Fashion photographer West Phillips has traveled the world photographing gorgeous musclebound men for many top underwear campaigns.
But while he was always grateful for the work and to be doing a job that he loved, one thing often bothered him.
“I realized how much was lacking in Western media when you’re looking at photos and advertisements and other photographers I was following on social media,” Phillips tells PinkPlanet.
Particularly, he noticed a lack of Asian representation in the male modeling industry. So decided to do something about it!
Phillips turned his camera lens towards the Asian male form for a project that eventually became Asian Male Portraits, a stunning new coffee table book dedicated to celebrating Asian male beauty and changing perceptions and attitudes toward gay Asian men.
“I think the mass media in the West don’t find [Asian men] to be appealing, they don’t find them to be sexual,” Phillips says, “and that’s something that I didn’t understand.”
Asked whether he thinks his project is having an impact on how gay men, in particular, view Asian men, Phillips replies, “I hope it is. I can’t say for sure, but I certainly hope it is.”
Hear Phillips talk about the project in the video below.
And now, scroll down for more images from Asian Male Portraits…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs9qjFxBmp4/
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Related: Least Desirable? Gay Asian men talk sexual racism and the impact it has on everyone
Rock-N-RollHS
yeah, a calendar will end, what is it again, “sexual racism.” Whatever the F that is. . .
.Maybe it could also end straight-up racism, and sexism, and global warming! Why vote when you can put out a calendar. Oh the things twitter-using kids learn today in their liberal arts programs.
Just wonder: will all the proceeds go to the putting Asian Americans through college?
Juanjo
So, Miss RnR HS, you had nothing substantive to say so you just posted some drivel.
Itsonlythetruth
Did you even bother to read the article before you made your foolish comment. It’s a book genius, not a calendar.
dwes09
One would be hard pressed to find comments more bitter than those of RNRHS. I suspect his only joy in life is seeing just how regressive, bitter and nasty he can be.
And he didn’t even pay enough attention to the article to know what kind of publication it was about! It is referred to as a “coffee table book” in the 5th sentence!
Ah, the dullness of the regressive mind is ceaselessly amusing!
iamru2
Gremore has been rejected by many hot white men, poor thing!
marion
Yes, and from the substance of his articles it has caused a great deal of resentment.
Mikey E
I love Asian guys and the first major crush of my life was on a Korean boy in my class. That having been said, not being attracted to Asians (or whites, or Blacks or Latinos) is not “sexual racism.” Stop with that nonsense.
Herman75
There are some hot guys in Korean though. 🙂 Just sayin
Not lost on me, is what I mean.
Coruna2018
Mikey E., you won’t read this so I’ll say it anyway: there is most such a thing as sexual racism and white men are the most likely men to deny such a thing exists because to admit racism of any kind looks bad on a person and few want to really acknowledge their racial prejudices of any kind. Since European forms of attractiveness are the preferred forms in most of the world but those norms are perpetuated and transmitted by American fashion and other media, sexual racism is the racism that comes when a person is considered unattractive, undesirable, and ignored as a potential mate only because that person decides that ALL persons of a given race or ethnic group are blanketly believed to be unattractive and undesirable, not on an individual person basis. This is because said judge of attractiveness and desirability absorbed family, community, societal, and media messages that told him or her who rates as attractive and desirable and who doesn’t. The wholesale dismissal of a race or ethnic group as unattractive and undesirable is not a preference, as many men say in order to deny their racism. It is sexual racism exemplified!
OrchidIslander
@Coruna2018, you had me at: “white men are the most likely men to deny such a thing exists because to admit racism of any kind looks bad on a person and few want to really acknowledge their racial prejudices of any kind.”
DavidIntl
I absolutely agree – I get very tired of seeing Queerty push that idea in article after article. I have an Asian ex – personally I do find many Asian guys attractive. I have not, however, ever had a black partner, for example. That doesn’t make me racist.
corktownboy
People will still prefer whom they sexually prefer; it’s not racism. It’s a preference! You can’t make your dick hard if not attracted to the person.
evanxx
I get excited by men with rugged good looks, a nice thick beard, & a beefy hairy body. Does that make me racist? No _ but it makes me turned on. Show me a furry Asian Bear, and I’ll be all over him like white on rice! (pun intended). Unfortunately, they are very scarce. I live in Honolulu where Asian/Pacific Islanders are more than 2/3 of the population, so I have plenty of Asian platonic friends. I’m just not physically attracted to them. _ Simple.
