Netflix recently began airing a reality show titled "My Korean Boyfriend," which follows a group of single Brazilian women traveling to Korea to live out their K-drama fantasies in hopes of finding romance. The show itself is low in production quality, filled with awkward moments and more than a few cringeworthy scenes. Yet its very existence is revealing. A program like this would have been almost unthinkable not long ago. Its appearance speaks volumes about the global reach of the Korean wave and the shifting racial and gender dynamics of our time. It also serves as a reminder of media’s powerful role in shaping how we see one another and ourselves. Until relatively recently — and to a considerable extent still today — global dating and marriage patterns could be often understood through the lens of "Orientalism." The term refers to a Western worldview that casts Eastern societies as exotic, backward and inferior. In romantic and sexual contexts, Orientalism can manifest in the fetishization of Asian women as submissive, delicate and compliant. Countless operas, novels, films