Sex Workers and Cultural Policy: Mapping the Issues and Actors in Thailand (original) (raw)
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Unveiling the Complex World of Sex Work in Thailand: A Multifaceted Analysis
In the diverse tapestry of human professions, sex work occupies a unique and often misunderstood place. Like any other means of livelihood, it represents one path to economic sustenance. Yet, unlike more conventional occupations, sex work dwells in the periphery of societal acceptance, influenced by a complex interplay of forces that set it apart from more conventional livelihoods. The very nature of sex work, entwined with various shades of human desires and vices, has contributed to its enigmatic aura. It is an industry often cast in darkness, where discretion is currency, and allure stems from its mystique. However, it is essential to recognize that sex work, like any profession, is not monolithic. It encompasses a diverse array of individuals, each with their unique stories and motivations. While society may stigmatize sex work, it is vital to acknowledge that it is, at its core, a means of livelihood chosen by some and compelled upon others. This profession, like any other, is bound by the same principles of supply and demand, survival, and human agency. The complexities surrounding sex work, including its entanglement with other gray areas like alcohol, drugs, and gambling, pose challenges that require thoughtful consideration. Sex work, as it unfolds in Thailand, involves a cast of characters that extends far beyond the individuals engaged directly in the industry. It touches the lives of families, friends, employers, colleagues, and the broader public. It is an industry that thrives, in part, on the willingness of society to engage with its offerings—a reality that both shapes and is shaped by the multifaceted relationships that bind people together. This essay offers an introduction to the world of sex work in Thailand, with a brief exploration of the unique historical, cultural, and political factors that define the landscape of this profession. It will also delve into the multifaceted issues inherent in this realm and explore solutions, all within the context of a feminist approach. By employing feminist frameworks, we aim to analyze the situations faced by sex workers in Thailand through a lens that considers gender, power dynamics, and societal structures. This approach allows us to identify the nuanced challenges, including those of forced sex workers and issues surrounding sexual agency and autonomy. The purpose of this essay is not to pass moral judgment or advocate for the complete eradication of the industry. Instead, it aims to foster a more neutral perspective—one that recognizes the humanity of those involved, addresses the multifaceted issues inherent in this realm, and works toward ensuring the safety, rights, and well-being of all parties involved. Achieving this goal demands cooperation and understanding from all stakeholders, recognizing that the sex work industry, like any other, is shaped by a diverse array of forces that define human endeavor.
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 1998
In this paper I propose that spatially-informed and agency-centred treatments of prostitution as a practice can fruitfully highlight the moral and symbolic economies operating in the lives of women as they engage and disengage with prostitution in the tourist sex trade zones of Bangkok. By reexamining and re-contextualising the practices of prostitution in terms of interacting spatiall socio-cultural fields, we can gain more useful insights than heretofore obtained through a monodimensional political economy or gender-culture framework. We must accept that women sex workers are part of the geography of socio-econornic transformation, responding to the centralisation and expansion of key sectors of the Thai economy. I conceptualise this broader geography as involving "oscillation" between urban and rural "places" (which represent key "fields" of value), and at the level of the city (and the tourist leisure infrastructure) as "movement" between different work sites and "arenas" of identity formation. Within this complex ofcirculation and engagement, women strategise to maxirnise what may be described as survival and status resources (conversion of income into cultural capital) aiming towards recovery of meaninghl self-identity.
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2023
Purpose – The essay aims to suggest policies that can help strategically deconstruct and dereproduce the establishment of (child) sexual exploitation in Thailand and Cambodia in phases, for the purpose of upholding child and human rights and rebranding the global image of these two regional commercial sex hubs in the long term. Design/methodology/approach – This essay is constructed based on the theoretical framework of the social control and general strain theories. Supported by the theories, the essay examines what are the socioeconomic determinants driving the prevalence of the (child) commercial sex industry in Thailand and Cambodia. Here the essay highlights and summarises how the (child) commercial sex industry has been constructed and reproduced. Next, the essay presents the existing policy gaps in relation to (child) sex tourism and sex exploitation. Last, and more importantly, the essay delivers perspectives on how Thai and Cambodian lawmakers and policymakers should respond to the severe societal problems of (child) sex trafficking and prostitution in relation to the prevailing sex tourism. Findings – At the national level, Bangkok and Phnom Penh have an urgent need to rebrand their countries, despite partially allowing commercial sex activities. Moreover, to promote gender equality, Bangkok and Phnom Penh should redistribute their education and occupational opportunities, enabling more school-aged girls or work-aged women to obtain a fairer share of life chances for self-empowerment. At the regional level, Bangkok and Phnom Penh have to tighten regulations against (child) sex exploitation. At the community level, the promotion of community policing can be conducive to minimising any prostitution activities. At the family level, more positive socialisation should be exercised. When more children, including girls, are subsidised to enter school, and are positively parented, there are more educational opportunities for school-aged cohorts. Originality/value – This essay contains scholarly originality and significance in the presentation of the socioeconomic construction of (child) sexual exploitation, and its relationship to sex tourism and (child) prostitution in Thai and Cambodian contexts, grounded in up-to-date, relevant sociological arguments. A major area that identifies the originality of this essay is the examination of existing, relevant policy gaps in a timely fashion, and correspondingly, the suggestion of policy development that helps deconstruct and deproduce (child) sexual exploitation at the national, regional, community and family levels.
