Prostitution, even if illegal, is practised in an
assiduous way in Thailand’s resorts. It is source of easy money for girls that
live in (usually) precarious situations. Sometimes, their families encourage
them to become sex workers. But this represents, in my opinion, a reason for the
arise of non-indifferent socio-cultural problems. In addition to be a serious
form of denigration toward women, that are forced to sell their bodies to
foreigners who arrived in Thailand with
the only goal of having low-cost sexual intercourses, usually this phenomenon
includes the involvement of minors, with undoubted relapses on their psychic sphere.
Moreover, the prostitution facilitates the spread of sexually transmitted diseases,
such as AIDS. And all that takes place by
tacit agreement of local authorities.
Sometimes tourists, coming from Western countries,
believe that prostitution is “part of the culture of these populations”, and
don’t see (or don’t want to see) the element of compulsion, the violence and
the desperation that are hidden in this phenomenon. Simply they turn into “costumers”,
well-alert to find the occasion at a bargain and to satisfy their sex urges.
“Sex tourists, defined as those who travel to
a country for the sole purpose of having sex see it as an opportunity, or even
an entitlement, to have sex available for less money than they would pay at
home. They perceive that those involved in the industry are making a
choice to sell their services.”
According to me, sex tourism is a real lack of
respect, and it becomes especially aggravated when it is made in Third World
countries, where it can represent the unique way for coming out from a devastating
situation, in exchange for the loss of dignity.
I suggest to read these articles about the topic:
The first one takes into account the point of view of
a Thai girl that, after an experience like a sex worker, decides to give up.
In the second one you can see a good critical article
by an English teacher in Thailand. A sentence in particular has attracted my
consideration: “Some say that sex tourism is about sex, but I
think it’s about power and opportunism”. And I believe that it can summarize perfectly
the whole situation
Finally, I found very interesting and useful a video
(in Italian!) made by the television broadcast “Le Iene”, that looks into the
extent of sex tourism in Thailand and the behaviour of our fellow countrymen.
What do you think about sex tourism? Please share you
opinions.
Michael Massarutto
Questo commento è stato eliminato dall'autore.
RispondiEliminaMy point of view about is that we look at the prostitution in Thailand through our Western values and morals and declare that these innocent girls are being exploited by old men and need to be saved.
RispondiEliminaI am not agree with prostitution, but I think that we try to comprehend another vision of this situation in Thailand, that is very different from ours.
The majority of people always want to come and “rescue” these girls from their lives, but that is because in the West we equate sex with love and view prostitutes as something dirty. However, Thailand has a very different notion of sex and love.
Here, prostitution is a job and prostitutes are simply workers. Sure, in Thailand’s highly classed social structure “good Thais” would never have a daughter who was a prostitute, nor yet would a good Thai boy marry one.
Compared to the West, where we really look down at prostitutes, in Thailand the social stigma is not as great. Most of the prostitutes tend to have Thai boyfriends or husbands. because prostitution is just the girl’s job. It’s a job that brings in a lot of money and the Thai boyfriend doesn’t care.
Thais don’t equate sex with love like we do in the West; relationships aren’t just about love. They are more complex than that. In the West, if you say that you love someone seems that it is that matters, it seems that Love will find the right way for everything.
Thai people have not the same thought; class, job, and family matter just as much as love. The community is divided in different social classes in which is difficult that people who come to different classes could get married.
Many foreign men who visit Thailand to engage with Thai prostitutes for a low price, often frequent beer bars, go-go bars or entertainment venue of massage, where the girls can be chosen. The Thai bar girls who go with these men do so because they provides money for their family and for study, security, and higher social status.
However it is important that girls monthly do health checks, in fact the onset of AIDS brought about a new policy from the authorities, where practical help, assistance and protection of the Thais bar girls become the main priority of government officials.
Finally I think that every person who decides to travel in a country, could be informed not only about the most important tourist places, but above all the situation and the cultures that make unique the country. We have to learn and to comprehend to not be shocked when other cultures have different attitudes about things, like sex and prostitution.
I can understand that for Thais prostitution is not as bad as for western, christian, people. It’s true that prostitution was legal up to 1960, and boomed in XIX century, so it’s nearly a “custom” to male and female in that country. But, by reading the web articles posted it is evident the contrast between the former prostitute story and the western teacher point of view of the phenomenon. I think that justify such a wide prostitution system, that is so entrenched in the social mainstream, make it worse. According to a government survey in 2008 there were 76,000 to 77,000 adult prostitutes in registered entertainment establishments, but the high incidence of part-time prostitutes and the high percentage of children involved in the traffic make precise numbers difficult to assess. NGOs talk about higher numbers, up to two million of woman. It’s almost the 9% of the female adult population (out of a total of 63,430,000 people). The majority are young females (and some young males used in omosexual prostitution) that in order to keep their families choose to entry in this lucrative market.
