Culture, Politics and Identity: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This article discusses some critical readings of theoretical texts on gender in Southeast Asian countries, where the intersections of past and present, of the global and the local, capitalism, post-colonialism and post-modernism define the guidelines to explore the negotiation and evolution of gender concepts. Gender issues are located not only within structures of symbolic meaning, but also in relation to the historical and political forces that have marked a plurality of post-colonial contexts, where local notions about gender (in)equality and complementarity are constantly evolving. This article claims that the previously silenced narratives of non-Western women must be given a new role and status, in a modern transnational, interdisciplinary cultural grid. Narratives of everyday common life create spaces of empathy, and consequently, projects of action and research will be conducted in order to obtain concrete and useful results. However, many narratives of the everyday practice are actually stories of violence, a type of discourse generated by extreme poverty, substantial inequality and daily contact with terror. In addition, this article also analyses the role played by female characters in the building of the nation’s narrative, both in colonial and post-colonial times, with its enduring stereotypes, dichotomies and metaphors of power.

Televised minority beauties

“…Doubts surrounding the degree of integration with other ethnic groups and the visible absence of the ethnic Indian or Malay counterparts, who are often personified with women in the hijab (Mutalib, 2012), are often causes for concern in multiracial Singapore. Observing how gender is treated in Southeast Asia, Sarmento writes: ‘Patriarchal discursive productions often resort to stereotypes and metaphor associated with women like honour, respectability, victimization, maternality, protection and care, thus gendering the mother-nation, as if it were a fragile imaginary female entity.’ (Sarmento, 2012: 451). A similar trait echoes in postcolonial Singapore.…”

A narrative review of Asian female travellers: looking into the future through the past

“…Limited archival records have captured the experience of Southeast Asian women travelling in the past, because travel in this part of the world was not considered a pleasure but a necessary undertaking, such as travel for trade, labour, war, and pilgrimage, until the late nineteenth century (Winichakul, 2000). Moreover, the voices of Southeast Asian women have been largely silenced by history (Sarmento, 2012), which may further explain the scant female travel records. Until today, Southeast Asians have been commonly regarded as 'immobile pre-modern participants of western tourism' (Alneng, 2002, p. 119).…”