There are many exciting things happening at Fulbright, including initiatives for a Gender & Sexuality Studies minor and creating more space to discuss gender more generally. Last month, Fulbright’s Vietnam Studies Center and Vietnam Women’s Publishing House organized an event (headed by one of our seniors Nguyen Minh Tien) that hosted Drs. Kelly Nguyen (Classics, UCLA) and Nguyen Thi Minh (Department of Vietnamese Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education).

One thing I took away from this event is how much patriarchal systems can cloud the way we interpret experiences (not only in literature), often in the service of those systems. Nguyen Du’s The Tale of Kieu is thus one prime example to see that in action as well as offer alternative perspectives. Reading Kieu in competition with the other women in the narrative, as the only and ideal woman who is noble or virtuous, and always in relation to men in heteronormative contexts are ways that we might frame “female empowerment” yet reify patriarchal standards. What would instead be transgressive is the solidarity and camaraderie between Kieu and Hoan Thu, creating space for ambivalent experiences such as jealousy AND compassion. Personally, I think that is more reflective of human experiences. Or, perhaps thinking about Kieu being in love with love, and not just Kim Trong, which valorizes her love for the other women and herself.

In addition to the brilliant exposés given by our presenters, it was also a good reminder of the ways we can be complicit in those systems when we wish to be legible, when we prioritize solutions and outcomes that are rewarded in our capitalist society, etc. The way then that we transgress is to support other women and their voices, and I was extremely grateful to have gotten a chance to moderate the event and learn from my fellow women colleagues.