Travels in the skin trade

the long version

Women in the sex industry in Thailand have been for a long time the object of international investigation, both by Western scholars and media people. Through their studies and reports, women in Thailand are viewed as 'the other women', whose status is perceived as lower than that of women in the West. Moral judgements, paternalistic attitudes towards Thai society in general, and Thai women in particular, are commonplace when one reads publications on this subject. Certainly there are elements in Thai society which contribute to the growth of commercialisation of human relationships, both in the family and community, and to the commodification of women's body and soul. But since there are two sides in a commercial transaction between foreign visitors and Thai women, why is only one party to the deal (Thai women and their society) the target of investigation, while the other party (the sex tourists) goes unexamined? It is more difficult to look into one's own heart than to impose one's own moral judgement on the people and culture of others.