Kangol2
i also like bearded, beefy men with hairy bodies, and I live in a part of the US where there are lots of South Asian men, who are bearded, beefy, and all shades of brown. Some are so hot it’s not even funny. Would you find those men attractive? Just wondering. Also, if you go to Japan, there are bearded, beefy guys–a few are hairy though most aren’t, but the Japanese bears I’ve come across–!
evanxx
Kangol2 _ I am uncontrollably attracted to hairy bodies, preferably tall muscle-bears. I don’t care if they’re Asian, Black, Middle-Eastern, Indian or Caucasian. I also don’t care how big their genital size is. As long as they are covered with thick fur, I WANT THEM BAD! I’ve done a couple of hairy-chested Japanese men that stole my heart!
Darsithis
Never understood the whole “I have a preference” thing – men are men. They come in different flavors and colors, but they’re men, and attraction is more than physical. It’s about two minds and personalities connecting. People who just blanket say “no blacks” “no asians” “no whites” are racist.
xanadude
Right! That’s like saying you’re racist against women 😉 Everyone has a type, and there’s a type for everyone.
iamru2
It’s racist to a racist!
Juanjo
Xanabiotch – try something other than a false equivalency argument. It is definitely true that everyone has certain preferences when it comes to what they find sexually attractive. That is not racist. However, the person who unilaterally announces and holds to a position that “no Asians” or “No Caucasians” s definitely engaging in racism.
Ingenuity1
So it’s OK to genuinely feel “No Asians” when it comes to pick your date as long as you don’t say it in your profile? I think it’s perfectly OK to say it out loud. It will save a lot of Asians time and headaches.
dwes09
So…If “men are men”, does that mean you are attracted to anybody that ha a dick?
And sexual attraction is rarely about much more than physical characteristics.
Everybody has their barely conscious checklist and balances the characteristics desired when sizing up a “trick” or date.
Obviously, saying “no …insert race or culture here…” is creepy, and probably racist in some sense. But if you chart the dates and tricks and crushes any specific individual has had, you will see preferences based on specific characteristics, and thus more of some races than others.
But really now, one need not be sexually attracted to a group to see them as deserving of full enfranchisement and equal treatment, and support the struggle for it. And looking at the converse, a person who prefers one specific race, not their own is equally suspect of a kind of racism, in that they fetishize that group and see them in a stereotypical way.
An old friend who was a “rice queen” used to complain when Asian men were not subservient and deferential. His preference was clearly racist, and it was very difficult to make him see that.
GregoryH
I really can’t think of any ethnicity that I DON’T find attractive. Granted I’m “old” but most of my sexual experiences were at a much younger age. Most of the time it’s what’s inside that makes a person beautiful or ugly.
Kangol2
Same here. Also, there are more than 1 billion men in China and India alone, and many millions more across Asia and the rest of the globe, so if people don’t like Asian men, or Black men, or any others, that’s their hangup and loss, and a calendar isn’t going to change that. I mean, what’s the calendar for, to appeal to racist White men who don’t like Asian men, or to celebrate Asian men? I hope it’s the latter.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Please stop the flocking PC bullthit!
“Sexual racism” rather it’s sexual PREFERENCE!!
If someone is not attracted to you, put on your big boy pants cyberstroll over to a website where guys are into you.
I am a blonde hair blue eyes muscular white guy. Asian guys happen to be my favorite flavor of Gay..
I have always found them to be incredibly sexy and attractive.
Spewing hate and bigotry on a race other than your own is racism and 100% should be called out and detested. Not being sexually attracted to some one and called them racist is utter PC over the top nonsense
And BTW, the myth that Asian guys are all hung small is a BIG MYTH :-p
iamru2
Watch any Asian porn and you will see it’s no myth!
