#AMWF

Collections for my aborted future PhD thesis " I am very, very over the whole "defend Asian men's attractiveness by picking out insanely gorgeous genetic lottery winners" thing. Seeing these pics does not make me feel empowered. They make me feel like Asian men are ONLY attractive when they are so objectively swoonworthy that their inherent racialized lack of appeal is overcome through sheer brute force. I'm a shortish, medium-aged divorced dad with a one-pack, a goofy face and hair that's backing slowly away from forehead like it's afraid of my eyebrows. And I'm okay with that, mostly? And I've rarely felt ashamed of myself physically since puberty, in part because I don't present myself as a guy whose attractiveness is based solely on what I look like or how much laundry you could do on my stomach. But stuff like this make me feel sad. And it bums me out, because that's **the opposite of the whole point.** I know some of these guys, too. They're smart and funny and talented and a few are secretly kinda geeky and weird. But that doesn't make them less hot, it makes them **more** hot. You just wouldn't know that from greased-up galleries like these, which validate toxic masculinity, emphasize body standards that are nearly impossible for most of us and eclipse the actual *people* behind the abs. So ladies and gents, let's put a little time in the comments into sharing Asian guys who are Alt-Hot, if you get my drift. Masi Oka made my life when he put the Hiro in Heroes. Ken Leung is amazing as anything in anything. If you don't have lipstick smeared posters of Aziz Ansari, Danny Pudi and Kumail Nanjani on your wall, you're doing it wrong (and that goes for the gents too, game should recognize game). Parvesh Cheena is all hot, all the time in my book. Because intellect, wit, charm, sweetness, political savvy and kindness? Sign me up twice. And ladies, if you can look beyond the skin I'm in and see the man I am, you know where to find me." - Jeff Yang, HuffPost