Thailand and the Sex Industry - Part 2
Exporting sex
Thai CSWs constitute a not insignificant portion of the foreign workforce in countries like
Germany, the United States, and Japan. Sa of 1988, approximately 8000 Thai CSWs were based in germany alone. According to Japans National police Agency, between April 1995 and March 1996 nearly 60% of CSWs in Japan were from Thailand. the remaining women were from South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Some women move abroad on their own, some go through agents, and others either apply or are induced into business-arranged foreign "marriages". Travel agencies, in cooperation with Thai tourist and business counterparts, often buy women in "marriage" to put to work as CSWs in the country to where they move. Those who do not re-enter the sex industry are still subject
to labour exploitation - either through providing services that satisfacrily fulfil the phantasies that guided their new "husband"eastwaed or by entering the labour force in low-skill, low-wage employment.
Thai womens burden
In contarst to many societies, women in Thailand have played a central role as income-earners for their families and as financial supporters of their elders. In terms of social lberties, males in Thailand occupy a much more advantageous position than females. Young men are often given few responsabilities and allowed consicerable personal and social freedoms. In contrast young women must follow strict behavioural guidelines and must assume most of the family and househild responsibilities, while sacrificing their own freedom. Compounded by rural poverty and a lack of educational economic oppotunities, such heavy filial burdens push a large number of young women into the sex industry to earn income for their families. Performing their expected duties, young women from Thailands poverty-stricken north and northeast often go willingly with employment agents to work in Bangkoks massage parlours and other sex industry establishments. Commercial sex as a means for income has become a standart for many rural communities in Thailand. It hhas been estimated that there are approximatly two million CSWs within the country. Over all estimates conclude that one in every five Thai momen aged between 13 to 29 is a sex worker.
Although there is a clesr predominance of single males in the over five million tourists who visit Thailand each year, the vast majority of the clientele in the sex industry are Thai men. The frequenting of CSWs has become an institutionalized, socially acceptable practice for a very substancial part of the male population in Thailand.Approximately 70 to 80 % of all Thai males have visited CSWs and about 30 to 40% use their service regulary. And in certain areas of Thailand it is estimated that approximately 90 % of Thai men are regular clients.
Avisit to a brothel has become a rite of passage for adolescent single males, and in the age of 16, half of all Thai boys have visited a CSW.
By 1989 the frequenting of CSWs by Thai males had become the driving force for AIDS in Thailand. However, due to the AIDS programmes promotion of condom use and public education targeting sex workers, condom use has been high for the last few years in sex establishments. However, in low-cost brothels, use remains inconsistent.
Because of Thai womens submissive role in society, and due to the fact that CSWs are young girls, sexual subordination of both wife and sex worker is coomonplace and continues to fuel the spread of th virus.
Many AIDS experts say that the new problem in Thailand is premarital and extramarital
promiscuity. Women and girlfriends do not ask their boyfriends or husbands to use condoms.
Thai society has in fact helped to foster the beleif that men have the right to seek sexual gratification freely ouside marriage, based on the myth that sexual urges of men are more compelling than those of women.
Legislation : aggravating the problem?
Commercial sex is officially illegal in Thailand, but because powerful vested interests are at stake. there has been a tremendous lack of will to crack down the sex industry. acccording to Prof. Pasuk Phongphaichit of Chulalongkorn University, the money generated from the sex trade is higher than the value of narcotics smuggled out of the country. A team of researchers has estimated that the sex industry brings approximately 450 billion baht annually, or about half of the fiscal budget for 1995.
The illegal status of sex workers in Thailand renders them particulary helpless and vulnerable to exploitation, for they have no recourse to any protection from law or society. Many activists argue that sex workers need to be protected under the labour law to provide them with recourse in the case of abuse, to ensure they recieve at least a minimum wge and are guaranteed fair working hours. In practical terms, legalizing and regulating commercial sex work in Thailand would improve working conditions and the health and safety of CSWs. They would be able to organize more easily and could negotiate more safely with clients - knowing that the police would protect them as citizens rather than harrass them as criminals.
In a society and economy where prostitution has already become common and is the highest paid source of income for unskilled womem, any attempt to suppress the industry without providing sound economic alternetives can only hurt them. The need to abolish child prostitution, forced prostitution, and trafficking is unquestionable, but hollow legislation fails to protect consensual CSWs from exploitation and puts them and the wives and children of their clientele at risk of HIV infection.
back to part 1
related video: Pla - a Bangkok Bar Girl
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