I read with particular interest and comparison the April 1 - 7, 2004 AsianWeek articles on the Details Gay or Asian and Remembering the young Asian US soldier Andrew Dang recently killed in Iraq.

I couldn't help but think that Details should print in their future issue a profile/tribute of Andrew Dang. I would say that would be a reasonable fairness of journalism.

Perhaps that could be one of the goals of the efforts of Danny Lee and others, to bring to light positive stories/profiles of Asian Americans like patriotic Andrew Dang who has paid the ultimate price for his country (to protect ALL of us enjoying life in the USA), that Asians are not as portrayed in the Details article.

B. Eng
San Francisco

We demand Detail magazine to
give Asian community an apology and to retract this racist article. We
cannot tolerate this misrepresentation and false portray to our people.

This is all just a way for the superior white race to put us Asian people down. They are afraid of the asian peoples will and determination to form their own identity in the United States that they mock it. Another good example of this can be seen on American Idol with William hung. THe media is expressively displaying the weaknesses and faults of others. So what if asians can afford to wear LV and Gucci. White people are a bunch of red necks anyways with no style and the blandest personalities it makes me sick. If i had one wish id wish all white people to disappear. Im proud to hate white people. This world would be more peacful without white people.

This is all just a way for the superior white race to put us Asian people down. They are afraid of the asian peoples will and determination to form their own identity in the United States that they mock it. Another good example of this can be seen on American Idol with William hung. THe media is expressively displaying the weaknesses and faults of others. So what if asians can afford to wear LV and Gucci. White people are a bunch of red necks anyways with no style and the blandest personalities it makes me sick. If i had one wish id wish all white people to disappear. Im proud to hate white people. This world would be more peacful without white people.

i sent this letter to Fairchild publications and Details magazine. Sign your name and send them a copy too.

I sent them to the execs at:

andrea.kaplan@fairchildpub.com
mary.berner@fairchildpubl.com
william.wackermann@fairchildpub.com
patrick.mccarthy@fairchildpub.com

Dear Details magazine,

I wish to express my outrage at your recent article,
"Gay or Asian?" published in your April 2004 issue.

I found the article extremely offensive to persons of
Asian descent, promoting derogatory, negative ethnic
steretypes of the worst kind. Such a "humor" piece is
offensive, insensitive and has no place in our modern,
multi-cultural society.

Would you direct the same derision toward Jews,
African-Americans or Latinos? I think not. Yet for
some reason, Whitney McNally has chosen to "parody"
Asian-Americans and the editorial staff of Details
chose to publish this weak, offensive material. Shame
on all of you.

You may have thought it was simply funny and would be
quite a hoot to run the article. But a segment of
your readership and the larger community doesn't think
so. The "Gay or Asian?" piece was hurtful,
disrespectful and bogoted, and MANY found it improper
for a supposedly legitimate magazine to publish.

I and those who feel this way will express our
unhappiness with your publication and its editorial
staff in a variety of ways.

I will never read Details Magazine again. I will
encourage everyone I know to never read Details.
Furthermore, I WILL BE CONTACTING EVERY ONE OF YOUR
ADVERTISERS to express my disgust with your
publication. I will urge them to pull their financial
support of Details, and you can rest assured that I
will NOT stop until I receive appropriate replies from
each of these sponsors. In addition, I will be
contacting Fairchild Pub. to voice my concerns and,
if necessary, the companies that advertise in
Fairchild's other publications. I will make repeated
inquiries to the top executives of your advertisers
and parent company -- Mary Berner, Patrick McCarthy
etc.

I am appalled by not just the article, but by the
magazine's managerial staff that decided to run this
ridiculous piece. You HAVE NOT heard the last of me
or the readers who feel as I do. We do not need such
racist, offensive images in modern society and, if the
magazine chooses to publish such articles in the
future, we won't be needing Details either.

Sincerely,

Hi,
I'm wondering if Whitney McNally, the author of "Gay or Asian," Daniel Peres, the Editor-in- Cheif, and Dian Bendaseet, the Managing Editor, are white? Because a lot of reactions that I have experienced are that those people are white. I assumed that they were white, but I just wanted to make sure.

dude im a super fob but thats just dumb i say we shoot ppl that got beef wif us azns... AZN PRYDE... we so smart we make dem white boiz look lyke hobos in 3rd world countries... shoot dem racisit ppl wif beef wit us.... AND GOT RICE?????

Happy Easter.

