Abstract
This paper examines how the US media represented Michelle Kwan by focusing on her ‘surprising’ transformation to a sophisticated and mature image in performing the role of Salome, the biblical temptress. We argue that the narratives are closely related to two Asian/American stereotypes. First, the media subjected Kwan to an infantilizing gaze that reflects a classically racialized stereotype: that is, Asian/Americans look much younger than they actually are. Second, the transformation that coach Frank Carroll devised for Kwan erased her individuality and submerged her subject formation as an Asian/American woman in the stereotypical straitjacket of a hyper-sexual, exotic creature, which is pervasive in popular culture. By interrogating these two perspectives through a post- colonial lens, we argue that the symbolic world of women’s figure skating can be understood as an anthropological site of white aesthetic imperialism in which neo-colonial visions of the child/primitive and sexual fantasy are projected onto Kwan.
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