Back in Thailand now after more than two weeks of travel in Cambodia and China. There is much to tell about those trips but first-
I want to tell the honest story of my time in South-East Asia. So it wouldn't be complete without a story of the sex show that I saw in Pattaya a few weeks ago. But I will preface it with some background on the sex industry in Thailand.
After living Pattaya I am extremely critical of the prostitution industry. It feels predatory, like all these gross old men are using their wealth to take advantage of young women. I also feel uncomfortable around such blatant objectification. Sex and obscenity are paraded around Walking Street and Beach Road in a numbing profusion.
But I have learned something about the Thai perspective since I arrived, after talking to some former bargirls who work at Languagecorps and also doing some reading on my own. Many of the girls move to Pattaya from the north-eastern provinces, an area known as Esarn and comparable to rural Appalachia in the US. At as young as 15 they can quickly make huge sums of money, most of which they mail home to support their family. They come and live above a bar with the other dancers in a strange sorority. They learn rudimentary English, how to smoke a cigarette, and the art wrapping men around their finger. What they are really looking for is someone who will support them for the rest of their life. Ideally the bargirl will find a farang who falls in love with her, someone who even after he leaves Thailand will continue to send checks. Some men never really believe the girl is a prostitute; they just pay for her apartment and food and for her family's tractor repairs.
Sex is not given such a sacred treatment as it is in Western culture. I have heard it compared to scratching an itch. From the Thai point of view the girls are the ones doing the exploitation. It is they who are taking advantage of the weak-willed, wealthy farangs for their own gain. There is a legend of the "Swedish village" in eastern Thailand where several enterprising bargirls built themselves mansions for themselves and their families, all funded by a group of Swedish sex tourists.
This doesn't make what happens acceptable to me, for it can still be dangerous and traumatic business and one that a 16 year old should never even know about. However, I feel humbled to have my cultural assumptions put into perspective.
So our randy Languagecorps teacher took us out to a sex show, claiming it was a part of Pattaya that we couldn't miss out on. It was on the second floor of a bar on Walking Street, somewhat calmer than the frenzied beer bars that border the street.
The first thing I noticed was that the crowd was not all men, but largely couples and mixed-gender groups. The crowd felt more like an audience than a pack of wolves. The show was as raunchy as I had expected, but I was surprised by its gaudy glamor. In between acts like Popping Balloons with Darts Shot from Vagina a team of ladyboys pranced out and did lipsynch to 80s hits. There were five of them, bedecked with rhinestones and animal print thongs and I could just picture them up late practicing their choreography while one of them worked a sewing machine, adding ruffles to their matching skirts.
The show had the low-budget charm of a travelling vaudeville act or a Wild West burlesque hour. The same few girls came out over and over in different costumes and inserted and popped and squeezed a veritable buffet of food and drink with their vaginas. If it had been printed on a piece of broadsheet with exciting fonts about 100 years ago, this is how I imagine some of the acts would have been described.
Smoking Cigarette with Vagina!
Opening Coke Bottle with Vagina!
Blowing Out Birthday Candles with Vagina!
Putting Egg in Vagina, Slamming Body to Floor, Removing Unbroken Egg!
The crowd gasped and shouted encouragement at the right times. They ate and drank in their seats and yelled at the girls and the girls yelled right back. Props failed and costumes got caught in fans, but that was all part of the low-budget nature of the show. It was like a body tricks talent night with a focus on the crotch. It tied together for me a lot of the stunning inconsistencies I see sometimes in Thai culture- the effortless blend of high and low culture, of seriousness and hilarity, and of sexuality and everyday occurance.
I want to tell the honest story of my time in South-East Asia. So it wouldn't be complete without a story of the sex show that I saw in Pattaya a few weeks ago. But I will preface it with some background on the sex industry in Thailand.
After living Pattaya I am extremely critical of the prostitution industry. It feels predatory, like all these gross old men are using their wealth to take advantage of young women. I also feel uncomfortable around such blatant objectification. Sex and obscenity are paraded around Walking Street and Beach Road in a numbing profusion.
But I have learned something about the Thai perspective since I arrived, after talking to some former bargirls who work at Languagecorps and also doing some reading on my own. Many of the girls move to Pattaya from the north-eastern provinces, an area known as Esarn and comparable to rural Appalachia in the US. At as young as 15 they can quickly make huge sums of money, most of which they mail home to support their family. They come and live above a bar with the other dancers in a strange sorority. They learn rudimentary English, how to smoke a cigarette, and the art wrapping men around their finger. What they are really looking for is someone who will support them for the rest of their life. Ideally the bargirl will find a farang who falls in love with her, someone who even after he leaves Thailand will continue to send checks. Some men never really believe the girl is a prostitute; they just pay for her apartment and food and for her family's tractor repairs.
Sex is not given such a sacred treatment as it is in Western culture. I have heard it compared to scratching an itch. From the Thai point of view the girls are the ones doing the exploitation. It is they who are taking advantage of the weak-willed, wealthy farangs for their own gain. There is a legend of the "Swedish village" in eastern Thailand where several enterprising bargirls built themselves mansions for themselves and their families, all funded by a group of Swedish sex tourists.
This doesn't make what happens acceptable to me, for it can still be dangerous and traumatic business and one that a 16 year old should never even know about. However, I feel humbled to have my cultural assumptions put into perspective.
So our randy Languagecorps teacher took us out to a sex show, claiming it was a part of Pattaya that we couldn't miss out on. It was on the second floor of a bar on Walking Street, somewhat calmer than the frenzied beer bars that border the street.
The first thing I noticed was that the crowd was not all men, but largely couples and mixed-gender groups. The crowd felt more like an audience than a pack of wolves. The show was as raunchy as I had expected, but I was surprised by its gaudy glamor. In between acts like Popping Balloons with Darts Shot from Vagina a team of ladyboys pranced out and did lipsynch to 80s hits. There were five of them, bedecked with rhinestones and animal print thongs and I could just picture them up late practicing their choreography while one of them worked a sewing machine, adding ruffles to their matching skirts.
The show had the low-budget charm of a travelling vaudeville act or a Wild West burlesque hour. The same few girls came out over and over in different costumes and inserted and popped and squeezed a veritable buffet of food and drink with their vaginas. If it had been printed on a piece of broadsheet with exciting fonts about 100 years ago, this is how I imagine some of the acts would have been described.
Smoking Cigarette with Vagina!
Opening Coke Bottle with Vagina!
Blowing Out Birthday Candles with Vagina!
Putting Egg in Vagina, Slamming Body to Floor, Removing Unbroken Egg!
The crowd gasped and shouted encouragement at the right times. They ate and drank in their seats and yelled at the girls and the girls yelled right back. Props failed and costumes got caught in fans, but that was all part of the low-budget nature of the show. It was like a body tricks talent night with a focus on the crotch. It tied together for me a lot of the stunning inconsistencies I see sometimes in Thai culture- the effortless blend of high and low culture, of seriousness and hilarity, and of sexuality and everyday occurance.
posted by DMF at 5:27 PM
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