Caitlin F.

Professor Diem's lecture discussed how we value Asian women's bodies. She began her research through feminist film analysis, addressing three Vietnamese  war films in particular. She choose films that came out between the 1900s and early 2000s, because the US and Vietnam had such a hostile relationship during this time. These films represent Vietnamese women as national and transitional subjects. Women's bodies exemplify authenticity of Vietnam prior to war, colonization and advanced globalization.

The first film Heaven & Earth shows women being tortured, raped, and acting as prostitutes. This romanticized view of the past suggests Vietnam women are peaceful before war and now have become submissive and in a sense useless. The film uses the female body as a narrative device to further the story of the refugee, being a myth of model minority. I have never seen this female prior to watching this lecture and would have never thought the Vietnamese women are testifying the countries current standing.

Professor Diem suggests that through film we make Vietnamese women bodies more legible through commodified stories. As she talked about the film '3 Seasons' she explains that a prostitute being passed from man to man is metaphorically a view of Vietnams current social standing. Vietnam is getting invaded by numerous countries at the time, yet they still survive in the end. The representation of culture and society change forsakes immorality of prostitution.

The way Prof. Diem conducted her research was rather unique. The films all looked to the future, while at the same time looked back into the past to represent Authentic Vietnam, through Vietnamese women's bodies. She mentioned when she was in a bar and was portrayed as a prostitute and how differently she was treated (she couldn't even get a cup of water). From her experience she concluded that an object identify can construct counter narrative orientalism.

I personally have never been mistaken for a prostitute, but have had many occurrences where I have felt womanized. The media and certain movies portrays women as sexual products. Society than believes women are a product of media. The feeling you get when a man looks you up and down makes you feel bewidled and beneath them.