# Origin of "Jungle Fever"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225 "2017-06-06T00:04:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/21 "2017-06-06T10:00:35Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Interesting- where did you grow up? ``` I am from So Cal and 68 yrs old. I think the term goes back to at least the 70's. ``` ---
**Author:** ![CheaderHeddar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@CheaderHeddar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheaderHeddar)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/22 "2017-06-06T11:38:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve always assumed the term comes from this connection, that black people are from the jungle. See the term “jungle bunny” for black person, for example. Or a parallel construction in the term “yellow fever” (Asian fetishization.) No. Yellow fever is an actual disease. Besides, there are a billion plus non-“yellow” Asians. To my knowledge, there’s no derogatory term for when whites boink Asians. If anything, it would be the Asians that think up a derogatory term since it seems a step down for them?? (Speculating) Chinese and other Southeast Asians aren’t actually yellow, not even slightly. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/23 "2017-06-06T12:31:17Z")
I’ve also heard the “yellow fever” term to refer to white men who wanted Asian women. But IIRC I heard the term “jungle fever” first, and assumed “yellow fever” was an extension of that. > [@](#): > > Besides, there are a billion plus non-“yellow” Asians. Slang isn’t usually clinically accurate. The term refers IME to attraction to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean women. > [@](#): > > Chinese and other Southeast Asians aren’t actually yellow, not even slightly. White people are pink and black people are brown. Like I said, you won’t find mathematical precision in slang like this. Welcome to the SDMB, by the way. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/24 "2017-06-06T12:45:44Z")
> [@CheaderHeddar](#): > > No. Yellow fever is an actual disease. Besides, there are a billion plus non-“yellow” Asians. Yes, I know that. It also refers to fetishization of Asians, as I said in my post. > [@](#): > > Chinese and other Southeast Asians aren’t actually yellow, not even slightly. Once again, I know, but people using terms like this don’t care. The way I’ve heard “yellow fever” since the 90s it didn’t matter what part of Asia they were from. Anything from Chinese to Japanese to Thai to even sometimes Filipino. > [@Shodan](#): > > I’ve also heard the “yellow fever” term to refer to white men who wanted Asian women. But IIRC I heard the term “jungle fever” first, and assumed “yellow fever” was an extension of that. That would be my guess, as well, that “jungle fever” came first. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/25 "2017-06-06T13:15:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The way I’ve heard “yellow fever” since the 90s it didn’t matter what part of Asia they were from. Anything from Chinese to Japanese to Thai to even sometimes Filipino. Actually, I should not say it didn’t matter what part of Asia they were from, as it referred to what Americans think of as “Asians,” which usually does exclude South Asians and Central Asians. (I’ve at least once heard “curry fever” for South Asians.) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/26 "2017-06-06T14:28:07Z")
I had never heard the PHRASE “jungle fever” prior to Spike Lee’s movie, but the concept is quite old. There have LONG been bourgeois white women who’ve fantasized about sex with black men who (they IMAGINED) were barely civilized savages, and would be aggressive animals in bed. Ralph Ellison’s protagonist deals with this in “Invisible Man.” There are hints of this in "Othello. " ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/27 "2017-06-06T15:07:53Z")
> [@CheaderHeddar](#): > > To my knowledge, there’s no derogatory term for when whites boink Asians. In the UK, I’ve heard the phrase ‘a taste for bamboo’ to describe someone who likes chinese or japanese women. Not totally derogatory, but not exactly PC either. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/28 "2017-06-06T15:21:16Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Interestingly, this cite [meaning - What does "Jungle Fever" mean? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/214093/what-does-jungle-fever-means) says it’s more about Forbidden love, which black-white love was. 1991 lyrics back this concept up. I see one answer that suggests this. But it has no citations and the book it refers it is from 2002 and is about India. I’d say it’s just another wild guess. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/29 "2017-06-06T15:42:47Z")
> [@CheaderHeddar](#): > > No. Yellow fever is an actual disease. As has previously been noted, before the mid to late 1900s “jungle fever” referred to actual tropical diseases. Words and phrases can mean more than one thing. > [@](#): > > Besides, there are a billion plus non-“yellow” Asians. Irrelevant. > [@](#): > > To my knowledge, there’s no derogatory term for when whites boink Asians. Your knowledge is lacking. As has been documented here, the term is “yellow fever.” > [@](#): > > If anything, it would be the Asians that think up a derogatory term since it seems a step down for them?? (Speculating) There may well be one. But that’s also irrelevant. > [@](#): > > Chinese and other Southeast Asians aren’t actually yellow, not even slightly. And Caucasians aren’t white, either, nor are most sub-Saharan Africans really black. But East Asians are conventionally referred to as "yellow.’ ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/30 "2017-06-06T16:10:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang](https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA819&dq=jungle+fever+slang&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_7Krij6jUAhWj5YMKHTYPDncQ6AEIUDAH#v=onepage&q=jungle%20fever%20slang&f=false) says the term goes back to the 60s. Since linking to Google Books can be a little wonky, here’s the definition it gives: [Cassell’s didn’t look hard enough.](http://www.lyrics.com/lyric/10515508) [QUOTE=Music by Walter Donaldson Lyrics by Howard Dietz] i got that fever that jungle fever you know the reason that i long to go dusky maiden dark haired siren congo sweetheart [/Quote] [This clip of the Mills Brothers is from the 1934 film Operator 13.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZ1Ay7Fwgs) In that particular context, the song wasn’t about a black/white relationship, but it isn’t a stretch to see where it could go. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/31 "2017-06-06T16:21:39Z")
