Genders & Sexualities in Modern ThailandPeter A. Jackson, Nerida M. Cook Many foreign observers of the "Land of Smiles" are familiar with a narrow range of gender relations and sexual practices in Thailand, from the fanciful portrayal of 19th-century harem life in The King and I, to recent media coverage of sex tourism and AIDS. Yet serious study of patterns of sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in Thailand is relatively new. This book is a rare collection by scholars from around the world and across social disciplines who are tackling these issues. The essays urge the reader to look beyond fantasies of Thailand as an "oriental sexual paradise" or "land of sexploitation" to historical and contemporary forms of gender and eroticism. Studies of the changing opinions and practices among villagers and urbanites, the creative expressions of novelists and aristocrats, and the concerns of early women's magazines and recent AIDS-prevention campaigns, reveal the extraordinary diversity of debates about gender and sexual issues in 20th-century Thailand. Avoiding simplistic approaches to gender studies and sexuality research, the authors discuss how interpretations of gender roles, marriage, and intimate relationships differ between men and women; cultural regions; Thai and immigrant Chinese communities; and heterosexually and homosexually active groups--as well as between residents of Thailand and their foreign observers. By questioning accounts of Thailand as a place where gender is fluid and sexuality is free, the book unravels the complex processes by which Thai men and women understand themselves, appealing to both general readers and scholars of Thai society. Peter A. Jackson is fellow in Southeast Asian history at Australian National University. Nerida M. Cook is lecturer in sociology at the University of Tasmania. |
Contents
Transforming SexGender Orders | 1 |
in Northeast Thailand | 26 |
2 Women and Capitalist Transformation in a Northeastern | 43 |
Copyright | |
14 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
academic AIDS Asian baht Ban Srisaket Bangkok bride price Buddhist Chinese Chulalongkorn Chulalongkorn University commercial sex patronage commercial sex workers concern context cultural dichan discourses economic edited Esterik ethnic extramarital sexual female sexuality focus group focus group discussions gender and sexuality gender relations girls hearer HIV/AIDS homoeroticism homosexuality Hua-jai husband identity important Isan issues jin kao women Kanchanaburi kathoey Knodel kraphom Kunlasatri linguistic Lopburi Mahidol University male marriage married masculinity men's modern moral Odzer Participant partners percent person phom political Population premarital Press Prostitution in Thailand refer relationships reported role rural Satri Satri Niphon self-reference Sex in Thailand sex workers sexual behavior Siam Siamese social Southeast Asia speakers status Surangkhanang Thai gender Thai language Thai society Thai studies Thai women Thianwan University Vajiravudh VanLandingham village virginity Western wife wives woman women's group young