Yen Le Espiritu: Asian American Men

Historically, Asian men have been portrayed as either asexual or hypersexual. The segregation of Asian men from Eurocentric philosophy of the masculine reminds us that not all men benefit form a patriarchal system constructed to keep an imbalanced association between men and women.  Yen Le Espiritu uses three historic examples to detail how immigration policies and labor circumstances required Asian men into “feminized” jobs such as domestic service, laundry work and food preparation; Chinese men during the pre- World War II period, Japanese men by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century and Filipinos in the U.S. Navy in the late twentieth century.

During the twentieth century, many Chinese men became involved in domestic services in homes, hotels or rooming houses because they had no other job alternatives. Many Chinese men also became laundrymen because there were not many women of any ethnic origin in gold- rush California. Thus, Chinese men took over the laundry business. Due to Chinese men’s occupation of “feminized” jobs, this further assured the stereotype of the “asexual and homosexual Asian man” (Espiritu). Their occupations were so degraded that in a song they related the Chinese laundryman washing away menstrual blood.

By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, many Japanese men, ranging from 12,000 to 15,000, made a living in household services. Although, many Japanese men thought housework was only for lower- class women, they started out taking up domestic jobs in America. Japanese men eventually moved on to agricultural or city trades but they still did not break away from the mold of “asexual or homosexual Asian men” (Espiritu).

Filipino men also performed domestic duties for white U.S. naval officers. U.S. bases took advantage of their military presence in the Philippines and recruited Filipinos as stewards and mess attendants. Unable to move up to other rankings, Filipinos served the officers’ meals, cared of the officers’ living spaces and even had orders to perform chores for the officers’ wives. Thus, Filipino men not only served white men but white women as well.

According to race and class, men experience patriarchy in different degrees. Because Asian American men were domestic workers, they were trapped in a state of discrimination and in an imbalanced relationship between genders. Additionally, job opportunities battered the economic basis of male dominance. Many deprived Asian men and women worked in secondary labor markets. Nevertheless, disadvantaged Asian women had more employment options than men because they worked for cheaper and “related better to some ethnic populations” (Ui, 1991).  This meant that women more mostly the main breadwinners in the household. These shifts in income challenged the patriarchal power of Asian men. Men’s loss of authority and rank placed horrid strain on their well-being. While some men came to terms with the situation, others resorted to spousal mistreatment and divorce to reconfirm their patriarchal status. This power struggle led to despair and apprehension in Asian males. They became more unhappy and helpless because of their inability to earn money, contrary to their wives’. Because Asian men had limited access to economic opportunities, they had a decreased claim to patriarchal authority.