterosexuals: one was a profile for a man that used two of his photos — an Asian man — and the other profile was for an Asian woman and used two of my photos. Each profile included a side-face photo and an outdoor portrait wearing sunglasses.

One reason we used side-face photos and self-portraits with sunglasses was to avoid the issue of appearance. In online dating, discrimination based on looks deserves a separate article! Read more: Does being smart and successful lower your chances of getting married? This reality took an emotional toll on my partner. Even though this was just an experiment and he was not actually looking for a date, it still got him down. He asked to stop this experiment after only a few days.

Such experiences are not unique to my partner. Later in my research project, I interviewed many Asian men who shared similar stories. One year-old Chinese Canadian man told me in the interview:. So yeah, it feels bad …. Gender differences in romantic relationships are especially pronounced among Asian young adults: Asian men are twice as likely as Asian women to be unpartnered 35 per cent versus 18 per cent. This gender gap in romantic involvement among Asians is, in part, because Asian men are much less likely than Asian women to be in a romantic or marital relationship with a different-race partner, even though Asian men and women appear to express a similar desire to marry outside of their race.

The gender differences in patterns of romantic involvement and interracial relationship among Asians result from the way Asian women and Asian men are seen differently in our society. Asian women are stereotyped as exotic and gender-traditional. Seemingly personal preferences and choices in modern romance are profoundly shaped by larger social forces, such as unflattering stereotypical media depictions of Asians, a history of unequal status relations between western and Asian countries, and the construction of masculinity and femininity in society.

Regular exclusion of a particular racial group from having romantic relationships is known as sexual racism. Online dating may have radically changed how we meet our partners , but it often reproduces old wine in new bottles. Like the offline dating world, gendered racial hierarchies of desirability are also evident in cyberspace and operate to marginalize Asian men in online dating markets. Research from the United States shows that when stating racial preferences, more than 90 per cent of non-Asian women excluded Asian men.

Furthermore, among men, whites receive the most messages, but Asians receive the fewest unsolicited messages from women. Exactly because dating apps allow users to access and filter through a large dating pool, easy-to-spot characteristics like race may become even more salient in our search for love. Some people never make the cut just because they are already filtered out due to gendered and racialized stereotypes.

Read more: Tinder profiles around the world: Same, same but different. A year-old Filipino-Canadian man, who started using online dating almost 20 years ago, shared his experience with me:. And if they were open to tell me, they say they were not attracted to Asian men. Because they look at my ethnicity and they say no. Not that they would initially say no, but after they knew me, they would reconsider.

When asked to compare meeting partners online and offline, a year-old white woman said she prefers meeting people in person because for her, that is where the judgemental walls come down:. So there are a lot of walls you put up. For many online daters, the boundless promise of technology does not break social boundaries. If racial discrimination that prevails in the intimate sphere is left unchallenged, many Asian men will repeatedly encounter sexual racism.

Write an article and join a growing community of more than , academics and researchers from 4, institutions. Edition: Available editions Canada. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Stereotypes of AsianAmerican men mean they can have a hard time in the online dating world. Yue Qian , University of British Columbia.

Author Yue Qian Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia. Sociology Online dating Critical race Valentine's day Asian women. Want to write? Register now.

So yeah, it feels bad …. Just ask yourself, when was the last time you saw an Asian-American male anchor with a white female co-anchor? Trending Topics Coronavirus Disease Narcissism Dementia Bias Affective Forecasting Neuroscience. Seemingly personal preferences and choices in modern romance are profoundly shaped by larger social forces, such as unflattering stereotypical media depictions of Asians, a history of unequal status relations between western and Asian countries, and the construction of masculinity and femininity in society. Do I Need Help? References Sam also speaks on Asian cultural issues. This reality took an emotional toll on my partner.

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