The Asian Branding of Sexuality - Sex sells, and Asian sex sells a lot. Is it Orientalism or cultural openness? In the United States, images of sexuality are apparent in nearly all forms of media – magazines, newspapers, billboards, television and movies – creating cultural wallpaper that bends and shapes individual sexuality. However, as a nation, we’re still sexual babies – mere infants at 226 years old. Compared to the ancient civilizations of Asia, the U.S. is just beginning to discover, understand, and define its own sexual culture. The Kama Sutra, which dates back nearly 1,800 years, was written in India and served as a guidebook to everything from personal finance to human sexuality. Its most notable aspect is its instruction on sex and love, so frankly addressed. Without technology, its spread was slow, but eventually it came to be recognized as an icon of Asian sexuality and a popular personal/sexual resource worldwide. Globalization has facilitated our awareness of Asian countries’ long-standing traditions of sexuality. It has promoted a cross-cultural introduction between the sexually knowledgeable and experimental East and the sexually immature U.S., enabling us to sample the enigmatic offerings of Asia's long, diverse sexual histories. While globalization is most often viewed as a "west-to-the-rest" flow of information, media, and products, there is significant reverse underway in sexual material that is facilitating a change in American sexuality. A more contemporary representation of Asian sexuality than the Kama Sutra is the "sex toy" or "sex aid", many of which are Asian in styling, packaging, or theme. The toys are marketed to the mature or sexually curious – often those with limited familiarity of Asian culture and sexuality – capitalizing on exoticism and eroticism. The wide availability of and fascination with Asian sex aids allow voyeurs to experience a recondite culture, to employ all of the "mysticism" associated with Far East sex – by way of ancient prose, contemporary marketing methods, and personal fantasy. But are we really to believe that an orgasm with Asian underpinnings is different than any other? What does consuming "Asian-style" sex toys do for users – Asian or otherwise? Does using them drag Orientalist perceptions into the bedroom, allowing them to construct our nation’s sexuality? Does it allow one to be transported, through fantasy, to distant, perhaps unfamiliar shores, and so explore new horizons in a safe, personal, and even relatively progressive way? Are American companies that concept or market these sex toys accurately representing the Asian culture? And for the sake of sex, does it matter?