I couldn’t help but notice the contradiction in the article about the Thai women. They chose to be sex workers so they would be able to be free of marriage and men but at the same time their only source of income are men. One of them even contemplated marrying a Japanese man and paying him for it so she could stay in Japan. For me the question is now what is worse, marrying at home and not be able to live a “western life-style” or going to Japan and making this life-style at least for your family possible while selling your body. Some of the mothers of those women even seem to request the last option. This is what I found really shocking: a mother that talks her daughter into selling her body so she herself could live a better life. On the other hand this is what defines Asian culture; the children have to take care of the older people. I also doubt that those women really have a choice. They might have one at the beginning of their “career” because nobody tells them that they must do it but I highly doubt that they have other options as they keep on doing their job since they are in debt or have to work for protection by the yakuza.
Sadly but true the fact about the pregnancy tests for women in Mexico didn’t shock me at all. I figured that if women are asked about their intention of getting pregnant in western countries it would be worse in other countries. I think this is comparable to other differences between men and women such as the gender wage gap. In my opinion the only possible way to work against something like that would be to put big companies even more in the spotlight and therefore under pressure with the help of the media since most people out there don’t even know that something like that exists.
November 23, 2009 at 9:05 pm |
The difficultly for me is understanding the context of these choices – often called “bounded choices” because while people are able to make a choice, it is within such limited options that it is also hard to consider them choices in the way that others can make choices. It’s difficult to know what to think – how would I react if I were between a rock and a hard place and had to make a choice? I am not a full victim because I am able to *choose* – rock vs. hard place. However, how isn’t one a victim if one’s only choices are rock and hard place?