Group assignmentconsumer behavior by lecturer tran hong nhungtopic analysis of the incident of a woman wearing backless shirt in vietnam

After the video of the girl wearing a backless shirt on the street was posted on TikTok, there were hundreds of mixed opinions protesting against wearing such clothes on the street.. Acc

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

GROUP ASSIGNMENT Consumer Behavior by Lecturer Tran Hong Nhung

Topic: Analysis of The Incident of A Woman Wearing Backless Shirt

in Vietnam

Table of Content

1 Disagreeing Opinions

3

Affect People’s Behaviours

2 How Do Controversies Affect People's Behaviour? 13

I Introduction

Clothing is one of the most important parts of daily life and is also a unique cultural feature

of each country Today, when people's quality of life is increasing, the demand for fashion becomes more and more important, especially for women They always want to wear the best clothes to become attractive However, each person's opinion about the beauty of clothes is different, depending on their feelings Therefore, this issue is always a hot topic for people to discuss And recently, we have encountered a controversial event related to aesthetic issues associated with cultural and ethical properties in clothing We will conduct the analysis of this event with knowledge of “Consumer Behavior”

II The Incident

The story is about a guy moving on Xa Dan Street (Hanoi) when he accidentally caught a girlfriend wearing a boldly cut shirt, almost revealing the entire back Feeling strange, the guy followed the car carrying the girl and used his phone to record the image behind the girl's back

After that, the guy posted this video on TikTok with the caption: "I don't understand why so many men let their lovers wear this on the street." With a critical quote, the guy's video attracted mixed comments

Faced with this incident, the girl in the video also recorded a video responding to the young man's video with strong words As a result, the girl believes that she has no control over her husband or boyfriend; she chose this outfit because she liked it, and the other TikToker guy does not have the right to use her image posted online without her permission

This story is becoming a hot topic on social networks after many fan pages re-shared it and raised the issue of freedom of dress and fine customs Through this, we see three opposing views The first opinion objected to the girl wearing that outfit; another said it was human

freedom; and the last one related to cyber violence.

III Incident Analysis

1 Disagreeing Opinions

Tiktok is an application used by many young Vietnamese people After the video of the girl wearing a backless shirt on the street was posted on TikTok, there were hundreds of mixed opinions protesting against wearing such clothes on the street

Do Quynh Mai, 23 years old and working in Dong Da, Hanoi, shared: "Personally, I think it's inappropriate to dress like a girlfriend in the street clip I work in fashion and understand that clothes are not naturally divided into different types of clothing such as party wear, work wear, playwear, swimwear, pyjamas, etc Gen Z young people say that fashion is to be creative, to break the way, to be able to combine all kinds of costumes, but to be suitable for the situation, the environment, and the time" This reaction of the girl refers to a term known

as "crescive norms"—these are cultural norms taught from previous generations and

surrounding social factors, including "custom," "mor-ay" - taboo, and "convention" - daily rules Here, we will focus on conventions A convention is a rule that regulates how we behave in everyday life These rules often address delicate issues of consumer behaviour, including the "right" way to furnish a home, dress it up, or host a dinner party Do Quynh Mai has been influenced by the daily rules of how to dress and what is right for each case According to Mai and some others of the same opinion, the Vietnamese convention is that women are not allowed to wear revealing clothes when going out in public "Why not both sexes and only women?" We just assume that conventions are the "right" thing to do However, we learn these conventions from our parents or by observing others They frequently see images of semi-naked men wearing tank tops on both TV and in real life, leading Vietnamese people to believe that wearing style is normal for men And for women, the opposite is true: women on TV are always covered, thereby forming norms Besides, parents often teach their daughters that it is necessary to dress discreetly and delicately; depending on the case, they will wear different clothes to both be beautiful and protect themselves from people with bad intentions This has reinforced the idea that women must dress modestly when going out

According to Son, 20 years old, a law student at the University of Science at Thai Nguyen shared that: “Agreeing to what to wear is everyone's privacy, but besides that, it is necessary

to pay attention to the surroundings A beautiful outfit is to wear at the right place, time and situation Such an open-back outfit if worn at a bar or a party will be more appropriate In the case of wearing when going out, the outfit attracts many eyes, even children It is not good for children to see and learn from it.” This observation may come from a term called

