Thanh-Dam Truong: 'Human beings will always find ways to resist social oppression.'

Thanh-Dam Truong is one of the members of the Opening Panel 'Situating Feminisms in Europe today. She was one of the first scholars to write an academic analysis on sex tourism. Daily Visions asked her how she would situate feminism.


By Karoline Kemp

'I see the Women’s Movement, Her-Stories and turning points as a deep ocean, much of which has not yet surfaced. Sometimes referred to as waves, I have seen many strands of feminism. But to me they are still movements only at the surface.
To name and frame these waves is difficult. Instead I try to understand the deeper currents that make the waves and their impact on people lives. Goran Therborn. a Swedish scholar, once wrote that we have had a neoliberal tsunami over the last 30 years. There are many different waves, including feminism, that move along this current. He saw this 'tsunami' as inevitable because the old paradigm of social reforms was no longer functional. The question is what is next? This is where we can learn from lessons of the past to envisage a future.'

So, then how can we be feminists today in Europe?
'Well, this is a difficult question, because it presupposes that we know what “feminism” is and who “feminists are”. I would rather reformulate the question and ask: What set of feminist values are relevant to Europe today, why, and what makes these values attractive to people as compared to other sets of values? But this is a big question. I am not sure if I can give a fair answer.
Feminism is a form of consciousness; it evolves, unfolds itself and extends to many realms of human life. Consciousness is about self-knowledge and knowledge of others through exposure, and about the struggle against many internal mental and emotional barriers, or layers and layers of beliefs, some of which are prejudicial, that have settled in ourselves throughout our lives. This journey is very personal and I think it may be counter-productive to set norms of “being a feminist” as an identity set in stone. There is a difference between “being a feminist” as a public image, and “being a feminist” as a journey of self-discovery which has implications for our actions.'

Can we build a common feminist movement in Europe?
'Feminist movements in Europe have had a long trajectory, dating back to the Middle Age. Running the risk of idealizing the past, I would say they were different streams that converged together to make a big wave. How they converge depends on the specific aspects of a historical context. Disruptions have occurred for different reasons, war, differences of political ideology and alliances with broader causes. So the question to me is not “can we built a common feminist movement”, but more about whether it is possible to find a common set of issues and principles to act together effectively at this historical juncture. And how to maintain a distinctive autonomy of individuals and groups without causing friction with others.'
'Feminism will always exist in different forms so long as social inequality persists in value systems, systems of thinking and social relations. I discovered a book many years ago, I forget the title, about women under patriarchal rule in ancient China, and how they developed their own language to communicate with each other and help each other. Human beings everywhere are creative and will always find ways to resist social oppression. The future for feminism depends much on how its ideas and visions can be made relevant to people who suffer from complex systems of oppression and inequality, not exclusively gender inequality. As our lives become more affected by global relationships, such complexity is likely to be intensified rather than simplified.'

What can we learn from South East Asian Feminism?
'I am not sure if I can comment on this, since I have lived in Europe for 3 decades now; therefore my engagement in that part of the world is more indirect than direct. At the risk of making an inappropriate statement, I think that in this part of the world, many feminist activities depend very much on external funding, and are generally not free from domestic politics. So I think the issue of steering domestic issues with the conditionalities imposed by external funding organisations is one of the greatest challenges. External funding organisations may have a global agenda, but in actual reality they rarely escape the political repertoire of the countries where they are based. Harmonizing interests and responsibility on both ends to redress the injustice suffered by particular groups seems to be something that we can all learn from. But this issue is beyond South East Asia.'


This article has been published in Daily Visions 08-10-2008