http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2349059.stm
The above article talks about the plight that Vietnamese women suffer from because of society and inequality. While I wholeheartedly agree that those issues are deplorable and should immediately be resolved, I am so tired of reading and hearing about all these articles and coverage on how all Vietnamese women are mistreated. All of these articles and news coverage seem to do is give the illusion that Vietnamese women have nothing good in their lives; their portrayals make people think that all that happens to them is they get beaten everyday of their lives. A Vietnamese woman is so much more than a subservient wife and mother whose life is shackled to the home and kitchen. Instead of publishing all of these work that give Westerns the image of poor women needing to be saved, these newspapers and organizations should focus more on all of the other roles that Vietnamese women assume: in most cases, they are also business owners, the financial head of households, the glue that holds the entire family together. Like housewives in America, Vietnamese women are regarded as nothing but slaves; people who don't have stories and lessons to share, people who don't have their own opinions and aspirations of their own. Perhaps if everyone focused less on the negativity that Vietnamese women as a whole suffer from and focus more on the individual woman and her personal story, their living conditions, like all of these research and speculation, would become less based in academia and theories and more on actions and application.
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I thought this was a very interesting post, because it made me think about a major issue with people's perceptions of women's studies in general. I think there is often a fine line between portraying women as victims, and simply trying to make people aware of women's issues by telling the truth about what is occurring. Que Chi provides a good example of how the media influences the way in which an entire group of women are portrayed. I think we need to put pressure on the media, and the publications we read to not only publish things which victimize women, but also show women in a way which highlights their strength.
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