The Oxford Study is Misogynistic

A few months ago, I was speaking to a guy when he randomly said, “I’ve always found something so weird about relationships between White men and Asian women”.

In the moment, I thought it was a horribly racist thing to say, but I didn’t say anything substantive in response.

Later on, I wondered why he had formed such a strong opinion on a seemingly random interracial pairing, and, being half-Asian myself, I couldn’t help but notice that his comment was part of a growing sentiment against interracial couples. After reflecting on it, I believe the increased scrutiny of White and Asian interracial pairings is a symptom of a popular “joke” that needs to stop.

That joke being: The Oxford Study.

What The Heck Is The “Oxford Study”?

The Oxford Study is of somewhat apocryphal origins. I’ll start by saying it’s not a real study. Rather, it’s a reference to a TikTok posted in April 2023 by user @Lightskinbbyrei, who mockingly stated that Oxford University should research why relationships between White males and Asian females (WMAF) are so common1. This was the catalyst for an online trend where people (typically men) commented the phrase “Oxford Study” on TikTok videos of WMAF couples. Eventually, the phrase was commented so frequently that its origins became shrouded, and people began to think it referred to actual research.

There is no Oxford Study, and there never has been. At best, the Oxford Study joke is misguided, and at worst, it’s racist.

If The Study is Fake, Why Is It So Common?

The Oxford Study is often conflated with a 2014 OkCupid Study, which found that White men and Asian women receive the most responses on dating apps, and Black women and Asian men receive the least2. While the results could be different if taken from 2025, they do reflect the current reality that in the United States, WMAF marriages are the second most common interracial pairing, and Asian men are statistically less likely than Asian women to have a spouse outside their race3.

The observation that WMAF is common is valid, but the observation becomes misguided when people misconstrue why WMAF is so prevalent.

I believe there is genuine social commentary to be made on how the fetishisation of Asian women, combined with racial self-hatred, can be the glue that sticks White men and Asian women together. As a half-Asian woman myself, I have witnessed how Asian mothers subtly (sometimes overtly) promote White husbands and mixed “Wasian” children to their Asian daughters as a way to gain status and whiteness in the West. Conversely, I once heard a White guy say his dream in life was to have a “Japanese wife and Wasian kids” (yikes). It would be untrue to claim that the prevalence of WMAF is completely unrelated to greater social issues and fetishisation.

The Oxford Study operates under the veil of confronting fetishisation and Asian racial politics by addressing the prevalence of interracial couples in the Asian community. However, in reality, it has become a way to insinuate that all WMAF relationships result from internalised racism, which is inaccurate and a form of stereotyping.

The barrage of Oxford Study comments disregards the compatibility and autonomy of the individuals in interracial relationships in favour of making degrading generalisations, and the blame is unfairly directed towards Asian women.

The Misogyny of The Oxford Study

Male power relies on female dependency.

In The Sexual Contract, Carole Pateman asserts that marriage is a contract for men to gain unpaid domestic labour and sexual access from women. For men, marriage is a mechanism to affirm patriarchal power since the paternal power generated from marriage is often viewed as the genetic origin of patriarchy. Through acting as husbands and fathers, men assert their power over women and children, and affirm their dominant position in society4.

Thus, when Asian women engage in relationships with White men, it is seen as a subversion to Asian male power. This is reflected in the fact that Oxford Study comments are frequently left by Asian men who perceive a decline in marriage rates to Asian women as a decline in their paternal and patriarchal power. It weakens their gender. Even other men of colour, such as the Black creator who coined the Oxford Study term, can perceive how White men are empowered through the desire of Asian women. People perceive the abundance of WMAF couples as White men gaining power through dominance over more demographics of women, which allows them to maintain their top position in the patriarchy. Other men, subsequently, have less of an ability to control women, and their gender is weakened.

By making Oxford Study jokes, men are attempting to control Asian women’s dating habits by shaming them. The Oxford Study is not about addressing Eurocentric beauty standards in the Asian community, but about demeaning Asian women for not dating Asian men. This is substantiated by the online reaction to the “Reverse Oxford Study” or “Cambridge Study”, which is a relationship between an Asian male and a White Female (AMWF). AMWF is seen as a victory for the Asian male, and he is applauded for achieving the purportedly difficult task of dating a White girl.

WMAF pairings receive judgment and criticism, and the brunt of the criticism is hurled at the women. Asian women receive comments about their “mid white boyfriend” or “Oxford Study relationship”, and are taunted for dating interracially.

Men can exist outside the parameters of their relationships, whereas women are defined by their domestic roles. A White man in an interracial relationship can escape criticism, yet his Asian girlfriend is seen as “white-washed” or a “race-traitor” since her identity is defined by her partner.

Moreover, when a minority of Asian women online make cringey videos about liking White men, Asian women are collectively characterized as being obsessed with White guys. However, White men as a demographic are not seen as collectively having Asian fetishes, despite participating in the same relationships. White men are allowed to be distinct individuals, while Asian women are perceived based on stereotypes.

Asian women receive comments about the Oxford Study, their White partners don’t.

It’s A Bad Joke

I initially thought the Oxford Study was an obscure joke floating around TikTok comment sections, but hearing it being widely discussed in person has made me realise it’s mainstream. Even when the phrase isn’t explicitly stated, the rhetoric behind it has pervaded perceptions of WMAF couples.

Whenever a non-Asian person makes a joke about the Oxford Study, they are echoing a harmful racial stereotype and perpetuating a negative assumption about people in interracial relationships. The Oxford Study erases the autonomy of Asian women by reducing their relationships to products of fetishisation.

By demeaning interracial relationships through “jokes” like the Oxford Study, we are taking a cultural step backward. To categorize and form assumptions about people based on their race, or the race of their partner, is a devolution from the multiculturalism and tolerance that our society needs.

The Oxford Study is a phrase that should be retired.

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1. Lightskinbbyrei (@Lightskinbbyrei), “The power of the caucasian kitty pounder over the Asian female subconscious needs a full Oxford investigation,” TikTok, April 10, 2023, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMSk7j8TD/

2. Christian Rudder, “Race and Attraction, 2009 – 2014,” oktrends, September 10, 2014, https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/okcupid/raceandattraction20092014.html

3. Gretchen Livingston and Anna Brown, “Trends and patterns in intermarriage,” Pew Research Center, May 18, 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/05/18/1-trends-and-patterns-in-intermarriage/

4. Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Polity Press, 1988)