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What have we found in the past literature?

There have been many discussion by the scholars on the lesbian relationship of the domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Many of them stressed the significance of migration to Hong Kong as the reason for their transition from heterosexual relationship to homosexual relationship. (Lee 2009 and Sim 2013)   Sim (2009) attempted to position the discussion on the lesbian relationship of the Indonesian domestic workers in a macro-perspective in order to understand how their sexuality and gender is affected by the economic structural transformation and state ideologies. In the article, she stated that ‘This deliberate emphasis on the social attributes of positioning is necessary to avoid the excesses attached to the romanticisation of women’s agencies, personal identity politics, and mobility and employment as being unquestioningly, empowering for women migrant workers.’  In this sense, she is arguing that the lesbian identity of the Indonesian domestic helper in Hong Kong is not by nature, but the result of variety of oppression and injustice caused by the social and economic structure.

 

The interplay of globalisation and poor economy in Indonesia have forced the Indonesian workers to go outside, in which they develop their lesbian identity in the process. Sim thought that it could explain why the Indonesian domestic workers become lesbian only after they come Hong Kong. Globalisation does not only facilitate the flow of goods, professionals and technicians, but the women in Indonesia also. As they are more distant from their home country, the women migrants’ bodies become more destabilized owing to reduced family supervision and better protection towards personal autonomy. Meanwhile, what pushes the women to work in a distant city is due to the poor domestic economy which failed to generate adequate jobs. This intensify the problems of marginal livelihood based on agriculture which have been supported by the other income source, such as trade and migration for work. The worse is that a border structural developments have led to the shift of resource-based livelihoods to labour export. Sim (2009) further explained that why women are encouraged in labour migration by state sponsored ideologies. She pointed out that the state reinforces and embed the deterministic dichotomy of gendered social roles in the government policy, such as education, health and reproductive services.

 

Besides discussing the big structure which constitutes to the labour migration of Indonesian women that offer them opportunity to ‘come out’, Sim(2009) had looked into the experience of the migranted Indonesian women in training centre as the increase of vulnerability, trauma and loneliness. And they regard it as empowering women by resisting, shaping ,and re-appropriating the discourse over women. In Hong Kong, one of the paramount features of the lesbian scene among domestic workers is that couples are generally formed by butches(sentul) and femme (kamtil). It is distinguished by their dress and behavior. Therefore, Sim understood as a deliberate in the creation of sexual identities which reinforce the dichotomy of gender.

 

However, Lee(2013) held a slightly different view on the relations between heterosexual model and the lesbian practice of Filipino domestic helpers in HK. In her article, she stated that ‘ While their gender roles, love, and desires towards women might be seen as “copies” of the heterosexual model, the present research has found that the actual practices of these tomboys and their relationships with their “girls” deviate from heterosexual norms in important ways…the present context tend towards more flexible and reversible gender roles and are less hierarchical between the masculine and feminine partners.’

 

Further information are revealed in an academic writing named Sexuality and discipline among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong written by Nicole Constable, which is a professor of Anthropology in University of Pittsburgh. From the text she is trying to
argue that Filipina domestic worker in Hong Kong are viewed as sexually threatening and thus in need of strict discipline. Constable(1997) mentioned in the article that Filipina domestic worker are forced to eliminate their sexual signs in order to protect the employer from having a sexual harassment. Constable argue that it represent the general anxieties about the sexuality of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong and concern that Filipinas and their sexuality is linked to border changes in women’s role in the home and the public workforce and in the social identities of foreign domestic workers. A online media news report interview a senior Filipina domestic helper, Marzz(2015) who is also a president of a Filipina LGBT helping group Filguys,  point out the problems that the Filipinas domestic helpers are facing with the otherness by the Hong Kong people, the interviewee mentioned that a lesbian worker were being harassed by a anti-LGBT man, but after she call the police, her host family fired her because of her late return, many domestic worker also have to dress like a tomboy in order not to being sex assult.  

