Dear 8asians.com editors,

It’s been a very interesting last 24 hours since you published your “Open Letter” to me. Since then, I felt attacked for something I strongly believe in. By my own people. Not fun. Maybe that is how you felt when you received my petition letter. If so, I apologize as that was and is not my intention. I was not simply trying to create conflict for its own sake. This is something I care deeply about and that is why I started it. I acknowledge your point that it would have been preferable to engage in a dialogue with you before I started the petition. But I think an open blog-to-blog correspondence is also a good thing.

However, my stance regarding your support of sexist articles has not changed. If anything, the opposition that I met with has only revealed to me the depth and ignorance of sexism within the APA community, which utterly shocked and disappointed me. As long as you allow sexist articles to be published on your site, it shows that sexism towards Asian American women is acceptable and that you condone it. The petition was created to make everyone aware of this problem.

I am sorry if Koji felt personally attacked by my post. I trust if we met in person we would find each other decent, interesting human beings.

There have been many points that have been going back and forth in this argument about whether those articles by Koji are sexist or not. They are. It’s harmful because when we objectify women and women’s bodies then it makes it easier to do lots of other not so good things to them too. No, I don’t think Koji was intentionally trying to be sexist towards Asian women, but sexism is no joke (which he used as an excuse). Sexism creates an unsafe atmosphere where men think it is okay to make lewd comments against women, and women, because we have generally been trained to avoid conflict, will accept this.

You mentioned that 8asians.com believes in including diverse opinions. However, I don’t believe that you would accept a racist article on your blog in the name of diversity. Diversity and freedom of expression does not make it acceptable to publish racist or sexist content. I look forward to when people will realize that tolerating sexism is just as harmful as tolerating racism.

I’ve found that for many women they don’t think sexism is a big deal until something terrible happens to them. To give some context, I will add that I have had my share of abusive experiences with men because I was never taught or warned about how sexist patterns can lead to abuse. I have survived those experiences and I now take all kinds of sexism very seriously. I certainly do not wish bad things to happen to my fellow sisters. But I do wish that as young women we are more vigilant so as to prevent bad things from happening in the first place. Most men are unaware of their sexism, which is why women need to be.

I understand if these things seem much too serious to be considered for the style/content of your blog. I certainly don’t expect you to talk about sex workers and how the average age of entry into prostitution in the U.S. is 13. Many people like to joke about these topics. But as I work with organizations that work directly with these girls, I take it very seriously.

If you are interested in continuing this discussion and dialogue, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to contribute as a guest blogger on 8asians.com. I also will plan on writing posts on my own blog on “Sexism versus Racism”, “Why Sexism Matters”, and other topics to continue educating my readers.

Thank you for reading. And thank you for considering your assumptions for a moment and listening to my opinions as much as you may disagree with them.

Sincerely,

Shiuan