Can Kumail Nanjiani turn the Desi male body into a Western fantasy?
Selling sex with a Desi man’s body in mainstream culture is so uncommon it led to its desexualisation.
When actor Kumail Nanjiani broke the Internet in December 2019 with a shirtless picture showing off his new hunk body, thousands of women and men were intrigued by this new sex symbol they had never expected. For Caroline Vasquez and Claudia Ferreira, two white French journalists who specialise in topics related to women and pop culture, even if Kumail looks good on the picture, he is still not their type. Both in their twenties, the two of them nonetheless think Asian men can be sexy and embody some women’s male ideal. And no one can blame them, as people who grew up in a predominantly white country and culture, they are a product of their environment where Asian men have always been othered. “For us here, Pakistanis men are the ones running 24/7 grocery or selling roses on the street under the Eiffel Tower” explains Claudia, who lives and works in Paris. The whole South-Asian continent is also reduced to a few cliches in mainstream media, according to @YourAuntPulanDevii, an Instagram account dedicated to brown history popularisation run by a young aid worker. In her opinion, the western world knowledge of Desi culture doesn’t go further than Bollywood, Taj Mahal, poverty, rape in India, terrorism in Pakistan and people barely knows Sri Lanka exists. “We don’t see much Desi men in the media albeit documentaries on poverty, ads Pulan Devii. Ultimately, lack of representation in western culture leads to misreading, suspicion and ignorance. No one can fantasise about them if they are nowhere to be seen!”
Journalist Caroline also feels like Desi characters on-screen don’t have any sexual narratives hence the difficulty to see them as sexy. “They are the best friend, the geek, the introvert genius, but never Prince Charming” she analyses. Off-screen, in the music industry, the writer confesses that she’s always thought singer Zayn Malick was the most handsome among One Direction’s members. And not just for her: “He is a Desi hunk! How many teenagers across the globe fantasised about him? Tons!” At least, there are a few improvements. In the fashion industry, Pulan Devii remembers model Satya Oblette, who was scouted by Jean-Paul Gaultier and Kenzo in the early 2000s and became a worldwide phenomenon with his dark complexion and signature blonde hair. “At home, my mother and I were fond of him and proud to see someone from Pondicherry, from where we’re originated, in the spotlight. For once, we were watching this Indian personality embodying westernised beauty standards.” And he is not the only one. In January 2020, the whole Givenchy fall-winter 2020 collection was inspired by Yeshwant Rao Holkar II, Maharaja of Indore. A Desi man figure and its masculinity were setting the tone for a French luxury Maison.
In the industry where looks and fantasy are at the core, we’re still waiting for Desi men. Indeed, in porn, if one wants to enjoy watching professional South-Asian actors having sex, it’s nearly impossible. American actor Kumail Nanjiani revolutionised PornHub, not by playing in a movie, but by being featured as the cover of the muscle men section where one can’t even find an actor who looks like him.
The beauty excluding myth
For his upcoming role in the new Marvel saga The Eternals, Nanjiani spent a year working out with trainers and specialised dieticians and doctors. Now ripped like a bodybuilder, he’s finally considered sexy enough to play a lead superhero. But him transforming into a fitness model might not be enough to change the paradigm and turn average Desi men into fantasies. “I’m always happy to see more Desi stars on-screen, says Pulan Devii. For the past years, we’ve seen some men in Lost, Lion or Community. Kumail Nanjiani’s featuring in this movie is one step further into a fair representation of Desi people in western cinema. He is also making space for other types of beauty”. Is he though?
Berkeley scholar Françoise Vergès disagrees. To her, Kumail is just trying to fit a mould originally tailored for his exclusion. “Why should we replicate the masculine westernised body? wonders the postcolonial feminism expert. It would turn Desi men into clones. Nothing new will shake the hegemonic representation of what is considered masculine up. I don’t see anything subversive in this actor following conventions to please women and get a spot in the Men’s Health catalogue. It’s nothing but internalised subjection to western supremacy”.
And, sadly, turning into a fitness monster might not be enough for Kumail to generate reverie and sex-appeal. Journalist Claudia has an interesting take on this body transformation between Asian and White men. “Let’s take Jackie Chan, for instance. He’s ripped, but I don’t see him as sexy. Yet when it is Jean-Claude Van Damme, starring in the exact kind of kung-fu movies, it feels different to me”, meaning it’s easier for her to fantasise on the Belgian actor’s biceps. Chan could do as many push-ups he could; Claudia would still desexualise him given his ethnicity.
In her childhood, Pulan Devii used to hear the same discourse. Kids would tell her without any filter: “Indian women are beautiful, but all your men look ugly”. Indeed, in Hollywood, a few Indian women have made it and are considered ethereally beautiful by the industry. But when taking a closer look at Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone or Aishwarya Rai, they are all conventionally pretty from a western point of view. Their skin is light, they are skinny, they only have a subtle accent, and they embody the perfect exotic girl for a white audience. A mould inherited from colonial times where oppressors would hypersexualise women of colour and desexualise Asian men. Françoise Vergès insists on the fact that all colonised men were fantasised, but the fantasy was not always the same. “Both the British and French empires viewed Asian men as way too feminine. To such an extent that in Vietnam, French oppressors decreed a uniform to make a distinction between genders. But they would see men as sexual objects at the same time, birthing what we know today as sexual tourism and sexual child abuse in Asia. The British colonies only favoured Sikhs in the police force because they were the ones masculine enough to them.” Whether Kumail Nanjiani is aware of it or not, he will never be able to separate himself from these stigmas that have been desexualising Desi men for centuries in predominantly white countries. Doing push-ups to get ripped won’t be enough if we’re excluded from the beauty ideals that we’re still running after.