 

Constable(1997) further mentioned because of the restriction on their dress, Filipinas domestic workers get used to wearing jeans and T-shirt as informal uniform, which lead to the image of “T-bird” or “tomboy”. Filipina domestic workers themselves also admired this “uniform” rather than the traditional uniform which showing their “maid” identity to the public, but the social misunderstand from there peer and employer also arises for its not performing as a “good” women image and giving an harming model to the employer’s children. Marzz(2015) claimed that since Hong Kong are now having an unfair rule that all the immigrant worker have to leave if they can not find new host within two weeks after being fired, it makes workers are hard to disobey or disclose their sexual orientation. There is Taiwan case that we can compare with Hong Kong Filipinas domestic helpers. Some comparison can be made with a Taiwan film talking about the immigrant lesbian workers. Lesbian Factory(T婆工廠), This documentary is made by Taiwan International Worker’s Association(TIWA) in Taiwan at 2010. The documentary mainly focus about the protest during a Labour dispute which a factory entrepreneur escape to mainland without paying the salary to Philippine worker for 4 month at 2004. Although this documentary has a limit relation with the Hong Kong domestic lesbian worker, it review a lots of problem which could help the raise our interview question and compare with Hong Kong situation.

 

Constable(1997) criticizes that the foreign domestic workers are faced with several options of clothing style and self representation, and it evokes different contradictions and dimensions  of power within the Hong Kong. She shows a possibility on how Filipinas worker subtle their gender identity, also mentioning the unfairness of these workers are facing.

 

One interesting issue has been point out from the Lesbian Factory(2010) is that in the documentary, the director focusing on seven lesbian couple which are the worker of the factory, four of the couple are becoming lesbian after working in Taiwan and some of them said it was because of the loneliness. At the end of the documentary, all the couple had broke up and some of them even get marriage. Not all of them choose to disclose their sexual orientation in their home country. The actual reason of most of the Filipinas domestic helper are being questioned. Amy Sim(2014), a cultural anthropologist from University of Hong Kong estimated that 40%of domestic helper engaged in homosexual relationship, some of the workers are just want established an intimate relationship temporarily to isolation and loneliness. Although the correctness is not yet proved, but it shows a possibility of what turning the helpers into lesbian.

 

But there are still opposite idea claimed that the domestic helpers are originally lesbian but would only show it in Hong Kong.Coco Feng, a journalist from South China Morning Post has done an interview with two lesbian immigrant domestic helper which show common issue that they are facing.The interview(2014) discussing that these domestic helper are being rooted in their own country, their religion and government restricted their sexual orientation. Compare to Indonesia, Hong Kong is treated as the “nearest place from home where they can find love and dignity”, Hong Kong is more open in diversity.

 

There are some video that found useful in the research.The Coming Out of Filipino Domestic Workers(2014) by Stephanie Burnett, Kevin Dharmawan & Thandiwe Moyo. It conduct two interview with Filipina domestic helper for their personal experience of being a lesbian in Hong Kong.In the video, the first interview is one of the lesbian domestic worker talking about saying that the domestic helper are straightly imprison by their social pressure, such as family and neighbor. However, HK is still not a very great society to open their own sexuality, for example, the legal right of homosexual marriage are still be banned. Denis Tang, A Doctor who mainly focus on gender studies, has explain one of the reason that domestic worker easy turning lesbian that they are, nobody knows them so that they could be more confident on showing their own identity, the second interview said that after staying in HK, because of the open society, they have more chance to express themselves and no need to afraid of its religious and government background, letting them to reconsider their sexual orientation and shaping their courage to showing their sexual identity even in their home countries.

Bibliography

 

 

  • Burnett, Stephanie, et al., directors. The Coming Out of Filipino Domestic Workers. The Coming Out of Filipino Domestic Workers, 28 May 2014, hkhelperscampaign.com/en/lgbt-helpers/.

 

  • Constable, Nicole. Sexuality and discipline among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong.

 

  • “What Does Hong Kong Mean to Lesbian Migrant Workers?” CocoFENG, 5 Dec. 2014, cocofengrenke.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/what-does-hong-kong-mean-to-lesbian-migrant-workers/.

 

  • 立場報道 “【外傭在香港 1】大量菲傭淪性資源? 「她們有家要養,怎會做這些蠢事」 | 立場報道 | 立場新聞.” 立場新聞 Stand News, 立場新聞 Stand News, 18 May 2015, thestandnews.com/society/%E5%A4%96%E5%82%AD%E5%9C%A8%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF-1-%E5%A4%A7%E9%87%8F%E8%8F%B2%E5%82%AD%E6%B7%AA%E6%80%A7%E8%B3%87%E6%BA%90-%E5%A5%B9%E5%80%91%E6%9C%89%E5%AE%B6%E8%A6%81%E9%A4%8A-%E6%80%8E%E6%9C%83%E5%81%9A%E9%80%99%E4%BA%9B%E8%A0%A2%E4%BA%8B/.


Lee, Yuk Yin. Negotiating gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity: women-Loving Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong. 2013.

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