A Dose of Catherine Harry: Challenging Cambodia's Patriarchal and Colonial Shadows
In July’s edition of Diary of a Feminist, Politics4Her spoke with Catherine Harry, a feminist author and vlogger from Cambodia. Through her channel “A Dose of Cath,” Catherine helps advocate for women’s rights, smash myths, and break down taboos. Catherine discussed Cambodia’s past and present, how patriarchal struggles still prevail in Cambodia, and why it is important to unpack what generations before us have taught. As a dedicated feminist inspiring woman on an international scale, Catherine explains how important it is to be a critical thinker and challenge oppressive gender norms on what we have been taught is “proper” or “improper.”
France held a 90-year-long colonial rule over Cambodia from 1863 to 1941, such a long-lasting intrusion is bound to have severe implications on a country, especially on a cultural and societal level. Catherine said before the French invasion, they were a “pretty open society in a way that if you look at photos from before that period, for example, you would see images of women not wearing a top, and that was normal. But when the French came in they brought a lot of their conservative ideology with them and instilled upon us what they perceived to be proper and improper.”
Catherine shared that her upbringing was “pretty conservative.” Recalling one story she said: “I was living with my cousin, my parents, and my parental grandmother at one point. My cousin had snuck out to go dancing on stage, as she wanted to be a backup dancer, but my grandmother found out and used derogatory terms to describe women who dance for their career, she physically hurt my cousin and chained her to the bed.”
Growing up in an environment that imposed a strict idea of what “proper” meant and how women should act, Catherine explained that it is ingrained in the average Cambodian childhood for women to marry by 21 and have children. Though this is not the path Catherine chose, in fact, she took a very different route: “I am 29, I am not married, I don’t have children or desire to, I don’t believe marriage is the pivotal point of a woman’s life.”
“I was spoon-fed patriarchy”
The turning point for Catherine was when she turned 17, “I was working at an organization and the project that we were working on was about sexual reproductive health and I was the radio presenter and the TV presenter as well.” During her time in that position, she had to do a lot of research into the topics of their guest speakers and started to learn more about feminism, and that’s where her feminist journey began.
In the same year, Catherine started her blog, “back then a lot of people were blogging, and I had a lot of things to say, and a lot of things to learn, I was frustrated that I didn’t have a platform to talk about it all.”
With a laugh, she said, “I became the stereotypical angry feminist, which I don’t think is a bad thing as we have lots of things to be angry about.” It was then that Catherine started building her Facebook presence and YouTube channel, “A Dose of Cath,” which has grown over the years reaching hundreds of thousands. “I remember my first video was about 50 Shades of Grey and how it romanticizes abuse. So I got haters from day one because of that,” she added.
‘Golden’ men, ‘tainted’ women
From then on, Catherine started delving deeper into feminist topics, “I started talking about virginity culture because in Cambodia a lot of people value virginity, they sometimes refer to women as a white cloth, saying once you stain it, it will be stained forever.” The same analogy is not used for men, they are referred to as “gold, even if you are stained you can wash it off.”
This kind of mentality surrounding purity is ongoing, which is why Catherine’s strong opposition to this ideology received a lot of backlash. “People were calling me all sorts of names and slut shaming me, accusing me of not being Cambodian, or that I did not understand my own culture.”
Amid the hate and hurtful comments, Catherine gained a lot of support as well, especially from young women. “They told me I made them feel seen, that I had talked about things they never dared to talk about, and it is a privilege to be that kind of person for a lot of young women, I inspired them and they inspired me.”
Question everything
In many countries with strict or more traditional views, a person’s interpretation of a religion usually greatly influences what people believe to be “moral.” However, Catherine said that in Cambodia she does not believe religion has the same weight, as a lot of people are not religiously conservative.
People in Cambodia can be defensive about culture, she explained, “We think that it’s our core identity, therefore if someone is perceived to defy the culture they can be accused of hating their country, this can be used as a tool to oppress women in the marginalized community, especially in the LGBTQIA+ community.”
For Catherine, her career is not about telling people what to think, “I want to help them to start questioning what they are told and what they have been taught because I think critical thinking is very important. People like to look at what they've been told and consider it to be the absolute truth, but I want people to start questioning why the generation before them taught them that and who it benefits.”
About the author:
Olivia Hooper is the coordinator of Secretariat at Politics4Her, she is a British journalist and editor with a degree in translation. Olivia uses her career in journalism to advocate on gender-based issues surrounding women and girls.
