Didn’t European and American cultures regularly devalue women and treat them as property? Why is this not considered relevant today, whereas “historical” sexism from Chinese culture is considered still up-to-date?

This is a classic case of people seeing what they want to make their point.

And to be fair, some Chinese people do it to their own as much as nosy reporters do. I can recall in 2008 when the Communist Party said that “The Chinese People reject Tibetan splittism and know that the Dalai Lama is an evil jackal in monk’s robes” or something similar. The concept of “Chinese” is very fluid, so sometimes we have to have context.

However, preference is a tricky thing to analyze, and hard is hard to tell with a single study. After all, there is a difference between preferring a boy to a girl and wanting nothing else but a boy.

To remove the controversy of sex preference, an example is in order. If there were only two ice cream flavors in the world, vanilla and chocolate, and I was given the choice, I would prefer chocolate. This does mean, necessarily, that I do not like or want vanilla, or that I will settle for nothing less than chocolate, but merely that I want chocolate more.

In other words, there are different degrees of preference. Many Asian cultures are still deeply rooted in the patriarchal family, which requires a son to preserve the family name. Coupled with the Chinese law limiting families to having only one child, this has lead to a widespread acceptance of sex-selection (using abortion, in most cases).

And now, that same attitude has crept over to Chinese Americans, 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation.

In other words, like the blog post said, it has to do with cultural enabling of sex-selection, but this is also based in a fundamental, cultural necessity for at least one male child. This preference exists all around the world, but in Asian, and particularly Chinese culture, who’s culture, government, and lifestyle are fundamentally based on the patriarchal family, it seems to be more pronounced.

To dismiss the ‘preference issue,’ and move straight to the issue of enabling seems to brush over the fact that the two are issues are fundamentally linked. A culture in which the preference for boys is stronger is more likely to enable others to act on that preference.

What do you mean by “we,” white woman?

This blog is incredibly frustrating sometimes.

Thanks for your long and thoughtful comment. I agree that we need to reserve the right to criticize oppressive practices that occur elsewhere. I also think that, at the same time, we need to be mindful of a tendency to (1) demonize other groups and (2) valorize our own group to the point of erasing problems here.

So, yes of course there is something about Chinese culture that contributes to Chinese women’s oppression (sex selection among other things). And that something about Chinese culture has a manifestation in the U.S. too. That’s not to say that the U.S. and China are the same, only to reject a *binary* in which China is culturally bad and the U.S. culturally good.

As for the points about institutional forces contributing to rates of sex selection: I simply think that institutional forces are always interesting to think about and speculated about what those might be in this case. And, certainly, considering these factors in no way displaces consideration of cultural ones.

This is going to be a long comment, so I’ll provide an executive summary:

SEX SELECTION IS CULTURALLY ASIAN.

Okay, here goes. I’m going to talk about Chinese people throughout, because that’s what I’m familiar with.

lisa, you say: Instead of emphasizing the difference between “them” and “us,” it might be interesting to try to think why, given our similarities, we only see such a striking disproportionality in some groups. This is vague. I have no idea what you mean by “our similarities” or “some groups.” Yes, Chinese culture and American culture are both misogynist; I suppose that’s a similarity. But Jesus Christ, anyone who follows Chinese social issues would know that sex-selective abortions, abandonment, and adoption are HUGE PROBLEMS in China, in poor rural areas as well as in urban areas. It has little to nothing to do with class and everything to do with misogyny. The disproportionate male births among third or fourth Chinese-American children is merely a reflection of the Chinese cultural tradition of killing female babies or aborting female fetuses to comply with both the one-child policy and the patriarchy.

lisa, your argument that the greater average wealth of Chinese-American families accounts for the disparities between the white, black, and Chinese bars on that last graph simply holds no merit. There is a sizeable socioeconomic gap between blacks and whites in America. Whaddya know, the difference between the black and white bars on that graph is virtually nonexistent. In comparison, the socioeconomic gap between whites and Chinese people in America is relatively small, yet the difference between the white and Chinese bars on that graph is quite large. Why? Because it’s not about socioeconomic status at all! Also: the average income of blacks has increased since the 1970s, yet the black bar is static in those three graphs. Why? Because it’s not about socioeconomic status at all! If it were, you would expect the black bar to get larger over time, corresponding to increased wealth. But it doesn’t.

The truth is that even if you controlled for socioeconomic status, you would still see a disproportionate number of male Chinese births relative to whites and blacks, and that disparity would be due to culture, not socioeconomic status. Why is it that China has a larger gender imbalance in its population than any other country, including countries with higher per-capita income? Because of culture. Period. It is ignorant to deny it, or to engage in any kind of apologetics.

lisa, you say: To frame it as simply “cultural,” though, glosses over all of these things and leaves us just thinking “Asian” people are misogynist or something worse. Once again, your vague language makes it impossible for me to know what you mean by “these things” or “something worse.” Look, admitting that Chinese culture is sexist doesn’t gloss over anything. Sex selection for male infants is cultural. The reason we know it’s cultural is because it happens more often in Chinese culture than in other cultures! By definition, that makes it cultural! I’m not saying “Asian people are misogynist or something worse.” I’m saying that Asian culture is virulently misogynist. Your claim that acknowledging the cultural dimension of sex selection will lead to racism is, once again, ignorant.

lisa, you are NOT doing Chinese women and girls a favor by denying the misogyny of Chinese society. You are NOT doing Chinese women and girls a favor by defending, either explicitly or through your vague language, a culture that has been defined by men and used to oppress women and girls.

And whatever you do, please do not respond to this comment by claiming that your one wishy-washy disclaimer (“Some of the explanation for this might be cultural”) is enough to counteract the rest of your post.

Are you Asian? Are you a woman of color? If you are white, let me reassure you: Admitting that Asian cultures have a unique problem with sex selection does NOT mean that Western cultures aren’t misogynist too, okay? We can admit that Chinese women abort female fetuses because Chinese culture is misogynist and ALSO admit that many white Americans prefer boys to girls.

For another rant on Western feminists refusing to call out the oppressiveness of non-Western cultures, I recommend:

http://apostate.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/breasts-and-hair/

Every option above constitutes “preferring boys.” Getting an idea how much a group prefers boys can only be done by looking at the actual sex ratio.