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The Business of Love: Writings on the Socio-cultural Dynamics of Thailand's Sex Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Marc Askew
Marc Askew
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Type
Review Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , September 1997 , pp. 396 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1997

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References

1 The pioneering studies include Suganya Hantrakul, “Prostitution in Thailand”. Paper Presented to the Women in Asia Workshop, Monash University, Melbourne, July 22–24, 1983 and Pasuk Phongpaichit, From Peasant Girls to Bangkok Masseuses (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1982). The macro-processes of east-west global tourism, the political economy of the Thai tourism industry, the patterns of regional and socio-economic inequalities, in addition to the Buddhist religious norms which relegate women to a lesser moral status, have all been well-treated. Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); Jeff O'Malley, “Sex Tourism and Women's Status in Thailand”, Society and Leisure 11(1) (1988): pp. 99–114; Than-Dam Truong, Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia (London: Zed Books, 1990); Charles Keyes, “Mother or mistress but never a monk: Buddhist notions of female gender in rural Thailand”, American Ethnologist 11 (May 1984): pp. 223—41; Marjorie Muecke, “Mother sold food, daughter sells her body: The cultural continuity of Prostitution”, Social Science and Medicine 35 (1992): 891–90. More recently, and generated particularly by the onset of the AIDS pandemic, considerable attention has been given by Thai and foreign researchers to the study of attitudes to sexual relations and the gendered foundations of leisure behaviour among Thais. Through such statistical and ethnographically-based work, in addition to local journalist's research, we are now far better informed about the varieties of prostitutions that Thai women engage in, and the social, economic and ideological foundations of their oppression. Among them are: Graham Fordham, “Whiskey, Women and Song: Alcohol and AIDS in Northern Thailand”, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 6 (3) (1995): 154–77; Mark Vanlandingham et al, Friends, Wives and Extramarital Sex in Thailand (Bangkok: Institute of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1995); Wathinee Boonchalai and Philip Guest, Prostitution in Thailand (Nakhon Pathom: Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, 1994); Pamela Da Grossa, “Kampaeng Din: A Study of Prostitution in the All-Thai Brothels of Chiang Mai City”, Crossroads 4 (2): 155–78; Jiemin Bao, “Marriage Among Ethnic Chinese in Bangkok: an Ethnography of Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity over Two Generations” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1994). For Thai language studies see: Gritaya Archawanitkul and Worapon Chaemsanit, Wairunchai Kab Gansue Praweni [Thai Male Youths and Prostitution] (Chiang Mai: Centre for Women's Studies, Faculty of Sociology, Chiang Mai University, 1994); Ongart Rungjanchai, Lui Khrarb Khao Karm: Sopheni Khu Lork. Slork Haeng Chiwit (Muet) [”Wading through Foul Desires”. The Prostitute is the Partner of the World. Ode to (Dark) Lives] (Bangkok: Matichon, 1990); Yos Santasombut, Mae Ying Si Khai Tua. Chumchon lae Kankhai Praweni nai Sangkhom Thai [The Woman will Sell her Body. Community and Prostitution i n Thai Society] (Bangkok: Local Development Institute, 1992).

2 Denis O'Rourke (Director), The Good Woman of Bangkok (Australian Film Commission, 1991). For criticisms on these grounds see: “Exploitation or Exposure: Denis O'Rourke's 'The Good Woman of Bangkok”, Metro (Melb.) 92 (Summer 1993): 36–43.

3 Truong, Sex, Money and Morality, p. 187.

4 Tanida Sirorattanakul, “Empowering Sex Workers”, Bangkok Post, Outlook, 18 Feb. 1997, p. 1.

5 See for example: Dawson, Alan, Patpong. Bangkok's Big little Street (Bangkok: Alan Dawson, 1988)Google Scholar; O'Merry, Rory, My Wife in Bangkok (Berkeley: Asia Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Moore, Christopher, A Killing Smile (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1991)Google Scholar.

6 Recently collected and published in Cohen, Erik, Thai Society in Comparative Perspective (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

7 First published in Annals of Tourism Research Vol. 9 (1982), pp. 403–428.

8 Walker, D. and Ehrlich, R.S., “Hello My Big Big Honey!” Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and their Revealing Interviews (Bangkok: Dragon Dance Publications, 1992)Google Scholar. This book, featuring an introduction by Thai academic Yos Santasombut, is in its sixth printing, a clear indication of its popularity.

9 It appears as chapter 8 of Hitchcock, Michael, King, Victor T. and Parnwell, Michael G. (eds.), Tourism in South-East Asia (London: Routledge, 1993)Google Scholar.

10 For which see the discussion in James A Tyner, “Constructions of Filipina Migrant Entertainers”, Gender, Place and Culture 3 (1) (1996): 83–84.

11 “Alison Murray, No Money No Honey. A Study of Street Traders and Prostitutes in Jakarta (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1991), chapters 7 and 8; and Alison Murray, “City, subculture and sexuality: Alternative spaces in Jakarta”, Development Bulletin 27 (May 1993): 35–38.

12 His theoretical proportion on cultural codes in “Thai socio-culture” was first published as “Socio-cultural Change in Thailand: A Reconceptualizaton”, in E. Cohen et al, Comparative Social Dynamics, Essays in Honor of S.N. Eisenstadt (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985).

13 For which see Marc Askew, “Strangers and Lovers: Thai Women Sex Workers and Western Men in the 'Pleasure Space' of Bangkok”, in Jill Forshee and Christina Fink (eds.), Converging Interests: Traders, Travelers and Tourists in Southeast Asia (Berkeley: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, 1997). In Press.

14 Indeed, Cohen's articles on foreign men are far more empirically rich that those focussing on women. See Chapter 14 “Lovelorn Farangs”, and another article, not published in this collection, but based on the same research: “The Dropout Expatriates: A Study of Marginal Farangs in Bangkok”, Urban Anthropology 13 (1): 91–114.

15 Cleo Odzer, “Patpong Prostitution: its Relationship to, and Effect on, the Position of Women i n Thai Society” (Ph.D. Dissertation, New School for Social Research, New York, 1990).

16 Saundra Sturdevant and Brenda Stolzfus, “Olongapo: The Bar System”, in Saundra Sturdevant and Stolzfus, Brenda, Let the Good Times Roll. Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia (New York: The New Press, 1992), pp. 45–165Google Scholar.

17 For an example of work in the sociology of prostitution sites, see: Macnamara, Robert P. (ed.), Sex, Scams and Street Life: the Sociology of New York City's Times Square (Westport: Praeger, 1995)Google Scholar.

18 Manderson, Lenore, “Public Sex Performances in Patpong and Explorations of the Edges of Imagination”, Journal of Sex Research 29 (4) (1992): 451–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 West, Richard, Thailand. The Last Domino (London: Michael Joseph, 1991), p. 121Google Scholar.

20 Seabrook, Jeremy, Travels in the Skin Trade. Tourism and the Sex Industry (London: Pluto Press), p. 4Google Scholar.

21 Travels in the Skin Trade, p. 90.

22 There have been some attempts to deal with these questions: Marc Askew, “City of Women, City of Men: Foreign men, Thai Prostitutes and Narratives of Identity in Bangkok”. Paper presented o t the “Images of the Urban” Conference, Sunshine Coast University College, Queensland, 7–19 July 1997; C. Ryan and R. Kinder, “Sex, Tourism and Sex Tourism — Fulfilling Similar Needs”, Tourism Management 17 (7) (1996): 507–518.