“representativeness heuristic” – using short thinking by comparing with pre-existing

patterns in the mind There will be people who have already in their mind an image of what is

a beautiful person, what is a person of good quality, and what is a bad person through judging their appearance This can be said as “Judge a book by its cover” Here, we can understand that fashion is the truest language of the wearer As we often see images built into our heads, such as images of monks They practice in the way of purity and liberation with the mind on the wish to become a Buddha, below saving sentient beings They always spread their compassion to all sentient beings, so their clothes are also brown and blue clothes This is the colour of the earth, which is the characteristic that represents a person who lives a simple life, has little desire, knows enough about life and knows how to love and be compassionate towards sentient beings and is ready to forgive all the mistakes of sentient beings Likewise, according to common sense, we will be interested in what a woman wears to express her personality and qualities A polite, gentle, educated girl will be a girl who dresses appropriately for the situation, most of which will have to be discreet, not revealing her body parts when going out or in crowded places This available image may come from the costumes worn by Vietnamese women in the 1950s with beautiful "áo dài" as well as "áo bà ba", showing the beauty of a woman but also discreetly keeping herself On the contrary, those who wear revealing clothes will be indecent people, with bad moral qualities and bad characteristics They will even refer to people who dress like that as people who trade in their bodies to make money, going against the traditional image of a girl with charming beauty This has led to a fierce protest in the case of the girl appearing in the video They will think that the girl in the video is deliberately dressed like that to serve some bad purpose and disrespect the opponent

The world is made up of many cells and each of us is a small cell We are always influenced

by external influences There will be external connections that define who we are and what

we value: gender, race/ethnicity, religion, age, and where we live Each of these is a

“subculture” – a group whose members share important beliefs and common interests To

explain the dissenting behaviour of the above title, we give two types of subcultures:

“religious subculture” and “age subculture”

In recent years, we have seen an explosion of religion and spirituality in popular culture As a result, it has formed a popular subculture in society called a “religious subculture” – referring to a group of people with similar religious behaviour Every religion prescribes to its members what should be considered good or bad behaviour in terms of what to eat, where to

go, what to wear, etc Through their teachings, some religions facilitate their members to adopt a lifestyle that expects life satisfaction will come at a different cost Rituals and religious beliefs may regulate the use of certain products and may prevent the consumption of others For some good and good paths, directing people to peace and liberation, they will teach people to practice from the heart to the outer appearance The outer appearance needs to

maintain majesty and virtue Because they think how they think, they will act like that If you have evil thoughts, your actions lead to bad results On the contrary, if you think wholesome thoughts, all your outward actions will exude that look Therefore, the dress is an important factor for people of this same religion They think that the fact that they dress modestly and politely will reflect that they are a person with self-respect, privacy, self-respect, self-respect and respect for others On the contrary, it is bad practice to dress revealingly, showing yourself as an impolite person We take a specific example in Buddhism The teaching in Buddhism is to follow cause and effect When you wear revealing clothes, you will get sick because some points on your body are exposed to the toxic wind outside Following that is to cause adultery for others, after death will go to hell to suffer many tortures, immeasurable suffering, and it will take a long time to get rid of suffering retribution It is this that causes resistance to the idea of wearing an open-back shirt on the street – something that causes a loss of dignity

Disagreement with wearing backless shirts comes not only from some young people but also from the elderly It is in the “age subculture” – which includes people of the same age who have gone through similar experiences They share many common memories of cultural heroes, and important historical events The two common age groups that we all know are the

Z gene and the Y gene Gen Y, or Millennials, refers to people born between 1981 and 1996 Unlike the Z gene, the Y gene tends to hold relatively traditional values and they prefer to fit

in rather than rebel They were born and raised in the period of national transformation, they have more experience in social life and they are influenced by the concept of their ancestors Those are the conceptions of women's beauty that are neat and discreet clothes to reveal traditional moral qualities

2 Supportive Opinions

Do Quynh Mai's incident has created a fierce controversy, besides opinions disagreeing with Quynh Mai’s way of dressing, there are still many people siding with her

Quynh Mai’s supporters believe that it is individual freedom of a person to choose what he/she wants to wear, for this reason, other people have no right to interfere with how Mai dresses The controversy became so stressful is also because of the man’s caption, which showed concrete proof of men demeaning women, especially when women’s rights is now one of the hottest topics in the world There are many reasons behind the formation of this opinion, in which it is impossible not to mention "acculturation" - the process of adapting to

or adopting traits from another culture As globalization progressed, cultural movements, particularly fashion trends, reached Vietnam quite swiftly, creating a change in the perception

of fashion among a great number of people The desire for Vietnamese people to conform

(change their beliefs, attitudes, actions, or perceptions to more closely match those held by

groups to which they belong or want to belong or by groups whose approval they desire) to

an open-minded society is also increased by the fact that there has been a sizable group of Vietnamese people who tend to be "foreign-favoured" Those people are engaging in

"observational learning" or learning via observing and copying others, as part of the

acculturation process It is common knowledge that Western society leans toward being more liberal and accepting than Asian culture, particularly when it comes to attire They respect others’ choice of choosing clothes as a way to express their individuality Many Vietnamese people have encountered and observed this culture in connection with the integration movement in a variety of ways Moreover, there are thousands of pictures of celebrities and influencers in Vietnam wearing backless shirts in public, which has contributed greatly to the normalization of such type of attire As a result, they have learned and believed that wearing

"a backless shirt" is acceptable This supportive opinion has also been affected by another

factor which is place-based subcultures Because they have more access to the

contemporary world, people who live in big cities of Vietnam tend to have more opportunities

to gain knowledge from the Western world and have more diverse and liberal choices of clothing than those who live in rural regions Therefore, a backless shirt can be more easily accepted in these areas