Juanjo
Oh look, iamru2 is demonstrating his inherent troll nature.
iamru2
@ Juan time to send out one of your other personalities Sybil cause no one likes this one!
Kangol2
@iamru2, don’t project your inadequacies on other races!
WindsorOntario
What I don’t like is how this implies…so long as the Asian men look like the ones in those photos, then they’re okay. The ones who are over 30, overweight, pale, thin, etc – it’s fine to keep being rude to them or act like they don’t exist.
I think we’re at a weird place because while the majority of gay men are not attracted to each other at all, politically we are at a time where we can’t afford to burn bridges with each other. For too long gay men have used money and class to wall themselves off from the rest of the gay community except for the ones they are attracted to or are good enough for them to talk to. But we are in danger of losing our rights – you can be certain those people going after Roe v Wade are coming after us next. We have no central leadership at all & again, most of us couldn’t care less what happens to other gay men, so long as nothing happens to us personally. We don’t have the luxury of thinking like that anymore. We need everyone to show up and be counted.
I get it; most of us don’t like each other. Understandable. But gay men only make up 2% of society. Sexually our pickiness and preferences make it look like we have 98% of the male population to choose from. I know, you can’t force yourself to be interested in someone, but that doesn’t mean you act like other gay men don’t even exist. You can still talk to each other.
okiloki
I hope people on here will take your words or wisdom to heart. We as a community can’t afford to stay shallow, divided, and walled off.
iamru2
Are you kidding? On what planet are you living on? How exactly are we in danger of losing our rights? We have never been more visible and had more public and political support!
Juanjo
iamru2 is definitely a troll. Here we have states and even the federal government passing laws and rules allowing people to refuse to buy/sell/rent/employ or even provide medical care to gay people just because they are gay. We live in a country where the far right is dedicated to packing the Supreme Court with justices dedicated to reversing decisions protecting gays and women. But he announces everything is okay.
PinkoOfTheGange
I am 1st to say I live in a very privileged bubble.
But is there really a significant portion of the tribe, that if they don’t find someone sexually attractive, they won’t even consider them as potential friends (with out benefits), acquaintances, or even allies?
Brian
Juanjo, do you ever actually contribute to the conversation here? It seems like all you do is bitch about other people’s comments.
iamru2
@ Brian he’s a typical sjw type too rigid and dogmatic to have a real discussion or debate so they lash out and call people names to try and shut them down!
Brian
Actually, I’m convinced it’s just another screenname for DCGuy. He even did the patented “oh look”, which is a DCGuy trademark, along with calling everyone trolls, which he’s done in every post in this thread. Plus he never uses the word troll correctly.
Sockpuppets are infinitely more pathetic than trolls.
iamru2
Lol yup!
Juanjo
I see two of the better known Negative Nancys who post here are upset and think I am actually someone else. I’m not and of course, if either of them had even bothered to read my posts here, they would know that. What they are really upset with is the fact I often challenge their opinionated drivel. Actually, that isn’t completely true. There are times I have actually agree with something Brian has said, not often but sometimes. Iaru2 however, is a nasty little troll, who can never actually support an opinion of his with actual verifiable facts. In fact, he doesn’t try to do so.
This issue of racism against Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, or Caucasians in terms of gay men has come up previously. My position on the issue has not changed over the years. Everyone has preferences when it comes to what they see as sexy. Those vary dramatically and some can be quite specific. If you are only turned on by blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Lithuanian speaking, hirsute, dwarfs then it is likely you will find a, say, Japanese man as sexy. If however, you simply reject, without any consideration, any man of a specific ethnicity/race then there might be a racial/ethnic prejudice involved. It behooves you to consider whether you are acting out of a preference for a particular set of physical cues you find sexy or because you have deeply ingrained social prejudices.
Brian
Oh look, DC Guy thinks he upset us.
qsw84
?
Brian
Hottest Asian celebrity? My pick is Manny Jacinto from The Good Place.
