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One aspect of society I always keep an eye out for is the role and place of women where ever I may be traveling at the time. As I noted about Singapore, women there seem to have the best lot in all of East Asia, even Japan and South Korea. As for Vietnam, well here is what I wrote in my journal back on the 12th of November:
I wonder what the status of women is here in Vietnam? I see many working, but I haven't seen any but one running a restaurant. Normally the restaurants, or the front part of it is where the food is prepared and served. The back half is where the family lives. The women, I assume because I don't see them, are cooking while the men take the orders and the money. The women, usually young women, late teens, early twenties, serve the food and the disappear. Obviously this is a porr anecdote to generalize from so I will wait and see what it's like in Saigon before pontificating any more.
What I've seen in Saigon has done little to alter my first impressions. All the restaurants are the same. So are the hotels, except for the one I am staying in, as one young lady seems to be the manager. As a general rule, the women do menial, shit work. Sometimes I'll see an older women running a kiosk or bodega, but that's only because her husband is sitting in the shade drinking beer with his buddies.
When I visited a government office for visa reasons what I saw was pretty much the same. The women, all young, do the menial work and the men sit around, collect the money, boss them around and pretty much seem useless. There are no women police, as I've seen in South Korea and Singapore. And there are tons and tons of them that fills the bars at night, 'bar girls' is what they are called. But that's just a euphemism. They don't have any formalized representation in what passes for Vietnam's parliament, either. The only woman I know who's managed some national respect and success is the architect of the Crazy House in Da Lat. She has an interesting story. Her name is Hang Nga and her father was president of Vietnam in the early 80s. That goes a long way towards explaining the opportunities she's had. But still, she's an accomplished architect and she's earned the respect of her countrymen. It's a start, I suppose.
All in all, I fear the lot of women here in Vietnam is not very good. Job opportunities don't seem to be particularly fulfilling, nor do they pay very well. There are tons of pregnant women here in Vietnam and loads and loads of infants and young children everywhere. In that sense it is a healthy society, but I prefer to see women in places of real influence. Singapore, in my opinion, is the model for East Asian women to aspire too. Let's hope the future is better for the women here. They certainly deserve better.
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Comments: 37
In the eye of this beholder, nook wasn't necessarily nook, and availability didn't translate into activity. I thought of women constantly, but I thought of American women, and couldn’t convert those thoughts into Vietnamese. It wasn't easy for me to like, much less feel lust for Vietnamese women. The lack of a common language and profound cultural differences made communication difficult. Their language was impossible to understand and admittedly I wasn't very trusting of their ethnic group. I found red-mouthed, betel-chewing village women un-stimulating and mini-skirted bar whores nauseating. There wasn’t much between the extremes.
In Vietnam, women weren’t considered the fairer sex nor culturally relegated to second-class status. Vietnam's long history included frequent praise for women as warriors. Shortly after the death of Jesus, the Trung sisters led a successful military campaign to oust the occupying Chinese. Their victory turned out to be short-lived, but the sisters were martyred like saints and forever glorified in legend. Women were common in the Viet Cong ranks and often served as combatants. One of the more infamous enemy snipers in the Cu Chi area of the Iron Triangle was a woman who commanded a female platoon. Her notoriety came at the expense of too many GIs, including tunnel rats. Cu Chi was the heaviest-tunneled area in the country giving her plenty of concealed locations from which to shoot. I loathed her skills but will always remember her for the three GIs whom she chose not to kill.
Excellent and esp Ron's comment.
Ron, were you one of the three?
Regardless, they may seem superficial, but I'd submit to you that any country that has the kind of prostitution problem like the one in Vietnam, and when I say they are everywhere, I mean everywhere, that's likely to be a country that doesn't provide much in the way of opportunity for women.
As for the idea that women in Muslim countries stay inside by choice, well, that's hogwash. I'm sure there are some that do, but when I was in Iran I met ore young women who hated the way they were treated in a most visceral way. Second class citizens in a huge way.
And as for the idea that the 'heavenly orifice' enslaves us all, I'd simply say that it probably dooms a lot more women to shitty lives than it does men.
Years later, while being interviewed for a foreign-television documentary, she recalled watching a GI walk into a clearing followed by two more. She watched as they sat on their helmets and began reading mail from home. She saw one of the soldiers start to weep, and two others soon joined him. While observing them, she was moved by their obvious emotional pain and she too could relate to missing loved ones as well as feeling homesick. Her hatred of GIs was well known but as she watched, the American soldiers became human to her and she chose not to kill them. Her decision led to a brief inquiry, and her comrades teased her about getting soft, but knew better. War presents unusually barren emotional ground, and human feelings don’t often take root there.
Looking forward to hearing more of your own opinions and observations including the women:)
Ron, fascinating stories. Thanks.
BTW, I recommend the book "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" by Le Ly Hayslip. It's a fascinating autobiography of a Vietnamese woman.
Wishing you a wonderful, magical, thankful, Thanksgiving holiday season...
Angel
Ron, thank you for your story.
Blessings and good luck - S.