I have no doubt the phrase can be found before the 60s, but it seems to have acquired the specific inter-racial meaning around that time. That’s kind of an important detail. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/32 "2017-06-06T16:23:14Z")
Nice find, kunilou. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/33 "2017-06-06T16:31:20Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Most people know the term, jungle fever, to mean attraction between black and white people. But where does this term come from? On it’s face, it doesn’t really make sense. What is it about a jungle that helps explain black/white sexual attraction? I don’t get it. Hence the question. Am I the only one who thought that ‘jungle fever’ was basically the Europeans catching the various jungle diseases (malaria, yellow fever, the various nasty hemorrhagic fevers, dysentery and just about everything else that killed folks when they went into the jungle)? I think that’s the origin, and later it was morphed to mean what the OP is getting at. I mean, I’ve seen references to ‘jungle fever’ in stories and books set long before the 1970’s (hell, before the 1870’s) and they weren’t implying some sort of forbidden lust between the ‘races’, but instead just stuff you caught in the jungle that the doctors at the time had no idea what it was and lumped it together in one term. Or do I have that wrong? Certainly a Google search seems to indicate that at least the first 3 pages are about what the OP was talking about, but that seems to be how Google works these days, with what you REALLY want to know being 100 pages in. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/34 "2017-06-06T16:50:03Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I think that’s the origin, and later it was morphed to mean what the OP is getting at. Yes, I can find cites back to the early 1800s that use “jungle fever” in the disease sense. I would say, yes, “jungle fever” was a set phrase referring to jungle-related diseases, and then got morphed into a euphemism about interracial relations because, well, the jungle has been associated with dark-skinned people. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/35 "2017-06-06T18:02:39Z")
I would also like to bring into view as related-but-different and preceding the Spike Lee movie: Morris Day and the Time’s 1983 hit “Jungle Love”. The lyrics refer to the singer wanting to show the object of his affections his jungle love. Although I was young in 1983, most people at my very diverse school understood it to mean a Black man trying to seduce a non-Black woman by hinting at the stereotypical African-American sexual prowess/endowments. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/36 "2017-06-06T21:37:34Z")
What the heck? I see 3 quoted responses to CheaderHeddar but I don’t see the actual post from said user. ctrl+F confirms it. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/37 "2017-06-06T22:28:07Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > What the heck? I see 3 quoted responses to CheaderHeddar but I don’t see the actual post from said user. ctrl+F confirms it. I notice this fairly regularly and I don’t get it either. A thread will contain quotes from a poster but it won’t contain the original post being quoted. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/38 "2017-06-07T01:11:41Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > I notice this fairly regularly and I don’t get it either. A thread will contain quotes from a poster but it won’t contain the original post being quoted. I think sometimes a sock account is cornfielded and its posts vanish with it. I think the missing poster from this thread was a recent joiner, so that’s my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/39 "2017-06-07T02:36:20Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > What the heck? I see 3 quoted responses to CheaderHeddar but I don’t see the actual post from said user. ctrl+F confirms it. > [@Ambivalid](#): > > I notice this fairly regularly and I don’t get it either. A thread will contain quotes from a poster but it won’t contain the original post being quoted. > [@Bayard](#): > > I think sometimes a sock account is cornfielded and its posts vanish with it. I think the missing poster from this thread was a recent joiner, so that’s my guess. Correct. Disappeared sock. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225/40 "2017-06-08T15:29:57Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > I would also like to bring into view as related-but-different and preceding the Spike Lee movie: Morris Day and the Time’s 1983 hit “Jungle Love”. The lyrics refer to the singer wanting to show the object of his affections his jungle love. Although I was young in 1983, most people at my very diverse school understood it to mean a Black man trying to seduce a non-Black woman by hinting at the stereotypical African-American sexual prowess/endowments. Black men may have VERY different reactions to being perceived by white girls as animalistic, super-virile, hypersexual jungle savages in the bedroom. Some, like Morris Day (apparently) revel in that stereotype, and are only too happy to tell white women, “I’ll rape and ravage you in a way your tame, boring white husband never could.” But as I mentioned earlier, in “Invisble Man,” Ralph Ellison’s protagonist is horrified and insulted (and a bit amused) by the married white woman who tries to seduce him, since she doesn’t really know or care abut HIM, per se. Rather she fantasizes about being taken against her will (but not really!) by a savage black male, and regards him as the fulfillment of that fantasy. To Ellison, that kind of stereotyping is exactly what makes his hero “invisible.” NOBODY sees him as a real individual- only as the embodiment of an idea they already had. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jungle-fever/788225.md?page=3)