Chrissy Teigen Caught In Twitter Spat Over Asian Slur Controversy

On a flight late in the evening on September 12, Chrissy Teigen spotted a salad dressing option on the menu: Oriental. While the model and host of Lip Sync Battle says she is not very politically correct, she was a little put off by the word choice since "Oriental" is frequently used in place of the word "Asian" and is often used as a racial slur. "I really really really really clearly am not a PC type of gal but I'm a little weirded out at the oriental dressing option on my flight," she tweeted. Since the initial tweet, Teigen has said more than 32 follow-up posts on the topic explaining why the word is sometimes offensive to her. She then elaborated a bit on when it is, in her opinion, appropriate to use the word "oriental" when referring to the origin of an item (such as salad dressing) or a person (such as herself).

It then transformed into a bigger conversation about whether or not Teigen has represented Asians in her career.

The topic of "Is Oriental offensive?" has been an ongoing debate for quite some time. One writer in the L.A. Times says the word doesn't upset her at all because technically the word refers to a geographical region which is indeed where she is from. Another writer on NPR wrote about her own qualms with not so much the actual word, but the kind of derogatory statement that often accompany it.