Asia

Find articles here relating to different issues, cultures and people on the continent of Asia, home to 48 countries, or about people of Asian descent around the world.

The Pornification of War in Ukraine

PUBLISHED 3/30/2022 by and

The trending of #Ukraine on porn sites is only a recent development of an age-old misogyny, as old as warfare itself.

Research shows that habitual users of online porn seek ever more explicit and graphic images in order to sustain the same level of arousal. This partly explains the uptick in searches for pornographic videos of Ukrainian women after the invasion. It also accounts for the horrifying genres known as “refugee porn” and “war porn.” These videos link sex with desperation and violence. But not just any violence will do. The user is mainly interested in videos that feature the utter degradation of women and girls.

The Power of Women in Iran, Standing Up to the Morality Police

PUBLISHED 3/28/2022 by

I was 16, on a trip to visit my family in Iran, when I was stopped and arrested by two morality guards. They plucked me off the street, loaded me into their car, and took me to the local station. My crime? I had my hair uncovered, showing it to their male gaze.

I still remember the searing mix of emotions that is familiar to millions of Iranian women who are arrested every year for this “offense.” But now, through social media, mobile apps, weblogs and websites, a growing movement of Iranian women are actively participating in public discourse and exercising their civil rights on the internet, which the patriarchal and misogynistic government has not yet figured out how to completely censor and control.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Attacks on Women in Elected Office Ramp Up; Why’d Equal Pay Day Come a Week Early This Year?

PUBLISHED 3/18/2022 by

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.

This week: the growing pro-woman movement in South Korea; read a full transcript and listen to the recordings from the inaugural Democracy Solutions Summit hosted by RepresentWomen last week; women’s rights and a healthy democracy are linked; attacks on women in elected office are becoming all too frequent; why Equal Pay Day for women fell more than a week earlier than last year; and more.

Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

PUBLISHED 3/11/2022 by
Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

In Ukraine, once again, the rules of conscription and refuge are following a familiar pattern: Men to the front, women and children to shelter, inside and outside the country. This highlights how conventional our expectations still are when it comes to war.

Now is the time to insist on gender equality at any future or current negotiating tables and centering the voices of those who have been most directly affected by conflict. But the proponents of feminist foreign policies also need to ensure that an understanding of the gendered implications of this conflict informs the policies that are pursued today.

The Movie Star and Madame Salon: The Friendship of Anna May Wong and Bernardine Szold Fritz

PUBLISHED 3/3/2022 by

In the mid-1930s, Anna May Wong was Hollywood’s preeminent Asian American starlet frustrated by a racist film industry. She connected with Bernardine Szold Fritz, a Jewish American writer and American salon hostess in Shanghai.

Today, 100 years after Anna May starred in her first leading role, The Toll of the Sea, stereotypes and casting white actors for Asian roles are still all too prevalent. Outside Hollywood, the U.S. is just beginning to recognize her groundbreaking achievements—Anna May Wong will be one of five American women to be featured on a U.S. quarter this year. It’s a start.

March 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us

PUBLISHED 3/2/2022 by
March 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. March and April are historically big months for new book releases, and this year is no exception. I’ve narrowed down a list of hundreds of books to 36 this month. In addition to some compelling fiction, there’s imperative nonfiction, memoirs and debuts. 

Telemedicine Abortion Provider Rebecca Gomperts Gets Abortion Pills Into the Hands of Those Who Need Them: ‘It’s a Privilege’

PUBLISHED 2/23/2022 by

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, Dutch physician and medication abortion pioneer, has a long history of working to provide abortion pills in countries with barriers to abortion healthcare. Whether through the mail, on a ship or via drone, Gomperts has continued to find creative ways to get pills into the hands of those who need them.

“It’s really a privilege to be able to do it. It’s empowering for me, as well as for the people using the service. And it’s also empowering for the doctors to join the service. I think everybody really feels very excited about it.”