Huýt sáo không phải trò đùa

Drawing on theories of sexual violence prevention, women change agents from Vietnam and Australia collaborated with a Vietnamese television station to create a documentary investigating gender-based violence prevention efforts in Australia and Vietnam. This investigation provides the platform for the documentary focus on an awareness raising campaign about sexual harassment in Vietnam, in particular the largely publicly unacknowledged issue of sexual harassment on Vietnamese university campuses and the need for preventive action. Feminist theory and praxis shaped the way this collaborative and participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) and Communications for Development (C4D) project approached and addressed the investigation.

The project afforded women change agents with the opportunity to purposefully lead in the identification and challenging of harmful gender norms that impact sexual harassment. These contributions offer valuable new insights into sexual harassment in Vietnam, which are shared via the creative outcome of the documentary Huýt sáo không phải trò đùa (Catcalling isn’t a joke). They also contribute new insights and particularities to the body of knowledge around Vietnamese women’s resistance to sexual harassment, collaborations on sexual violence prevention across cultures and different socio-political contexts, and opportunities for the prevention of sexual harassment on university campuses in Vietnam.