Thailand's Sex Entertainment: Alienated Labor and the Construction of Intimacy
MDPI Social Sciences, 2022
Promising research from Thailand already highlights women in the sexual entertainment industry as being active participants in both intimate relationships and commercial transactions simultaneously. Notably, they are neither victims nor alienated laborers, as some activist narratives assert. Women working in Thailand’s sex entertainment industry consistently adapt working cultures to modernity’s demand to reduce sex to a commercial transaction while often seeking emotional engagement. One result is that new forms of intimacy emerged, taking on new cultural meanings. The profoundly felt need to care for and take care of someone else [dulae (Thai: ดูแล)], seen as a form of “intimacy”, is, in fact, deeply rooted in the Thai social context. We reframe the literature about sex work in Thailand by assuming that intimacy is key to understanding how “sex work” arose and is sustained there. Focusing on intimacy distances research about sex work away from western assumptions about the commodification and alienation of labor. This gives a more holistic understanding of the complexity of overlapping and intersecting dimensions of the work women perform in sex entertainment. “Intimacy” ties together the issues of money, labor, and a need to care for someone and be taken care of. This thread links women with their customers, families, and themselves.
Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 2020
Sex work is part of Thailand’s tourism-based economic development model. The country’s global reputation as a ‘queer paradise’ is an important factor shaping Thailand’s sex tourism and linking it to the global sex industry. This paper addresses transnational routes and networks of the global sex trade through Thai transsexual (male to female) sex workers who travel out of the country to Singapore for short periods to meet global demand. The research is based on in-depth interviews with 75 Thai transsexual sex workers who are working in districts such as Orchard Towers, Little India, and Geylang in Singapore. For some informants, Singapore is a final destination; for others, it is just a stop along the way to other places abroad. The findings show that the commercial sex trade involving these individuals is global in every sense, including the way it is funded, developed, structured, and organized.
Unacceptable Forms of Work in the Thai Sex and Entertainment Industry
Anti-Trafficking Review
This article examines the working conditions in sex and entertainment work in Thailand using the Unacceptable Forms of Work (UFW) Framework. Criminalisation of sex work and insufficient oversight of labour conditions increase the vulnerability of sex workers to police harassment; prevent sex workers from accessing legal and social protections; and contribute to the decent work deficit in the sector. Protecting the human rights of sex workers and ensuring decent work in the Thai sex and entertainment industry necessarily involves the decriminalisation of sex work; amending labour and social protection laws, policies, and systems to be inclusive of sex workers; and ensuring implementation. Throughout the process of policy change, the involvement of sex workers, their employers, and civil society organisations is crucial.
The Dynamics of Sex Tourism: The Case of Southeast Asia
Development and Change, 1983
This paper attempts to set out a basic framework within which the growing body of empirical material on prostitution and mass tourism can be analyzed. Section I1 distinguishes specific forms of female prostitution, considers how these have evolved historically, and looks at the forces ...
Prostitution in Thailand: Representations in Fiction and Narrative Non-fiction
Journal of International Women’s Studies, 2015
This paper explores problematic Western approaches to women working as prostitutes within the ‘sex tourism’ industry in Thailand through an examination of how their situation is portrayed in the various English-language fiction and non-fiction narratives written on this topic. The first half of this study focuses on the context, practices and working conditions of the Thai sex tourism industry. This is then used as the lens through which to analyse the approaches to Thai sex tourism in Western mainstream literature. Four books were analysed for their depiction of Thai prostitutes, with a focus on the plots, themes and characterisations of the women they depicted. Troublingly, it was found that the fiction often dismissed or glossed over the problems faced by Thai prostitutes, going so far as to glamourise the profession and demonise the women. Conversely, the non-fiction works are less romanticised and provided more nuanced and complex pictures of the women working in prostitution. It is important that this dichotomy is addressed. The fictional works serve to perpetuate myths and negative stereotypes about the industry and the women who work in it, ultimately contributing to their further subjugation by normalising sex tourism.