We live in a time where our advanced technology allows us to journey to places that we've never seen before or see events in time that we weren't around for. This is after all the draw for technologies such as the televisions and the motion picture. This type of media allows us to formulate opinions about those things that we can't get to ourselves. And of course whatever opinions that we may form will be 100% correct...right?
In Professor Diem-My T. Bui's lecture, "She's the Real Thing:"
Filming the Nostalgic Past through Vietnamese Women, she focuses on "how
knowledge is produced by popular culture, everyday interactions, and policy
(foreign and domestic)." Basically, she wanted to know how we know what we know
about other people and how we value those people once we know about them. By
researching three films made during the reconciliation period between Vietnam
and America (Heaven and Earth, 1993; Three Seasons, 1999; and The QuietAmerican, 2002) Professor Bui discovered that through their representation
as bodies of sex, the Vietnamese woman's body was being used to symbolize a
"romanticized" Vietnam (pre-war) that in reality never existed. Although
these representations stem from a beautifully fabricated past, they have very
real consequences. 
In class we have discussed perception and framing and how they play a role in our everyday communication. According to Professor Bui’s findings, Vietnamese women had to be portrayed as victimized human beings in order for an American audience to connect. In the first movie she discussed, Heaven and Earth, the female lead was victimized: she was separated from her family, raped, and abused. However, she still came out of it a success and made it to America to start anew. This character fit what Professor Bui called the refugee narrative. This portrays Vietnamese women as hard workers with persevering spirits and tacks on a positive stereotype of being the “model minority.” However, even if this particular stereotype of Vietnamese women is positive, it is not always correct and incorrect stereotypes can hinder our desire to fully understand a group of people and therefore hinder communication—which is a consequence.
The other films that Professor Bui discussed represented the Vietnamese woman as a submissive and sexual being (prostitute). Prostitute is not as admirable a label as “model minority.” Professor Bui had an experience where a businessman approached her in the club assuming that she was a prostitute because she is Vietnamese. His schema, being fed by the stimuli—the movies that portray Vietnamese women as prostitutes—guided his behavior and told him how to react towards Vietnamese women.
At the end of her lecture, Professor Bui talked about some performance artists that are spreading the message that Vietnamese women are of more value than just sexual bodies. It is good to know that there are Vietnamese women fighting for a change in how they are viewed.
The movie in our minds repeats over and over again. If we don’t have the courage to change the film, incorrect representations become reality.
Sources:
Pictures: https://www.google.com/search
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDbCTqCHMo
So many of the stereotypes and perceptions that we have of people today are directly influenced from the images we see and as you said how these images are framed. Not only does it happen in the movies we watch or the television shows we see, but it most often happens on our local and national news programing. One of the biggest offenders is the Fox News Network who are openly biased towards liberals but they also perpetuate stereotypes. I agree that it's a good thing Vietnamese women are fighting to change the misconceptions that people have about them. That's the only way the truth of their reality can be told, through their voice.
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