In this strange union, the foreign man also gets some fulfillment from the Thai woman that he would not receive from a Western woman. Foreign men are treated as royalty, even more than Thai men. Foreign men are considered to be handsome and more importantly, extravagantly rich, which places them in a status above Thai men. Older, less attractive or socially inapt men are able to feel desirable when they are with their prostitute “girlfriends”. They are also made to feel like heroes, saving the poor impoverished Thai women. The exchange is a sordid one, yet both parties build a new definition of gender through their cultural exchange that would not have been possible within their own cultures.

Foreign men often fall head-over heals in love with Thai prostitutes. The prostitutes are experts at hustling and often secure foreign “boyfriends” who fully fund them and sometimes even their families. These new foreign “boyfriends” although rarely taken seriously by the Thai women, give them a certain sense of womanhood that they had not before experienced. Thai prostitutes are so apt at seducing foreigners, that the men very often lose or disregard their own judgment and allow themselves to be manipulated. Perhaps it is the blindness of lust or the fulfillment of carnal desires in a servile way (that would be rare in the Western world) that so fully seduces these men. Whatever the reasons, Thai prostitutes swindle massive amounts (by Thai standards) of money from these “boyfriends” and are able to exert much more power and influence over them then they would ever be allotted in Thai culture. Through foreign men, they are able to sidestep social taboos. They are free to be women and decide who they interact with sexually, even if the morals behind it are often greed rather than love. If a sexually active Thai woman is considered a whore anyway, then what is the harm in making some money from it?

Economist Article, Sexually Trafficking. Date accessed: 11/15/03.

Thais often have several wives, called Mia Luang Mia Nouy, or major wife, minor wives. Thiphak’orawong, author of a late 19th-Century defense of polygamy, wrote “[it is] the role of man to initiate sexual contact while the role of women is to passively acquiesce” (Barme. Bangkok. 158). Yet the concept of polygamy has far from died out. In 1999, one of the most popular programs on Thai television was an adaptation of a novel called Mia Luang, about a Thai man’s major wife dealing with her philanthropist husband (Barme. Bangkok. 157). Thai people of both sexes generally believe that a man has stronger sexual desires

Some topics in this essay:
Cleo Odzer, Thai Foreign, Thomas Steinfatt, Woman Bangkok, South-East Asian, Thomas Bar, English Steinfatt, Barme Bangkok, Thailand Thailand, Thai Buddhists, thai women, thai prostitutes, sex industry, women considered, sexual liberation, form sexual liberation, barme bangkok, thailand expected, thai culture, steinfatt thomas bar, patpong sisters, scott woman bangkok, foreign “boyfriends”, thomas steinfatt describes, called mia luang,