More Sex in Vietnam

More young people with newfound economic freedom are living on their own and moving to cities in Vietnam, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see where that might lead. Make no mistake. The country of 87 million people remains socially and sexually conservative. But signs of change are emerging, with all the usual caveats.

Ho Chi Minh City resident Nguyen Thuy Phuong, 34, says morality on the part of men is just as important as chastity for women.

“Sometimes a woman loses her virginity because she met a Don Juan, for example,” she said. “They think of having sex with women the way they think about eating cakes.”

Instead, Phuong said, the problem lies with the perceived dominance of men in Vietnamese society.

“They think they can have sex with many women but their wives should be virgins,” she said. “Sometimes I joke if that’s what you think, you should go to a child-care center to find a wife.”