Asian baby girl

Asian baby girls or Asian baby gangsters, commonly abbreviated as an ABGs, are members of a subculture and aesthetic originating in Asian American communities. In its original form, ABGs were generally East Asian American or Southeast Asian American women who partook in gang activity. However, the subculture has expanded to include women in college sororities and engage in rebellious behavior, such as substance abuse, and became detached from its origins in gang culture.

History

The term was first coined in the 1980s, describing women in Asian American gangs.^[1][2]: 80 While scholars Stacey Salinas and Talitha Trazo, along with writer Vicki Li, attribute the creation of the ABG subculture to Asian American women in California, writer Mai Tran describes a group of Asian American women from New York as the "original ABGs".^{[2]: 82 [3][4]} Remnants of Southeast Asian origins remain; the name of a stereotypical ABG, "Vivian Tran", uses a Vietnamese surname.^[2]: 83 Unlike other stereotypes such as the model minority myth or the lotus blossom and dragon lady stereotypes, which were imposed by those outside Asian American communities, the ABG subculture was created entirely by Asian American women.^[2]: 83

The term ABG gained traction online in the 2010s through memes on the Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits and YouTube videos such as the Fung Bros' "Types of Asian Girls" and Chow Mane's "Asian Baby Girl".^{[3][5][2]: 82} Asian American makeup and fashion content creators furthered its spread through "ABG transformation" makeup tutorials.^[2]: 82 The transition into the online space reduced the ABG subculture to a stereotype detached from its origins in gang culture.^{[2]: 85 [4]} The ABG aesthetic has also became popular on Chinese social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu.^[6]

Characteristics

The ABG subculture was generally limited to East Asians and Southeast Asians. Early ABGs were associated with the import car scene, but the subculture broadened to include women in Asian Greek communities and Asian cultural clubs in college and "rave families" who attended electronic music festivals.^[2]: 84 ABGs often engage in rebellious behavior, such as vaping, underage drinking, and drug use.^[3][4] ABGs also frequently drink boba, but they may derisively call those who they perceive to be poseurs "Asian boba girls".^[4][7][8]

The ABG aesthetic is primarily focused on visual aspects, which draws from western standards of beauty as well as communities of other people of color.^{[2]: 85 [1][3]} ABGs may have large or fake nails and eyelashes, colored contacts, tattoos, and dyed blonde hair.^[7] According to Salinas and Trazo, ABGs often go to Asian American establishments in order to maintain their appearance while participating in fast fashion trends whose products come from Asian factories and sweatshops.^{[2]: 84–85}

The male counterpart of the ABG, the Asian baby boy, also called a "Kevin Nguyen" is the expected dating prospect of the ABG.^{[2]: 84 [1]} However, some ABGs also date non-Asian men of color.^[3]

Reception

ABGs are generally perceived as unintelligent, similar to the Valley girl or dumb blonde stereotypes.^[1][4] ABGs have also been victims of slut-shaming.^[7]

Reception among scholars and writers has been mixed. Tran describes the subculture as "edgy normativity", citing its conformity to Western beauty standards, Li also argued that ABGs mimicked the "popular white girl stock character".^[4][3] However, Salinas and Trazo argue that ABGs racialize themselves and remain perpetual foreigners, "upend[ing] the colonial framing and practice of containing the Asian woman under the White male gaze.^[2]: 85

In media

The Fast & Furious franchise featured depictions of ABGs, though they had few lines. Salinas and Trazo argued that this depiction was primarily focused on sex appeal and ignored issues faced by Asian American women.^{[2]: 80–81} In the song "3D" by Jung Kook, featured white rapper Jack Harlow uses the term in the context of Asian women making themselves attractive for him.^[7]