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New Century, a nightclub here in Hanoi is known to be populated by what Vietnamese people refer to as Ca Ve, or prostitutes.  Today, CIEE as an entirety took a trip to New Century in hopes of paying prostitutes for their time to talk about their line of work and the impacts of society in their choices of such a path.  In the light of prostitution, the workers are always shunned down upon, and deemed immoral.  My initial thoughts paralleled the general consensus and I also believed that there is always a choice not to choose such an immoral, shameless path.  But these thoughts and beliefs rooted from the society’s general conception of what prostitution is and the occupation’s workers.  Prior to this quite remarkable, mind bobbling confrontation, never have I spoken with a prostitute.

Three women in their 20s agreed to be paid their general fee for customers to speak to the entire group about their line of work.  It definitely takes courage to be able to speak openly about a work they consider as not moral by any means.  I have to give it to them there for being that brave to agree to such a confrontation.  Vietnam, as a developing nation, has many inequities which force people to resort to lines of work they might not find preferential to them just to earn a buck or two to put food on the table, to pay for a roof above their head, and clothes on their body.  Most of these individuals who are cornered against the wall work extremely low paying jobs such as garbage pickers, xe om drivers, or other unregulated jobs.  Working such low paying jobs can barely allow a family of two or more to survive.  It is quite difficult to be living by unregulated unstable wages.  Thus arises the question, should women who face such a consequence and choose the path of prostitution be immediately Scarlet Lettered by society?  Of course the line of work, in my own view, is unethical and other jobs can be done to support the family.  I personally respect humans more who will work the garbage picker jobs and struggle much more with income than a one who takes an unethical way out, but it is a very hard situation to judge.  I am a privileged Vietnamese-American and probably can never grasp the toils of these women.  What I must look at is the bigger picture:  the extremely large economic gap between the rich and poor and the unequal opportunities of those who do not have the means to produce a bright future.  After taking that into consideration, and through the conversations with these women, a much different perspective has opened my eyes to the societal situation of women, economy, and prostitution.

Yen, Lan Anh, and the third who’s name I cannot remember all resort to prostitution in order to support their child out of wedlock.  The father of their child has left them and money is the key issue.  All three expressed that they choose this line of work to support their child and secure a financial stable future for their child.   They stated that there was no other choice if they wanted to support their family, so they resort to this type of work.  The one whose name I cannot remember seemed somewhat indirectly defensive on the issue of character and morals; that she still possessed them despite her forced line of work.  I cannot speak on the behalf of others, but for me, the issue that arises is if one can still maintain positive character after working such a job?  To me it seemed that there was absolutely no shame whatsoever that they were selling their bodies to men.  But I definitely sympathized with them.  But to go back to the question of maintaining character and working such a line of work, is it possible?  I really cannot answer that.

Continuing working as a Ca Ve seemed like a temporary job until enough capital is gained to secure a sound future for them and their child.  They adamantly expressed that they do not enjoy selling their bodies for money, and in the future, will never let their child know what they did.  Through such answers, it seems to me that they truly do believe that prostitution is not an ethical route to take but due to the economic inequalities of Vietnam, that’s the route that has been chosen.  A few of the other CIEE students asked quite interesting questions.  They follow, as to how precise my memory is I am not 100%.

1.  Have you ever fallen in love with a customer?

A mixed response.  From one, she stated yes.  The other no.  I was quite shocked when one said she had fallen in love with one of her customers.  I thought it was quite ridiculous that one can fall in love with a man who is paying and using them for sexual necessities.  But after pondering on the topic for some time, I could understand why one might fall for their customers.  It seemed that their relationship with men had not been a positive one, especially when they are left with a child out of wedlock to take care of on their own.  It is a possibility because of abuse, maltreatment, or bad relationship experiences have caused them to seek out comfort, kindness, and whoever is warm to them.  Thus, customers who in fact are kind to these women, perhaps they take this as something they’ve never experienced before and look beyond the actual service and exploitation of themselves for sex, and see this man who is treating them well as love.  My view does not necessarily coincide with this situation, but I am more understanding of the situation.

2.  Does your family know about what type of work you are doing and what are their reactions?  

Both parents know about their line of work, but other people within the family do not.  Many of the families are in the countryside, poverty-stricken and view making money as the most important issue, and not the possible consequences of prostitution.  

I just learned today, after typing this blog post in the last two days that two of the prostitutes could have been lying.  According to one of them, who spoke to a few of the fluent Vietnamese speakers, she stated that a lot of the things coming out of the mouths of the other two were complete fallacies.  I was quite shocked but at the same time could understand why they would lie.  Why would you reveal everything to a bunch of curious students?  But at the same time, perhaps the third was saying what she did just to not lose face.  But more than likely, I believe her.  According to her, the other two do in fact have a child at home, and one uses heroine.  I can sympathize with women who seem to be forced into this line of work, but not those who are forced into it and become addicted to heroine, a quite harmful drug to say the least.  If one has a child at home, use the money you make to support the child, not fucking shoot up. 

One of the other CIEE students made an interesting comment about perspective.  If you move away from the general cultural norms of sex as an attachment to intimacy or love, then you can understand perhaps why they do the work they do.  Perhaps they actually do not couple love and sex together and strictly views what they do as a job and a way of making money.  Because the U.S. views sex and love as a group, it is hard to attempt to even understand why prostitutes do the work they do.  Maybe we are in fact the fools looking down upon them because we are bound to such cultural views, and they are looking at us, laughing.  But of course, that’s just another perspective. 

 

Essentially, at the end of the entire process, my feelings are mixed.  What do you all think?

Until next time.

Tran, Quy-Hac.

 

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