In addition, several opinions expressed that fashion is a form of art, which should not have limitations People in every culture have body decoration and mutilation in some way, including clothes Decorating the physical self serves a number of purposes: to separate group members from nonmembers, to place the individual in the social organization, to place the person in a gender category, to enhance sex-role identification, to indicate desired social conduct, to indicate high status or rank, to provide a sense of security Whichever the purpose

is, it is the person’s choice Some people also support Quynh Mai with the opinion that, in terms of cultural perspective, “ao yem” (a backless top) has appeared since the Ly Dynasty (1009 - 1225), so it cannot be concluded that wearing such a shirt was a smear of Vietnamese culture

Ao yem Vietnam

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Quynh Mai’s supporters are showing:

- Love and belongingness needs : They speak their thoughts to fulfil the need for belongingness and give affection to the victim (Do Quynh Mai)

- Esteem needs : This is the need for recognition, the desire to be loved and respected in any organization or environment A group of people with the same interest in dressing

or admire Quynh Mai will also feel insulted by the comments offending her

- Self-actualization needs : mong muốn được chứng minh bản thân Được theo đuổi đam

mê, sở thích của mình và mang lại những giá trị, lợi ích tốt đẹp cho xã hội Supporters đưa ra quan điểm của mình vì họ tin rằng quan điểm ấy là đúng và muốn thay đổi xã hội trở nên tốt hơn This is the desire to prove yourself, to pursue passions and interests and bring good values and benefits to society Supporters give their opinion

in order to express themselves and change society for the better

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Do Quynh Mai's supporters have instrumental values which are speaking out to fight for the right to freedom of a woman’s body and enhance the confidence of women, in order to reach the terminal values of gender equality and individual freedom

3 Cyberbullying and Stealth Recording Behavior

a Cyberbullying

It can be seen that the girl's video posting behaviour on Tiktok has become a controversial topic with breakneck speed shared by media snackers - who always keep up with the latest trends, information and most prominent on social sites This story has led to a series of heated debates among TikTok users, even Hot TikTokers and Influencers have enthusiastically voiced their objections There are also opinions in favor of the girl or boy who was secretly filmed, but at the same time, there are also malicious comments and criticisms and judgments from thousands of strangers This has directly affected the girl's spirit, daily life, and social relationships Although there are still many comments defending the way female friends dress, however, the contradictions and conflicts of opinion from the crowd cause many unpredictable consequences This is cyberbullying - threatening behaviour through messaging applications or sharing negative information aimed at victims, thereby damaging the victim mentally and honourably

It is not too difficult to realise that more than 70% of negative and judgmental comments and personal attacks in the 'backless shirt' video are from men Although many male Tiktokers or

some people from the LGBT community have spoken out with their own videos to defend the girl, as well as clarify their views on this topic However, there is still a crowd of men expressing dissatisfaction, commenting that the girl's dress in the video is "contrary to customs", "not suitable to wear on the street" and thinking that the details of the new shirt are the most offensive element

The fact that many opinions believe that the fault is entirely on the woman's side These people argued: "Girlfriends shouldn't wear that shirt outside", "If you wear that, you're right

to be filmed", "It's not right to dress offensively to people's eyes, swearing is right!"… So with just a few words back and forth, the matter was changed into a mistake originating from the girl or the design of the shirt, the person filming secretly did not need to admit it was wrong The story of back-blaming the victim, especially when the victim is a woman and wears clothing that exposes some of the skin, risks becoming common sense when there is a dispute of opinion or some negative event take place on social media It is so damaging that these reversals of opinion can cause victims to fall into a state of mental crisis, some of whom even blame themselves and are forced to admit mistakes in the way they choose their everyday clothes This is called the Looking-Glass Self when malicious comments and malicious words from others have a strong impact on self-concept - beliefs in perspective, perception, and personality about yourself directly affect the psychology and personal image

of the girl

b Stealth Recording Behaviour

Although the story of the girl with the backless shirt still has many opposing opinions, the cameraman must strongly condemn the stealthy action of the owner of the video Filming without the permission of others is also considered an act of harassment, disrespect and in this case an invasion of personal image The person who posted the video may not be aware

of the consequences of his actions, but in fact it has the ability to disturb a girl's life, even turning her into the focus of cyber violence

This behaviour has led to a state of social power - the ability to control the behavior, attitudes and opinions of others This is reflected in two main aspects:

Firstly, the behaviour known as referent power when secretly filming a video and spreading

it on a popular website like Tik Tok with controversial status lines controlled the way of thinking of netizens, leading to thoughts, misleading beliefs for those who do not really understand the reason or context behind In Vietnam, although the changes in life have made people have more open ideas about clothing styles, there are still some old-fashioned notions that tend to favour men and despise women , especially when a man's actions and thoughts can affect women They always think that their thoughts and views are right and they have the right to be judged like that