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Helle Rydtröm. Foto.

Helle Rydström

Professor

Helle Rydtröm. Foto.

Masculinity and Punishment: Men's Upbringing of Boys in Rural Vietnam

Author

  • Helle Rydström

Summary, in English

This article examines men's use of physical punishment when interacting with their sons or grandsons in rural Vietnam. By drawing on two periods of anthropological fieldwork in a northern Vietnamese commune, the article analyses the ways in which violence is informed by, while also perpetually reinforcing, a masculine discourse. Vietnam has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in this spirit virtually all men in the local community disapprove of the use of physical punishment when bringing up boys. However, a father or grandfather occasionally beats his son or grandson when it is deemed necessary to instil discipline in a boy. The article elucidates the ways in which the contradictions between ideals of nonviolent behaviour and actual corporal punishment have fed the construction of certain codes regarding men's beating of boys.

Department/s

  • Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

329-348

Publication/Series

Childhood

Volume

13

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Other Social Sciences

Keywords

  • masculinity
  • Vietnam
  • gender
  • violence

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0907-5682