Gaijin Geisha

Those of you that know me pretty well know that I'm pretty sensitive when it comes to Asian/Asian American issues. People have described my stance on such issues as "militant" and I'm ok with that, because I can get quite militant.

On my lunch break I went into the local Borders to see what new books were out and I saw the cover to the novel "Kickboxing Geishas: How Modern Japanese Women Are Changing Their Nation" by Veronica Chambers. The cover gave me pause because depicted was not a Japanese woman, but an obviously Caucasian woman in makeup and clothing resembling that of a geisha.

First off, I think the cover of a book about Japanese women should picture a Japanese woman, not a white model in an ethnic costume. Now if the title of the book was, "Gaijin Geisha: The Misportrayal of Japanese Women In American Culture" I wouldn't have an issue, but it's not and I do.

The other problem I have is the idea that young Japanese women are related to the geisha simply because that's the easiest relation to make. The popularity of the novel/movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" (which ironically starred no female Japanese actresses) has ingrained a strange idea of what the Japanese are like into the American consciousness.

If you were to ask most Americans for their definition of a geisha they would probably say, "A Japanese hooker." If that's the most common answer, why is the author tying young, successful Japanese women to a group known mainly because of prostitution?

And "kickboxing"? Why, because it's a martial art and Asians do martial arts? Kickboxing isn't fighting style that originated in Japan.

Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I'm just out of topics to blog about, but it's obvious to me what the publishers and author are trying to bank on by giving the book its title. This kind of thing annoys me to no end.