Tomorrow, Whitney McNally and majority of other Fairchild Executives/Detail senior staff members are coming back from week long vacation. If you haven't done the following letter writing campaign, please do so now. If you know someone who hasn't done this yet, please ask him/her again. We made some modifications and as for Whitney's mail, now you're going to put your personal comment first. There are already few hundred of mails went in there through these campaigns alone but there should be more so that mailbox will be CLOGGED. So that they can't retrieve mails in the morning. Or spending hours deleting mails. (If we include many personal mails that might have been written outside of this campaign, their mailbox may have been clogged already but it doesn't hurt to do more)

For your info, Whitney McNally spoke to one of us on the phone and said she was not sorry and she would do it again.

"Whitney McNally, Shame On You!" (Format changed)
http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/6112.php

"That's Not Good Enough, Details Magazine!"
http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/5296.php

guys,

You've got to remember these articles entertian americans who think that Tokyo is in China and Koreans live in Japan. they know nothing about the asian culture. They are pretty much oblivious to countries and people other than america. so sad.

and yah, the image is a fob, but they've got it all wrong. we're just rich. plus asian men are much less smellier than white men. and, at least they aren't fat. i just wish asian men were more passionate...and as for gay men..they are WAY more fashionable than that.

guys,

You've got to remember these articles entertian americans who think that Tokyo is in China and Koreans live in Japan. they know nothing about the asian culture. They are pretty much oblivious to countries and people other than america. so sad.

and yah, the image is a fob, but they've got it all wrong. we're just rich. plus asian men are much less smellier than white men. and, at least they aren't fat. i just wish asian men were more passionate...and as for gay men..they are WAY more fashionable than that.

[Deleted due to offensive language. -- Ed.]

Hello everyone,

This is a copy of the email I sent to Whitney McNally, who is out of the office until April 12. But of course!

And as a response to the last letter from Themis. Many of us have been 'ignoring' this type of stuff for hundreds of years now. This does affect our freedom [Section deleted due to name calling. -- Ed.]

You don't think advertising affects the way people dress, think, buy, eat, communicate? There are literally thousands of people out there, especially in America who are a collection of magazine articles/covers, Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer shows, movie or commercial taglines. This article isn't funny at all and needs to be challenged. And no I'm not going to get used to it [Section deleted due to name calling. -- Ed.]. Sounds like you want to almost pop-philosophize the reaction. Well if we always just got used to it, then we'd still be living in caves and hunting with sticks and mud, and only certain people could ride in the front of the bus.

Listen up and take notice.
**********************************************

subject:Gay or McNally

One would wonder if either group would be sensitive to a host of stereotypes.

Like...Takin it in the ass.

Like...McNuts or McNally

Like since you've got either Scottish or Irish (whats the difference between them again?)
lets go with scottish...Sausage or haggis? either way its sure to fill your bagpipes.

Lets now try Irish ...chilly island or potato? either way one would think they'd be famished for something stout.

Lets try American... Never a stretch for cultures that like to bear arms and big guns. If you get down and beg, maybe I'll give a you reach around after I get through with these burger eating buns.

You like this material? You even care. Probably not. By all means use it. I literally just came up with it. I'm so funny I've just invented something so offensive that I can't wait to publish it!!!

Too scared to go after any other race eh? Probably won't cause you'd rather dehumanize the Asian race than show any respect to culturally diverse people who live on a very large continent.

I don't own a kendo stick, I don't eat General Tso chicken thats been breaded for your yeasty caker tummy. I do dress well, am straight and have enough pride in my culture that I despise your ignorance. Sad thing is there are many more vacuous writers jerks out there like you Ms. McNally. You are not telling a funny story. You are peddling stereotypes at the cost of ridiculing people whom you feel sincerely and rightly disassociated from. Well you're not getting the last laugh on this one.

[Section deleted due to profanity.] You write in poor taste and I hope this article costs you your job. Good luck with the soul search.

Drew

Get used to it. It will not stop any time soon.

It is quite amusing to watch you all moan and whine over a simple insult. No, it is absolutely hilarious.

Try organizing your mind and strengthening it so you're not so weak.

Stereotyping asian people? Asians should not care. The stereotyping will not stop and, most importantly, should not stop until the stereotypes are no longer true.

The above holds true with all stereotypes. Gays, lesbians, whites, blacks, asians, latinos. You name the group, and there are stereotypes for each one.

Most importantly, learn to ignore. Currently that is the best defense against something like this.
Don't bother wasting your time with anger at something like this.

Finally, remind yourselves that personal freedom trumps your freedom to not be offended.

