A queer feminist anthropologist exploring the realities of culture, gender, and sexuality in contemporary Asia
Contrary to (mainly western) feminist paradigms, for Chinese women the advent of birth control is not automatically synonymous with “freedom”. Within the collective cultural memory, family planning holds the cultural weight of painful state control, as legislation to reduce family sizes in the early Maoist period was enforced through forceful means.
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw can be found at the British Embassy, working for the Department for International Development (DFID) in Yangon from 9-5, and leading her own dressmaking start-up, Virya Couture, on 39th Street every evening, juggling two completely different careers but pursuing one dream. Pyone spans sectors while securing rights for her fellow women [...]
They refuse to use femidoms because they are too big to swallow. In a raid, sex workers will swallow any condoms they have on their person, because condoms (used or unused) will be used as hard evidence by the police.
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw can be found at the British Embassy, working for the Department for International Development (DFID) in Yangon from 9-5, and leading her own dressmaking start-up, Virya Couture, on 39th Street every evening, juggling two completely different careers but pursuing one dream. Pyone spans sectors while securing rights for her fellow women [...]
Inspired by her grandmother’s deathbed confession of being sold to a brothel, Lijia Zhang injects her cutting social criticism into her first novel, Lotus. The book delves deep into the sex industry in contemporary Shenzhen, following a young migrant woman, Lotus, who is eager to escape her life as a prostitute.
Inspired by her grandmother’s deathbed confession of being sold to a brothel, Lijia Zhang injects her cutting social criticism into her first novel, Lotus. The book delves deep into the sex industry in contemporary Shenzhen, following a young migrant woman, Lotus, who is eager to escape her life as a prostitute. A strong believer in [...]
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw is a Rakhine Burmese woman who works for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Yangon, and runs her own dressmaking start-up in her spare time. As the founder and head designer at Virya Couture, she teaches vocational skills to underprivileged women, helping them overcome poverty.
If I got pregnant or had children before I got married? I would get shame, and my parents wouldn’t call me their daughter.
Some people love her because she’s Aung San’s daughter. Most people love her because of what she’s done. I don’t care about who she is; it depends on what she’s done.
I tried to tell my parents about how great my boyfriend was. My mom said, “no, but he is not Chinese.”
Zhēn de Gender 