Affiliation:
1. Psychology Program Fulbright University Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
2. School of Psychology The University of Auckland Auckland New Zealand
Abstract
AbstractPositivity discourses targeting women have become a global phenomenon. A body of literature has responded to criticise their potential to psychologise and depoliticise efforts to achieve gender equality. The purpose of this review is to analyse this critiques' literature, which mostly focuses on the Western context, to better understand the phenomenon and how its analysis might be applied to a non‐Western context, in this case Vietnam. As a group of scholars based in Vietnam, we have observed a similar set of positivity discourses emerge in the country over the last 10 years. Despite its grounding in a Western context, we argue that the critique's literature and its theoretical interpretations, when situated differences are considered, are useful for analysing the emergence of this phenomenon in Vietnam. The review provides insights for social psychologists wishing to engage with questions on women's subjectivity in a global context.