The Asian American Closet

Abstract

This article is an examination of the Asian American closet, as an analogy drawn from the gay closet.' The gay closet, of course, is a term used to describe the process by which some gays may hide their sexuality from public view, in order to avoid social disapproval or legal sanctions. At first glance, it may seem that application of the "closet" concept to Asian Americans does not quite hold up in a literal sense, since unlike gays, Asian Americans cannot closet their minority identities completely. Nevertheless, this article argues that Asian Americans may employ the closet concept in at least two senses. The first sense-the weaker onecomes into play when Asian Americans "cover" or downplay their ethnic behaviors, in order to make them less visible or salient.2 In this sense, the Asian American closet is generally a weak form, since Asian Americans cannot convincingly pretend to be white and can only attempt to suppress ethnic behaviors. However, in a second sense, the unique and contradictory stereotypes that Asian Americans face may allow them to