Sometime early last year, some guy wrote a piece lamenting over the disproportionate number of blooming romances between Chinese chicks and Caucasian dudes, in stark contrast to the rarity of Chinese dudes hooking up with Caucasian chicks. It was teeming with pent-up frustration. It was bitter and brutal. Some readers saw the funny side of it. Some didn't - especially the womenfolk - and were quite outraged by the writer's implicit insinuation that Chinese chicks can be rather racist. In private, the writer attracted a lot of flak, even from close companions.
That writer was me.
Fast forward months later, Christian Rudder - founder of the popular dating site OkCupid - released a report drawn from raw behavioural data of 25 million users worldwide for the last six years. The results were damning. Asian chicks dig white guys a lot (even more than Asian men between 2009-2012). White chicks consistently rate Asian men below not only whites, but also Latinos and blacks.
I was right.
Love Is Blind... Yeah, Right!
The figures don't lie. They validated everything (fine, most of everything) I had suspected all along. That white dudes are happy to reciprocate adoration from Asian chicks. That Asian dudes are eager to score with white chicks, but sadly, the feeling isn't mutual, hence seldom do the two go dating.
How do we interpret the data? Mr. Rudder breaks it down neatly:
Some may dismiss the data as being shallow - that it only measures people's general perception of attraction to different races. The result do not represent, for instance, the exact number of inter-racial relationships on site, what more the world. At most, such racial preference is merely a 'first impression filtering mechanism'. What's the big deal?
But first impression is a big deal. First impressions do help us decide whether to chat up a stranger. First impressions do help us decide whether to go on a date with someone we barely know. First impression is stereotyping. And we all are guilty of stereotyping - consciously or unconsciously - because stereotyping makes our decision-making process easier and simpler, especially in a sea with plentiful of fishes.
If Chinese men aren't even given a chance to step up to the plate to bat, how can we even reach first base? Stuck on the bench, all we can do is ruefully watch the white dudes hitting home runs and cavorting the night away with the cheerleaders.
Here, There, And Everywhere
Sample size too small? Mr. Rudder disagrees:
But wait, it's just online dating, not real life! Yes, and exactly why we should be more worried. In a follow-up interview, Mr. Rudder gives his sobering take:
Mr. Rudder is spot on. Racial profiling in the quest for love is real. If women are from Venus, Asian men must be from a galaxy far, far, away.
Say It Isn't So
In any other circumstances, I would revel in being proven right. But not this time. There is little joy in being right about how wrong society is.
What's wrong with Chinese dudes? Is it because of our mongoloid ancestry? Or that we can't roll our 'R's? Or that we can't execute our Kama Sutra theories well enough? Are we that terrible at pleasing women?
Prove me wrong, ladies. Prove me wrong, please.
That writer was me.
Fast forward months later, Christian Rudder - founder of the popular dating site OkCupid - released a report drawn from raw behavioural data of 25 million users worldwide for the last six years. The results were damning. Asian chicks dig white guys a lot (even more than Asian men between 2009-2012). White chicks consistently rate Asian men below not only whites, but also Latinos and blacks.
I was right.
 |
| No, redness does not denote hotness. |
Love Is Blind... Yeah, Right!
The figures don't lie. They validated everything (fine, most of everything) I had suspected all along. That white dudes are happy to reciprocate adoration from Asian chicks. That Asian dudes are eager to score with white chicks, but sadly, the feeling isn't mutual, hence seldom do the two go dating.
How do we interpret the data? Mr. Rudder breaks it down neatly:
"The values in these tables are “preference vs. the average.” Think of them as how people weigh race in deciding attraction. So, for example, in the bottom-right corner of the lower table, you see that white women think white men are 17% more attractive than the average guy. Move one square to the left, and you see that they think Latinos are 1% above average, and so on." (emphasis added)
Some may dismiss the data as being shallow - that it only measures people's general perception of attraction to different races. The result do not represent, for instance, the exact number of inter-racial relationships on site, what more the world. At most, such racial preference is merely a 'first impression filtering mechanism'. What's the big deal?
But first impression is a big deal. First impressions do help us decide whether to chat up a stranger. First impressions do help us decide whether to go on a date with someone we barely know. First impression is stereotyping. And we all are guilty of stereotyping - consciously or unconsciously - because stereotyping makes our decision-making process easier and simpler, especially in a sea with plentiful of fishes.
If Chinese men aren't even given a chance to step up to the plate to bat, how can we even reach first base? Stuck on the bench, all we can do is ruefully watch the white dudes hitting home runs and cavorting the night away with the cheerleaders.
 |
| No Asian men allowed |
Here, There, And Everywhere
Sample size too small? Mr. Rudder disagrees:
"All the dating data I’ve seen fits OkCupid’s pattern: black people and Asian men get short shrift. For example, below are the numbers from DateHookup, a site that we acquired a few years ago (but that still operates independently.) DateHookup has a distinct userbase, a distinct user acquisition model, a distinct interface, yet their data reflects the same basic biases..."
But wait, it's just online dating, not real life! Yes, and exactly why we should be more worried. In a follow-up interview, Mr. Rudder gives his sobering take:
"The more you look at the data, the more it does confirm the cynics’ intuition about humanity. People online are free to act out their worst impulses with very little incentive to act out their best. I guess it just goes to show how politeness or propriety keeps us decent human beings. Offline, society actually has a very good effect on behavior in a very large sense."
Mr. Rudder is spot on. Racial profiling in the quest for love is real. If women are from Venus, Asian men must be from a galaxy far, far, away.
 |
| Hooray! For once - after five years of trying - Chinese guys defend their home turf from Western invasion by a whooping 6%! |
Say It Isn't So
In any other circumstances, I would revel in being proven right. But not this time. There is little joy in being right about how wrong society is.
What's wrong with Chinese dudes? Is it because of our mongoloid ancestry? Or that we can't roll our 'R's? Or that we can't execute our Kama Sutra theories well enough? Are we that terrible at pleasing women?
Prove me wrong, ladies. Prove me wrong, please.
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