Metrodad's latest post reminded me of how often I've heard people call my daughter "exotic". She was only a few months old the first time someone said it, and I can't count how many times I've heard it since then. I know it's meant as a compliment, but it rubs me the wrong way. It reduces her to race. It implies foreignness, when my daughter is no more foreign than the average tow-headed kid from Ohio. It makes me think of Bai Ling, and all the other hyper-sexualized Asian characters in bad Hollywood movies. It puts her in a box. Yes, she is pretty (don't all parents think their kids are beautiful?) but she is so much more than that.
For those of you who are Asian or have Asian kids, when you hear the "e" word, do you take it as a compliment or does it piss you off?
--Weigook Saram
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