Who Questioned Emil Guillermos Virility?
In today’s SFGate.com, Emil Guillermo looks at the microphenomenon that is William Hung and finds what he expected: anti-Asian American racism. (Hurry, that’s a perishable link.) For those of you who don’t know, William Hung wanted to be a contestant on the television show American Idol, but whose cover of a Ricky Martin song, “She Bangs”, proved so awful that he didn’t make the cut. Instead, he was thrown out at audition, but since these auditions aired, became an anti-star of sorts. He’s made the rounds of the television shows and has a CD coming out. America likes an earnest, but ultimately undertalented, performer. Sure, it’s funny, but it’s also endearing. A lot of us can project ourselves into William Hung. What does Guillermo project? Seemingly, a lack of virility: With William Hung, is there any other reason to extend the joke on America except that it plays to a racist image of the ineffectual Asian-American male? What is Hung but an infantilized, incompetent and impotent male
