A review of studies on masculinities in Vietnam

1. A review of studies on masculinities in Vietnam  Vu Hong Phong, Department of Sociology, University of Essex METHODS • Identifying key terms Vietnam, men, masculinity, masculinities, gender, women, and their possible combinations • Searching for published articles Paper-based articles in library and electronic articles in Web of Science, EBSCOhost, JSTOR, etc. • Looking for ‘types’ of men and ‘types’ of analyses in the literature RESULTS Negative masculinities • The Kinh man (who accounts for 90% of a population of 86 millions); Young man; Living in cities or flat rural areas • The unfaithful man and HIV/AIDS • The risky/abnormal/gay man and HIV/AIDS • The violent man RESULTS BACKGROUND Since the middle of 1980s, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has allowed the development of a market oriented economy, characterized by a fast growth of private sector in many areas, such as healthcare, education, entertainment, work. Many studies have focused on impacts of social changes on gender relations and gender identity. • ‘Confucianism and Social changes’ analysis • Stress of the importance family lineage, sons • Social changes, more women than men lose their jobs • Women are pushed back to family, where Confucianism force them to obey men, they are vulnerable to domestic violence • Used to explain the ‘Violent Man’ • ‘Exposure to globalization’ analysis • Increasing exposure to ‘western’s culture and value through easy access to TV, movies, internet • Plenty of choice of being a man are available • Used to explain the ‘Gay Man’ • ‘Commercialization of masculinity’ analysis • Increasing number of marketing techniques that use women’s sexuality to attract male clients • Social attitudes toward commercial sex become more liberal • Used to explain ‘The Unfaithful Man’ • Wife = ‘Rice’, Sweetheart/Sex worker= Noodles “Rice is essential but tiresome ! You should get some noodles!’ (Phinney 2008) OBJECTIVE • To describe images of Vietnamese masculinities in contemporary social science literature • To describe different types of arguments/analyses on Vietnamese masculinities employed by researchers/authors Different choices of being a person Forces that make one choice more acceptable than others Neglected masculinities • Men of ethnic minorities, old men, men living in mountainous areas • Good man (non-risky, non-violent, faithful) • Masculinities as propagandized by the State Absent Propagandized Masculinities ‘Soft’ masculinity: young men making up ! CONCLUSIONS • Heavily influenced by public health, focused mainly on negative aspects of masculinities, heavily constructed by foreigners! • Health need of men not classified as ‘risky’ is forgotten • Public health needs ‘the risky man’ to call for support • Images of Vietnamese men in English literature are biased unless studies written by Vietnamese scholars in Vietnamese are included in the analysis ‘Hard’ masculinity! 1966 1976 2006 Masculinity at War: ‘Vietnamese Naval Forces are determined to beat American invaders!’ A heroic laborer Masculinity after war: hardworking, devoting Entrepreneur Today’s masculinity: economic success, creative For additional information please contact: Vu Hong Phong Room 6.346, Department of Sociology University of Essex E-mail address: hpvu@essex.ac.uk ‘Gay’: a new choice of being man !