RispondiEliminaThe government practice is to close its eyes since sex-tourism produces 14 % of the cross national income. Admitting that a little percentage of sex-workers are willing to do that, the rest is in a situation in which has no choice. Luckily (if the terms is allowed in this context) it’s not difficult be out of the circle, on the contrary in Italy, it’s hard to get out. This because in Thailand there are plenty of girls that need to gain money (turnover is guaranteed). It’s not greed for money that urge these girls to join sex-market. It’s that the alternative are even worse, in Thailand there is an endemic exploitation system of female workers (underpaid and without benefits). A recent report by Human Right Watch (http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/05/thailand-don-t-deport-pregnant-migrant-workers) shows that, according to a proposed of regulation, authorities have to send home female migrant who are three to four months’ pregnant. In a context in which human rights are so trampled on, I can understand why most of girls prefer to sell their bodies and why they thinks that in this way they can be safer. I wonder why so many customers enjoy to be with such ill-fated people. In the web article the teacher underlined sex-market as a result of a psychological outcome of our society in which money are all and be able to buy even a woman can give the customers a sense of power. But in my humble point of view, being able to buy a performance of a girl that is forced to do it by the circumstances of her country, is more shaming than “cool”. I hope that in country were sex tourism is so spread government will do something to fix the situation and to help former sex workers to apply in different jobs.
Rosana Laura
I'm not a supporter of Asian cultural model and for that I am interested and documented their culture, in particular I have deepened the role of women.
RispondiEliminaShe has always found itself in a condition of submission, where since ancient times had the sole function of to allow the reproduction of the species. The woman in this part of the world for centuries has been found to be used as a purely sexual. In order to get out of this state of degradation and subjugation has played an important role in the education and the schooling of women. Of course everything was granted only to the girls that came from elites medium-high, while that from the countryside and from the most disadvantaged families were forced to be sold as if they were goods.
The work of those women who pointed to the emancipation of their role in society and the Revolution Chinese culture has allowed an improvement in the status of women of women in some parts of south-east Asia.
Even today, unfortunately, but there are some areas where prostitution is assimilated as a cultural characteristic of these territories. Personally I think that these policies should be destroyed, not out of a sense of bigotry, but because I think that women should be free to decide their own body as they see fit and not have to submit to the dictatorship family. These cultures wrong, not only destroys the realization of these girls, but also increase the exploitation of children and allow the birth of true crime syndicates who speculate on the poverty of the families of these girls, who get the money are willing to sell their daughters.
I find it absolutely correct that the campaign is being carried out in the program of "Iene" against sex tourism. I think it's fair that a program that has many viewers and is intended to expose certain criminal organizations, carry forward this kind of struggle. Especially because not everyone inform on those who are actually aspects of this "culture".
I also think that sex tourism is the umpteenth affirmation of the power of the West towards these poor areas, which are not able to rebel and who can not help but meet the needs of those who, in one way or other, commands them.
Eleonora Deidda
Unfortunately, sex tourism is a growing reality in many countries. I believe that there is a strong lack of interest by the Thai government but also of many other countries. For me, there are no strict enough laws against prostitution, many local that focus their business on sex tourism should be closed, there should be more control by local institutions but also international organizations.
RispondiEliminaThe world of prostitution involves not only women but also many underage girls forced to undergo all kinds of violence. Many women die in childbirth because the hygienic conditions are non-existent, many of them die from infectious diseases. Why nobody does anything?
Elsa Pasqual
Your post is very interesting. I want to focus my attention in the part regarding the comment of the English teacher: “Some say that sex tourism is about sex, but I think it’s about power and opportunism”, I agree with this affirmation. One my mother saw a documentary about this issue and she told me what she saw. The correspondent traveled to Thailand and interviewed some of the “costumers “if I can call them in this way. I was not surprised hearing that among them there were a lot of Italian men because I knew that we are almost at the first place in the sex tourism list, the thing that strongly shocked me was that those men were not embarrassed in front of the camera. They felt no shame for their behavior, on the contrary they were proud of themselves because they where rich and with their money they could buy everything, they could by a person, a little girl or a little boy, children, they preferred to have sex with children, these were their words. What kind of people are they? Do they have a heart? I don’t think so, I think they feel the power money give them, they feel superior and powerful because of their wealth. This is opportunism and lack of respect, the power felt by the western man, the white man. Obviously there is a problem and the government should do something to stop or at least to fight this phenomenon, it should take care of these little boys and girls punishing the visitors coming in the country just to practice sex tourism, but I think the real guilty are the western men. The phenomenon would not exist, or at least or at least it would not be such a big a problem, if they were not looking for sex in their travels.
RispondiEliminaVery interesting discussion! Well done
RispondiElimina