This past week, the only truly exciting things that I did
were to go rock climbing, finish watching the second season of Game of Thrones
(OMG IT WAS AWESOME), get caught up in the Once Upon a Time series (I know it
seems like I’m watching too much TV, but it’s just to get study breaks), and
visit Wat Umong.
On Tuesday, I went rock climbing with Ashley, Emily and
Mickey (the master rock climber) at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures for
Ladies’ Night where we got to climb the wall for free! Rock climbing is a lot harder than it looks,
and I fell down onto the mats when reaching for the top of the wall (I will one
day make that red tape path MINE!), and that’s that about rock climbing.
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| I assure you, I got farther up the wall than this. |
This morning, Emily, Kristina, and I went to Wat Umong
because some dude from muay thai training (which I sadly have decided that I
need to stop doing for several reasons) kept raving about during a warm-up run
one morning. It’s actually really cool- everywhere, there are trees with signs
posted everywhere. The signs have a
series of Thai and English proverbs that are very inspiring. There are also a
series of tunnels (umong) through which you walk to worship some Buddhas, a
Chedi, a library, and more!
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| Paying respects to the Buddhas in the tunnels |
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| The sillies at the Naga staircase |
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| Feeding the fishies |
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| I LOVED all of the signs here |
But all of this is not what I’d like to talk about in this
post. Right now, I’m writing two
research papers; one is about the roles of women in Thai Buddhism, and the
other is about child prostitution in the Philippines for my Economics of the
Sex Industry in Southeast Asia class.
I had the opportunity to go camping this weekend at Mae Hong
Son (which I would highly recommend), but the fact that I have to have a
bibliography for this paper turned in on Tuesday, convinced me that I needed to
stay in and due crap tons of research.
Obviously, this was a depressing weekend.
Prostitution is a big issue in Southeast Asia. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in a
previous post, but the sex industry is very prevalent in Thailand. While riding through the streets of Chiang
Mai in a songtaew at night, it has been difficult to ignore the florescent
lights marking the location of a “karaoke” establishment, or serving as the
backdrop for a series of scantily clad women standing outside of one of the
city’s buildings. When going out to
clubs, I am constantly wondering which of the provocatively dressed girls are
prostitutes. There are also plenty of
ladyboys (boys who dress as girls, or are undergoing surgeries to become girls)
in the mix, and these are oftentimes the girls who are most proactive in
hitting on our foreign male friends.
Nighttime Chiang Mai is very sexualized. Why?
Well, for Southeast Asia, the sex industry has its roots during the
Vietnam War when the American soldiers would take vacations in different parts
of the region for a little R&R. This
included the opportunity to have paid sex with Asian women. Unfortunately, the popularity of prostitution
did not leave with the Americans after the war ended. Some of these countries’ economies still
depend on the sex industry, so the government turns its head, or has been
corrupted.
After the implementation of anti-prostitution laws and
enforcement, many sexualized institutions have been forced to go more
underground by disguising brothels as massage parlors, karaoke bars, etc. A lot of sex workers are not known as
prostitutes, but are called “bar girls,” “entertainers,” or “guest relations
officers (GROs- can you believe they have an acronym for this? weird.)
There is an entire tourist industry geared toward helping
foreigners have sexual relations with prostitutes. These old white men are easy to spot when
they are sporting young Asian women on their arms, flaunting about as if she’s
his girlfriend (younger men and Southeast Asians also pay for sex, not just old white men- there is no stereotypical 'john'). It makes dancing at
clubs a little uncomfortable if I’m not tipsy enough to ignore it. What’s
worse is that a lot of these young girls are under the age of 18. Why? Because of the demand for young
girls. Why? Because there are perverts who are more
sexually attracted to children, because impoverished parents sell their
children to the streets, because it’s a way for the children to survive, and
more. Girls as young as 6 years old are
being taught how to give oral sex.
Another reason for young girls- fear of HIV/AIDS. Young girls, and especially virgins, are
sought out because it is believed that having sex with a young girl will
prevent the buyer from contracting the disease, or it will get rid of the
disease. Others believe it will make
them more beautiful, more powerful, or increase their lifespan. Load of
bullshit, but the dumbbums believe it.
No matter the age or gender, many sex workers are affected
psychologically, physically, and socially.
They are beaten, threatened, viewed as a commodity, forced into a system
that they may not escape from, and dehumanized.
Their culture tells them that they are dirty and not worthy- they will
never amount to anything, never be married, never be respected. They will not have a good reincarnation in
their next life because they are bad people in this life.
The people selling them are pimps, brothel owners, family
members, friends, and even themselves. But these people get away with what they
are doing due to lack of law enforcement, aid from corrupt police and
government officials, and the fact that this practice is normative in these
cultures.
There are a load of NGOS and GOs that work toward stopping
this practice. But oftentimes their
answer is rescue. This isn’t the best
answer in many cases- rehabilitation into society isn’t always effective,
sometimes they return to prostitution, or they are unhappy with their lives
inside of these institutions.
I have a lot more to say about this issue. I’m still learning about it. I know this is the most depressing post that
I’ve written, but I’m sharing my weekend with you. This is what I’ve been reading about for the
past 48 hours (you can’t blame me for taking a lot of TV breaks now, can
you?). A lot of the world isn’t entirely
aware of the extent that this issue exists.
Sure, there are a lot of issues in the world. Sure, prostitution may be a profession that
exists everywhere, and is a profession that has existed throughout history for
a very long time. But that doesn’t mean
that a large population, women and children especially, should be forced into a
profession that many of them don’t ask for and don’t want; a profession where
they are dehumanized, treated as commodities, and are led to believe that they
are worthless.
The world needs some answers to this problem. It starts with educating people. No, not the sex workers, or the children of
these nations. Oftentimes they are too
poor to pay for their education, and are forced to sell their bodies in order
to pay for it. We need to educate the
people demanding these services. We need
to limit the demand. We need to improve
law enforcement. And, we need to fix economies
and ease poverty. These are obvious
solutions, but oftentimes, the solutions are simpler than we think. It’s implementing the solution that is
hard. I don’t know what I’m expecting
anyone to do about all this, and obviously things won’t be fixed
overnight. But, if I’ve made some of
you fine folk a little more aware of the world that I’m very close to right
now, I feel as if I’ve done something important.
Now, to lighten things up a bit. I’ve been getting through my readings by
taking TV breaks, but also by constantly listening to Korean Pop. Please, listen to some and either A) dance or
B) make fun of me.
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