Kangol2
Simu Liu and Sendhil Ramamurthy are def at the top of the list. Sachin Bhatt, who Queerty used to feature a lot, also is a hottie, from head to toe.
dwes09
Daniel Dae Kim! He is incredibly handsome.
Hillers
Maybe instead of using phrases like “ending sexual racism” you could say “increasing representation?”
GentlemanCaller
THIS is very sensible. Thank you.
Kangol2
If Queerty said “increasing representation” it would spark far fewer comments. “Sexual racism” aims to provoke the right-wingers, and it always does. Queerty knows exactly what it’s doing, right, Graham? 😉
Coruna2018
“Ending sexual racism” is a noble cause to end as well as /;increasing representation”.
Ingenuity1
People who are attracted to guys of all races seem to have difficulty accepting the fact that most gays and 90% straights are only attracted to people of their own race. That’s the norm. It’s the natural thing to be attracted to guys from the same culture and similar background and with the similar physical traits. That’ normal. Why do they want to force interracial dating?
PinkoOfTheGange
Cite your source for this statistic.
Ingenuity1
This is a gay entertainment site, not some academic research center. Get real, Pink.
SumSay
Spouting out random statistics certainly doesn’t help your case.
Kangol2
Speak for yourself!
Coruna2018
So said Strom Thurmond and George Wallace in 1958!
PinkoOfTheGange
Oh so it is just fiction that you wrote?
PinkoOfTheGange
Not sure how it supposed to change anything, but I hope he keeps trying.
astro.dude
As a white gay man, I spent my teenage years being criticized for not being attracted to women and, now in adulthood, I get criticized for not being attracted to asian men. Sorry, the bullying didn’t work then and it won’t work now. I’m not attracted to asian men, just like I’m not attracted to women. It’s nothing personal and it’s not racist anymore than not being attracted to women is misogynistic. If asian gay guys don’t like it, they can always just date each other: problem solved!
SumSay
Asian men are underrepresented in sexualized media. That’s the jist of this article. White guilt is not the topic being discussed. Being attracted to women is a false equivalency. You’re a gay man, no one expects you to find women sexually attractive. Society may be against it, but science and history has proven that being gay is a valid experience. No one disagrees with preference, but if you don’t find someone physically attractive simply because of their race, then that can be a bit problematic. If you have a preference for white men (I’m assuming), how do you view non-whites in other situations I wonder…
Coruna2018
Astro.dude,
You’re not attracted to women because you’re gay. You’re not attracted to Asian men, likely due to unexamined racism. Many white men don’t have to examine nor feel racism. They simply act on it.
QueerTruth
I find these articles ludicrous. Stop forcing it. It appears desperate.
If you want to make a true difference, the. Focus on Asians themselves.
Asian culture world wide focuses on western people and traditions. They are the ones with an unhealthy obsession with looking western. It’s a billion dollar industry to look less asian. It’s sad. And most Gay Asians are not attracted to other Asians at least in America.
So fix your own house and stop crying that white boys aren’t paying enough attention to you.
g sun
Not everyone in Asia is like that but I do feel that you are correct on most of the points.
okiloki
Was with you up until the last paragraph which was just needlessly judgmental and rude. Everyone should be examining themselves here. It’s always easier to blame others.
Dymension
I absolutely adore Asian men. However, I also love Latin men, black men, middle eastern men. I guess I am an equal opportunity ho!
Doug
Me too. There are plenty of hot guys from all races. And the guy in the bottom photo wearing a t-shirt is a total babe.
LilMesican
IMO: West Phillips is trying to hide his sexual preference for Asian men disguising it as other’s sexual racism.
This isn’t about dating them, its sex. Sexually we might like different things.
My boyfriend is a big guy, I love him physically, didn’t want to date him when we met. After I got to know him better fell in love. I just wanted him for sex.
It’s important to not confuse sexual preference with racism.
Herman75
I grew up on white TV, but after moving to a diverse city after college I discovered I have the hots for all guys. The media has changed too, so that I expect we’ll see young peeps not occupied with idealizing white dudes. Take care all you old fartz.
Krabat
I think that photographer is behind the times and quite racist himself. Because its not as if modelling agencies even cover the range of attractive “white” men either.
