Genders and Sexualities in Modern Thailand

by Peter A. Jackson (Editor), Nerida M. Cook (Editor)

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.

289 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Peter A. Jackson is professor of Thai cultural studies in the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific. He has written extensively on modern Thai cultural history with special interests in religion and sexuality. He is editor-in-chief of the Asian Studies Review and founder of the Thai Rainbow Archives Project, which is collecting and digitizing Thai gay, lesbian, and transgender magazines and community organization newsletters (see http://thairainbowarchive.anu.edu.au/...).

Reviews

[Cullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some thoughts:
1. A good selection of topics, though the topic of kathoey identity—which in my eyes is one of the most significant and interesting aspects of gender in Thailand—gets surprisingly little space. So too does homosexuality in general, really. The largest topics in the book are male infidelity in heterosexual relationships and male–female gender roles.
2. Much of the writing is clear and good, though a fair bit commits classic sins of gender studies writing, such as excessive use of unexplained and assumed theory and unjustified imputations of motivations.
3. Some of the writing is understandably a bit out of date for modern Thailand.