Fabby S.

For my first blog I watched Professor Bui’s lecture. She started out by telling us she studied how we know what we know about people, and how we view bodies- race and gender. This is very general because she actually focused on Vietnamese women and how they are viewed by the world.

In the beginning of the lecture she mentions that we do not really hear what Vietnam women have to say about their situations and how they feel. They have been tortured and brain washed leading them to become prostitutes during and after the Vietnam war. I do not find her statement about the Vietnam women keeping quiet because I have learned that this is something they are supposed to do. The men are superior and the women should follow everything they do and say. Since birth the woman are raised not to speak out of line. I think that is one factor of the problem. Let us compare it to American women. At a certain time the American women were just like the Vietnam women; they followed their husbands or fathers and listened to everything they said. Women in America had barely any rights until they went through suffrage. If the Vietnam women stood up for what they believed in and were tortured for that rather than being raped by army men they can gain or come closer to equality just like the American women.

One thing slightly irrelevant that I want to touch on is Professor Bui’s mention of the movie Heaven on Earth. She mentioned at one point in the movie when the Vietnamese woman came to America with her American Soldier she notices the giant fridge filled with food. Although it is a comedic part of the movie I find it very significant. Americans take what they have for granted. They have fridges filled with food and receive and education, yet they “hate their lives.” Us, Americans, do not know how good we have it. The Vietnamese girl was shocked when she saw the fridge filled with food because she immediately thought of all the hungry people in Vietnam.

Towards the end of the lecture Professor Bui tells us about 0her experience when she went and studied in Vietnam. She informed us that people thought she was a prostitute and began chasing her around and public places stopped serving her. They take advantage of the women yet treat them like “dead bodies.” The entire situation and reality is horrible. Not to mention these are limited stories that we are informed of are probably not nearly as bad as the loads of stories we are not aware of.