yellow woman

1 9.9

An insulting racist phrase for an Asian woman

noun

Slur

: [término ofensivo y racista para mujer asiática]

She was deeply offended to be called a yellow woman in that conversation.

Examples

The film has been criticized for its use of the term yellow woman in reference to Asian female characters.
Using phrases like yellow woman is unacceptable because of their racist origins.
Using the term yellow woman is deeply offensive.
Many people find the phrase yellow women unacceptable.
She felt hurt and insulted when he referred to her as a yellow woman during their argument.
Critics argue that the use of the term yellow woman perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Asian females.
It is crucial to avoid using derogatory terms like yellow woman that promote racism and discrimination.

Surface Forms

yellow woman singular

yellow women plural

Morphology

yellow + woman

The phrase is compositionally built from 'yellow' + 'woman', so a learner can infer it refers to a woman described by a colour (i.e., a reference to skin colour), giving some predictable meaning. However, the specific racist/derogatory usage targeting Asian women and the insulting connotation are culturally specific and not directly derivable from the words alone, so full understanding requires prior sociocultural knowledge.

Etymology

Yellow woman comes from a time when people used yellow to describe Asian skin and then added woman, creating a rude label. So today it is 'offensive' and should not be used.