Degrading attitudes related to foreign appearance : Interviews with Swedish female adoptees from Asia

• Seventeen adopted young women from South Korea and Thailand (age 25–35 years) were interviewed about their experiences of degrading attitudes related to their geographic origin and physical appearance. Prejudices related to sexuality displayed four themes – exoticassociations, availability, strong libido and exploitation –corresponding to prevailing Western sexualised cultural stereotypes about Asian women. Prejudices specific to adoption included expected gratitude and indiscriminate friendliness. The experiences usually involved recurring rather than single incidents and several women reported that they had adversely influenced their well-being and quality of life. Many had developed strategies for coping with such attitudes, usually from men.

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