Views on Vietnamese Women

Professor Bui lectured about her research about the view of Vietnamese women. Being part Vietnamese this topic captured my interest because I have a totally different view on Vietnamese women than other people.

Professor Bui lectured about a lot of things we learned in class like stereotypes and framing. The first thought when people mention a Vietnamese woman is that they were prostitutes and submissive. Professor Bui really brought this stereotype out when she talked about her experiences in Vietnam. Men would try to solicit sex out of her and degrade her. This surprised me because what I’ve grown up knowing about Vietnamese women is entirely different from what other people think about Vietnamese women. I grew up learning the positive stereotypes of Vietnamese women from my Vietnamese parents. Some of the positive stereotypes that I learned was that they were hard worker, and very respectful. The negative stereotypes that Professor Bui mentions, I didn’t learn until I start going to school or hanging out with my other white friends. My mom who grew up during the Vietnam War had a different outlook on Vietnamese women and she passed those outlooks onto me. She would briefly mention the horror of the Vietnam War but she would never mention the negative stereotypes of Vietnamese women. Instead she would just keep mentioning that they were hard worker and very respectable people, trap in a time of war. So I was surprised when I first found out that there were negative stereotypes on Vietnamese woman.

Another thing that we learned in class the Professor Bui was talking about is framing. All of movies that Professor Bui mention or talked about dealt with Vietnamese women being prostitute during the Vietnam War and would have sex with the American soldiers. Professor Bui talked about how the soldiers would have wives at home but they would often come to Vietnam to sleep with the prostitute. The movies gave the American people the frame of which they thought of Vietnamese women. When American thinks of Vietnamese Women they not only think about the negative stereotypes but also their framing which was help with the media. The media did not mention any positive stereotypes of Vietnamese women. They only focus on them being prostitute which made it salience. So when most people mention Vietnamese woman they would automatic think that they are prostitutes and submissive because of their framing.