Polaro
Stop all the whining. For the record I like Asian men. So, now, you PC jerks, accuse me of objectifying them. On second thought, just stuff it.
Krabat
The makers might be meaning well, but if you ask me, they should get their heads out of their American asses. East Asian BL shows and K-Pop have done that far more effectively already what this guy is allegedly trying to do here. Trust me, ask any BL or K-Pop fan, male or female, for hot “Asian” men and they will bombard you with them. Also, it is strange that he only complains about the lack of Asian men in the west but not the lack of black and “brown” models in East Asia, even though they must surely exist. Not to mention that I am not buying for a second that most of his models were first-timers, they look exactly like the type that is taken for modelling all across East and Southeast Asia. This sounds like someone who basically says: Look at me, I am the big American savior and I will bring you culture and his first-timer narrative fits neatly into this. Same old, same old. This will change nothing.
g sun
Thank you for even mentioning about the black and brown Asian men. We do exist yet I don’t know why so much emphasis on the east Asian men not that it is wrong.
jaysit
What the hell does “Asian” mean?
Asian is not a race. Asia is a continent with numerous distinct ethnic phenotypes.
Syrians, Turks, Iranians, Afghans, Arabs, Indians all technically live in “Asia.” As do Han Chinese, Thais, Koreans, Mongolians. The first grouping share certain obvious physical characteristics, as do the latter. Beyond that they’re all distinct from each other.
The comments trotted out by you dumbass internet queens show how fundamentally ignorant you are of the universe around you. Get on a plane and visit a place that isn’t a hive of meth, prep, Test injections, and himbos screeching “grrrrrl.”
dwes09
I feel the same. Thai, Indian, and Chinese men are very different in terms of appearence, culture, history. Calling them all Asian seems odd. Additionally Asia isn’t even a geographically/geologically separate continent from Europe. They are one land mass.
And if one looks at who is considered by physical anthropologists to be caucasian, it includes “white” European groups, as well as Indians, Arabs, Persians, and a host of others who share certain alleles as well as skeletal similarities. Race, as currently defined is incredibly artificial and all too often relates more to culture and economic standing than to anything genetic or morphological.
Brian
You’re calling us ignorant, when you claim to not understand what “Asian” means in terms of race? Let me guess, you’re one of those people who claims not to know who “Americans” are referring to, since it could be anyone in North or South America?
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but words have definitions other than just the most literal one.
joeboyle49
I LOVE ASIAN MEN AND I THINK MOST OF THEM ARE CUTE AND SEXY.
g sun
Um South Asian and brown and what I don’t see is any brown Asian men represented. Also not hating but Asia is not just East or South East Asia there are so many types and skin tones of Asian men.
paljim
I think there’s some confusion here between racism and discrimination. If you’re not attracted to Asian men it might be considered discriminatory by some but it’s not, by definition, racist.
Racists typically believe those of another race are inferior, often in terms of intelligence or other qualities such as work ethic, criminal tendencies, social behavior, etc. These attitudes even exist between people of the same race but different nationalities (remember Polish jokes?)
Not being attracted sexually to men of other races doesn’t make one a racist. I for one have seen many examples on the internet of black men who are seeking only black men as sexual partners, or only WHITE men for sexual partners. Does that make those men racist?
I believe it’s mainly white men who are attracted to and seek men of color as sex partners who like to (incorrectly) label other white men as racists when in fact they are objecting to discrimination, not racism. I guess it makes them feel superior to those of us who don’t share their view.
NYCdude
What I find sad is when I’m on an dating or sex app, and so many Asian guys’ first pic is either a torso or a face pic with sunglasses on. Society has discriminated against gay Asians so much, that many feel the need to hide or find shame in what actually makes them so beautiful.
astro.dude
Lol. Society has discriminated against Asians? They have the highest median income in America but we’re supposed to be upset because they have trouble getting laid with the hot, pretty white guys. Sorry fellas, guess you can’t have it all.
scotty
i like cute men and if he’s Asian, so much the better. i miss my mikey doggy baby