Sex Tourism in Thailand

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Recommended: Sexual trafficking of men, women, and children around the world

This essay will explore sex tourism in Thailand. Thailand has an orphanage with 300 children under the age of 5. Almost 80% of the children are HIV positive. Who are these children? Where did they come from? Where are their mothers? These children are the result of sex tourism in Thailand. While sex tourism exists throughout Thailand, I have chosen to look at Pattaya, Thailand for this project. Pattaya is a beach resort renowned for its sex tourism.

Sex tourism includes men, women and children and can lead to human trafficking and sex slavery. Human rights organizations attribute sex tourism for promoting illicit sexual exploitation of non-consenting adults and children. I wish to concentrate on the women within the sex tourism of Pattaya. One of the issues is the question of who within the relationship of sex tourism has the power within the global political economy. Chambers identifies, that prostitution and modern tourism are closely integrated (2009:64).This union is supported by licit organizations and the substructure of mass tourism through media, the establishment of brothels and tours reinforce the sexual exploitation of women and their lack of power. Governments even support the existence of sex tourism on a macro-level. The tourist, of course, is an active supporter of sex tourism.

Prostitution is not something that is new in Thailand but tourism had a vital influence on the trade. Pattaya was a fishing village until it became a preferred destination for U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War. Military forces created a demand for sexual outlets for their soldiers. This led to a boom in prostitution that spread across the country as a profitable enterprise. The Americans had spurred Thailand into becoming known as...

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...e sex tourist trade do not. These women suffer from an inequality of opportunity and agency which results in a range of complex consequences with their involvement in the sex trade from dangers within the lifestyle, STDs, HIV/AIDs and pregnancy to name a few.

Works Cited

Barthes, R. (1984; 1981). Camera Lucida :Reflections on Photography [Chambre claire.English]. London: Flamingo.

Chambers, E. (2010). Native Tours :The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism (2nd ed.). Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press.

Macleod, D. V. L., Carrier, J. G., & Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth. (2010). Tourism, Power and Culture :Anthropological Insights. Bristol, UK: Channel View.

Ortner, Sherry B. "Is Female To Male As Nature Is To Culture?" Ed. Ellen Lewin.

Feminist Anthropology: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006. 72-86.

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