PDF 3,0M Signaler ce document 1Academic disputes on prostitution in exotic countries probably insist too much on specific aspects of this phenomenon. In Southeast Asia, as everywhere, prostitution should be considered a business, a trade, a deal between a woman or a man who has something she he is willing to sell and a customer who wants to buy it.
The shocking part of the transaction is that, in this case, what is bought and sold are bodies, or more exactly sexual services. In fact, the most important aspect of prostitution—in France, in Brazil, or in Thailand—is money, usually cash money. This is indeed the first element to keep in mind: selling the pleasure that their bodies can produce is the work that a lot a women have found to earn a living, raise their children, and help relatives.
Why do women choose to work as prostitutes when they could have found alternative work? Who are their customers? What are the official and local academic positions and discourses on prostitution? How large is the role of prostitution in the national economy? What is the actual influence of the West?
And, of course, what the cultural obstacles and inducements that could at least partially explain the huge number of prostitutes in this country. Generally speaking, works by European researchers focus on that part of Thai prostitution that exists between Thai women and western men.
Indigenous prostitution—i. On the other hand, numerous Thai scholars, journalists, officials, and novelists have written about prostitution for locals, but their works have not been translated and remain little known.