Disgusting. I do not want to see this article; I do not want to see "Gangster or Black;" I do not want to see "Unemployed or White;" I do not want to see "Criminal or Latino."

I think merely that this kind of thing can be approved by editors is a striking anti-endorsement for our country.

I don't care if this is an ongoing article; I'm upset that this wasn't stopped earlier. "Gay or British?" "Gay or Jesus?" "Gay or Republican?" What does it matter? If these guys can't rely on anything but racial stereotype and sexual preference related mockery, then I understand why they're working at Details magazine.

Maybe I should write an article entitled, "High School Dropout or Details Magazine Staffer."

Details Protest is on. Friday, April 16 from noon to 1pm. In front of Fairchild Building, 7W34th Street in Manhattan. It's between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue, closer to 5th Avenue. It's right in front of Empire State Building.

We have a full corporation from NYPD and they need to know how many people we are expecting so that they can block the traffic if they need
to. Write us at contact@asianmediawatchdog.com and let us know how many people you are bringing.

Help us block 34th Street on April 16!

Also, Detail actually sent us the copy of “apology” comment to us. Totally a half-ass apology, I must say.

“The “Gay or Asian?” item in our April issue was part of a continuing feature that is intended as a humorous swipe at social stereotypes.
Details has a wide readership—male, female, straight, gay—from all cultures, and we value all of them. We appreciate the substantial feedback on this item that we have received, and we will certainly keep those concerns in mind as we move forward. We regret that anyone was offended by the article, as that was not our intention. “

I’m sorry but this is not good enough. Therefore, you need to tell Details and Fairchild that this is not enough.

That’s Not Good Enough, Details Magazine!
http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/5296.php

All you have to do is sign, add your comment if you want and send it out. It’ll go to all the senior editorial staff of Details (including
Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor) and Executives at Fairchild.

I am gay and I am also Asian. I personally was not offended by McNally’s feature; in fact I found it amusing. I don’t see the connection between the strong racist imagery that some others have posted on this site, and the picture depicted on McNally’s piece. The picture is of an attractive Asian man who is well dressed, but not in any way “flamboyantly” gay, or resembling some archaic Asian stereotype. No buck teeth, no thick glasses, no bowl cut, no limp wrists, no tight jeans and tank tops….just an attractive Asian guy.

I live in San Francisco, and there are tons of guys, straight and gay, Asian and not, who look like the guy in the picture. Although stereotyping in general is very destructive to minority communities, I think this feature is more a tribute to some of the better stereotypical qualities of both the Asian and gay community.

What I find more alarming with the responses to this feature is how some are reacting to the idea of masculinity being challenged. This feature is essentially saying that gay men and Asian men have more overt effeminate qualities. One might ask, why is that a bad thing? The answer is obvious to me. In American culture it is taboo for men to show feminine qualities. That’s why calling a group of boys “girls” is considered an insult. Why is it a bad thing to be a girl? What message does that give to girls? Also, the fear of being considered feminine is also very prevalent in the gay male community. Gay men can be very derogatory towards another gay man who is effeminate.

I think the only reason McNally’s feature is considered racist or homophobic is because it’s insinuating that men in these two groups are more feminine than the average American white heterosexual man. Every person, male or female, gay or straight, has both masculine and feminine qualities. If society weren’t so rigid on what is acceptable, this feature would just be displaying similarities between two groups – which to me is a good thing.

I am as disgusted and outraged as most people, but please do not resort to threats and violence. What kind of image will people perceive then about Asian Americans?

Has anyone looked at the website yet? www.fairchildpub.com. I am curious to know what the white-minority ratio is working in that organization. You can also copy the executives of the parent company too. Im sure their emails are typically firstname.lastname@fairchildpub.com.

The online petition. I understand that this petition is an attempt to knock out ad support for Details Magazine however I was wondering if anyone else is a bit worried about signing this petition.

Don't get me wrong, I'm left speechless and angry as many of you are and should be at the printing of that garbage. However, the petition comes off as a letter venting an individuals anger. I mean no offence to one, Danny Lee, but the line "Sign this petition if you are sick of being treated as a second rate citizen, when you and I both know the world is ours.", doesn't exactly fit what the general Asian population, or I for that matter, is feeling. In my opinion this is more of a hate letter. Even if that last line were to have been added as sarcasm; which is reaching. Is this really the message and the tone we want to be delivering?

Let say that we do “crumble” Details Magazine, what do you suppose the repercussions may be? Do you think that those people that are out of a job will begin to sympathize with Asian Americans from there on and truly understand where we were coming from?

