- "Deadpool 2" is being criticized for reviving the "Asian hair streak" trope.
- In the film, the only Asian-American character, Yukio, has streaks of neon purple hair.
- It's a style and a trope that's become synonymous with having a "rebellious attitude."
"Deadpool 2" is a hit superhero movie — both with critics and with audiences. But it has some problems, and critics are particularly frustrated with one tired trope it revived: the "Asian hair streak."
If you're not familiar with the concept, the "Asian hair streak" cliché is when an East Asian character has a streak of neon dye in their hair, often to signal that they're rebellious. It's present in all sorts of movies and TV shows, from "Glee" to "Big Hero 6."
In "Deadpool 2," the character who embodies the trope is Yukio, played by the Japanese-Australian actress-model Shiori Kutsuna.
She's the girlfriend of the character Negasonic Teenage Warhead, played by Brianna Hildebrand, and has black hair with streaks of pink. It doesn't help that Yukio has only a few lines in the movie and doesn't do much until the last few scenes, rendering her a two-dimensional character. (Yukio was also portrayed by Rila Fukushima in 2013's "The Wolverine" with dyed red hair.)
The critique was revived when the Twitter account @nerdyasians, which tracks Asian representation in media, posted it to Twitter.
it’s time for western media to drop the idea that asian girls need neon streaks of color in their hair to stand out. pic.twitter.com/r2YRNdENbG
— nerdy (@nerdyasians) May 22, 2018
Yukio was even worse than usual because her main purpose was to wave “Hi!” in a ditzy way to Deadpool, and that she’s someone’s girlfriend. Also they just HAD to have her do the move with her leg that’s a callback to GoGo from Kill Bill, cuz *Asian*s.
— 조닉 Nick Cho (@NickCho) May 22, 2018
My hair is blue but the western media perpetuates Asian girls with dyed hair as rebels, girls who don’t conform to the rest is Asian stereotypes. While obviously this doesn’t apply to EVERY movie including Asian women, often the women with undyed hair represent the docile Asians https://t.co/Qo99tReJ6T
— boo boo the fool (@ayyyooorianne) May 23, 2018
this is so weird like why is this even a thing lol who decided that the streak of colored hair makes asian girls cool lmao https://t.co/e2sBKrj8Qc
— glolita (@LilGlolita) May 23, 2018
this is so weird like why is this even a thing lol who decided that the streak of colored hair makes asian girls cool lmao https://t.co/e2sBKrj8Qc
— glolita (@LilGlolita) May 23, 2018
Before you say "but I'm Asian and I love my colored hair!", that's great!
— Alise Quynh (@zeezackczs) May 23, 2018
But we're here talking about how American media refuses to create complex Asian female characters and would rather just slap on a purple streak https://t.co/mRgLgzV8Jl
I was thinking this the whole movie. The all over pink was cute, WHY WE GOTTA GO TROPE-Y and then back to all pink again? HER HAIR JUMPED AROUND A LOT WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION. WIGS? MAGIC? Is this her power? I don't know Xmen https://t.co/sAjJ94TNtT
— Austen Marie (@AustenMarieTV) May 22, 2018
Some people on Twitter have argued that the cliché isn't a big deal.
Just read a story about how it's time to stop putting neon streaks in the hair of Asian female movie characters and I realized we have officially run out of things to complain about.
— Amy 🐘 (@WaltzingMtilda) May 24, 2018
Just read a thread about how the western media are misrepresenting asian women by always having them have colored streaks in their hair 🙄
— dustanreacts (@dustanreacts) May 24, 2018
I hate this world sometimes we make the biggest things out of nothing and ignore the actual big thing like they're nothing
But the critique is more narrow. It's not that having streaks of color in hair is a problem. It's that the hair color has become a stereotypical trope signifying that a character is cool and edgy. It also seems to say that characters who don't dye their hair neon somehow aren't interesting enough to be represented onscreen.
To counter this idea, people started sharing examples of great Asian characters who don't embody the trope.
thuy trang, the original yellow ranger, rocked her natural black hair back in the day & stood out just fine. rip icon. pic.twitter.com/VNobVEMSRF
— nerdy (@nerdyasians) May 22, 2018
At least Cho Chang didn't have highlights pic.twitter.com/wnShomHu3b
— Saimon (@sai_hahaha) May 22, 2018
Sense 8 didn’t need to add streaks to sun’s hair FYI pic.twitter.com/clCrIm40Z4
— Trying2becrueltyfree (@ttbcrueltyfree) May 22, 2018
and Yunjin Jim who played Sun-Hwa Kwon on LOST pic.twitter.com/E7QyDXNKp3
— jhubeJELLO (@jhubeJELLO) May 22, 2018
There you go! No dye necessary.
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