Beauty for Asian American Women in Advertising: Negotiating Exoticization and Americanization to Construct a Bicultural Identity

This study investigates Asian American women's responses to beauty representations in mainstream advertising. Through in-depth interviews, this article explores how Asian American women construct and negotiate a bicultural identity in their interpretations of advertisements' mediations of beauty for Asian women. Study findings revealed the cultural significance of the model minority stereotype in influencing Asian American women's relationships with fashion media. Additionally, participants' narratives on Asian American women's beauty ideals reflected their identity construction process of achieving social assimilation and negotiating ethnic distinctiveness, which illuminates the often-ignored sociopolitical tensions in minority consumers' relationship with advertising representations of in-group members.