I will not sign this petition (and not out of ignorance, please understand that) unless it is modified, properly voicing our outrage and using this petition as an opportunity to increase the awareness of Asian American stereotype in our media without sounding like we're about to take over the world if our demands are not met (such as aiming our petition to dismantle a publication), but more that we will not get off their backs if we are not recognized, and MORE IMPORTANTLY if Details Magazine refuses to recognize the offence and humility that their misrepresentation of Asian Americans through a public medium (including Asians of any sexual orientation) has caused.

I’ll keep it light and brief. It’s just a thought that crossed my mind as I read through the petition. I also noticed many of you have signed this petition. I hope then that I am overreacting to the tone of the petition with which we are “all” expressing ourselves.

Danny Lee, thank you for being so active in our community, but please consider what I am saying.

- Joon Lee

We also should ask Barnes & Noble and Borders to remove the April issue of Details from the shelves.

http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/company/cocontact/co_contact.html

http://www.bordersgroupinc.com/about/contact.htm

Finally, we should call Amazon at 206-622-2335 and ask that they stop selling subscriptions to Details.

Theo Chen
API Democrats of San Diego County

i'm from singapore and i'm pissed off already. besides asking the local authorities to pull out this magazine from the newstand forever for this sort of outright discrimating article, what else would anyone advise?

"Gay or Asian?" At least not a yet writer with an empty head and a black heart.

[Post deleted due to profanity. -- Ed.]

How blatently ignorant and distasteful. I look forward to their next article: Black Men, Cross Burning Accessory or Thug Appeal. Oh wait, you can't say that because it's not okay to target other minorities. Evidently, we're fair game. How utterly disgusting

Hit them where it hurts.
I've written to Amazon to pull their magazine from their website.
When I find out who their major advertisers are, they will all get letters.
Profane letters won't give yout the mileage of lower advertising revenues and dropped subscriptions.

The petition had over 11,000 signatures. Now there's only 988. What happened?

Copy of e-mail I sent to the losers at Details.

As a professional Asian male who has lived in this country my whole life I am disgusted with your magazines attempt at sterotyping the Asian male, be he gay or straight.

I served my country for five years and this is the kind of sterotype I am still subjected to.

Ms. Whitnay has shown extremely poor taste and her brain occupies the space of a peanut shell.

[Section deleted due to profanity. - Ed.]

Sincerely,

Joe Wojcik
How's that for freedom of speech? Whitnard(Choke on it)

Asian people rock and so do gay people......this article is immature and uncivilized.

We are planning NYC protest in front of Details Magazine editorial office. I will let you know as soon as we get a permit (yes, NYC law. Pain in the ass but gotta be done)

For details, go to www.asianmediawatchdog.com and go to "Details Campaign"

Meanwhile, please sign the letter there too. :)
http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/7246.php

Check out this website I found and join their campaign.
http://www.asianmediawatchdog.com/home.html

Here's their letter to the editors of Details Magazine.
http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/7246.php

All you have to do is sign it.

The above post is an example of what NOT to do. Do you think you are taking the moral high ground by sending a letter threatening physical violence? You
DO realize that it's a felony right? I hope the FBI reads this and tracks your IP down.

And another thing, why is everyone assuming the author is White?

Arrogance and ignorance. What else can be said?

Words can not express the rage i feel toward this article. Hence all i can say is, Whitney i do not know weather you are a man, a woman, gay or straight but do not let me catch your racist ass in a dark alley.

Blatently racist. a weak attempt to be slightly funny. Whitney, you're lame and you're creativity is shot and shitty.. you managed to offend asians AND gay men-how tastefully desperate.

Deleted due to profanity. - Ed.

This is an e-mail I sent to the Managing Editor

RE: Fire Whitney McNally for his safety

Dear Ms. Bendasset

I am writing in response to the ill-advised parody you published in the April issue of your magazine. It was offensive to Asians as it tried to create a laugh at our expense. You as an editor should know how offensive this is, but as a white person who probably only surrounds herself with whites in her social life maybe you don't know or care.

In any event, things like the sorry attempt at humor like the piece Whitney wrote stirs up some emotions. What follows is a message which illustrates the extent of such emotions:

"Hey Whitney

Don't know if you're a guy, a girl, gay or straight. But that article you wrote possibly tongue in cheek or not was out of line and racist. No one appreciates getting laughed at and I as an Asian American especially do not.

[Section deleted due to profanity. -- Ed.]