A friend who has traveled Asia extensively was describing the red light districts in Thailand. The things that go on there are mind-blowing (just try to guess what is meant by a “frog show”).
He went on to comment that one reason that prostitution is so rampant in Thailand, is because there is no social taboo against promiscuity. Prostitution, in his opinion, is viewed by the populace as simply a good way to make a living.
Is promiscuity a cultural norm in Thailand?
No, promiscuity is frowned upon a great deal. Women are expected to be virgins at marriage, for example. The Thai authorities are very sensitive about this aspect of the country’s image.
However, hypocricy is as rampant as prostitution. Many (most?) men in Thailand treat a trip to the brothel as part of an evening out. Same applies in many other parts of Asia. Your friend is right in that people in Asia are pragmatic about the economic side of prostitution, but it is certainly not seen as a “good” way to make a living. The religion there teaches reincarnation, so there’s a fatalistic attitude to others’ misfortune.
The shows your friend saw were probably aimed at tourists. He’s obviously from a sheltered background if he’s never seen beer bottles opened, darts fired and other things done with female genitalia! Brothels aimed at locals would probably be worse in terms of conditions for the staff. Many women in the trade were sold into it by parents in very poor areas in the north.
Nitpick: just because there’s no taboo against something doesn’t mean it’s a cultural norm. E.g., there may not be a taboo in our society against eating large amounts of cashew nuts every day, but this doesn’t mean it’s a “norm” per se.
In my own brief travels in Thailand, I’ve also wondered what the people there think about prostitution. I suspect that the government tolerates it because there are vast numbers of foreign men (American, Russian, Japanese, etc.) who come to Thailand solely for the purpose of renting a girlfriend for a week. Tourist dollars are at stake.
Promiscuity (IMHO) is an example of a trait that would be a cultural norm if no taboo existed against it. Sex is much more fun than cashew overindulgence. Trust me, I know.
Why doesn’t the post ID recognition work? You have to scroll to mylong post in the linked thread to see what I’m talking about
Hemlock is quite correct. Unfortunately a great deal of the current level of morality stems from the country’s ties to the U.S. during the War in Viet Nam. During that conflict the government said we could have bases there and our soldiers were welcome to have R&R there.
What do tens of thousands post adolecent American men want (and are willing to pay good money for)? Before that, the main money maker in the country was rice.
By the end of the conflict the sex trade was a major portion of the country’s economy and had a great deal of political clout. And because they no longer had the automatic lock with the huge numbers of American servicemen, they had to, as Avis used to say, “Try harder”. Much of that continues up to today.
This is not to imply that there was no sexuality prior to the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam. In fact the girls from Chang Mai were quite well known in the country for their sexual abilities, but one had to know someone who knew someone to pair off with them.
I don’t think you are correct, at least not when it comes to women. First of all, a sadly large percentage of women do not enjoy sex much, or at all. Secondly, even if a woman had the desire to be promiscuous and there were no social taboo against it, she would still have to deal with other problems such as jealous or violent partners, sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancy.
As for Thailand specifically, I know from friends who grew up in southeast Asia that promiscuity is no more approved of there than it is in say Japan or China.
I have to chime in on the Japan part. From what I’ve observed here, while promiscuity may not be actively encouraged (and even that’s questionable), there is nowhere near the level of disapproval that one sees in Christian-based cultures in the West. I haven’t travelled extensively enough to say with any accuracy how this compares with other Asian nations.
I’m not sure about promiscuity, but my roommate lived in Thailand for two years, and he dubs it the “Transvestite Capital of the World”. I’m not sure how true that is, but he’s told us a decent number of (pretty credible-sounding) stories from while he was there.
cite please.
I’d like to go to Tailand for a couple weeks, just to sample it. 
I suspect that you may be thinking more of Japanese attitudes towards men’s sexual behavior than women’s. Judging from the Japanese women I know personally, there is a much stronger disapproval of any pre-marital sex, much less promiscuous sex, in Japan than there is in the US. Given that the Japanese women I know are all middle to upper class women studying in the US I will grant that they are probably not a good representative sample of Japanese women as a whole, but given the circumstances that Japanese women live under (unmarried women almost always live with their parents, arranged marriages are still common, birth control pills were unavailable until just a few years ago, etc.) I doubt that many of them are having a wild and crazy time.
I would be inclined to call any measureable percentage of women who did not enjoy sex to be “sadly large”, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, a University of Chicago study published in the JAMA back in '99 said that 22-28% of women report that they are unable to achieve orgasm during sex, and 32% of women ages 18-30 reported that they lacked interest in sex. This seems consistent with what I hear from other college aged women.
Lamia - I won’t hijack this thread further, but when I ask for a ‘cite’, generally, I expect to be given something that I can look at, to determine if it supports what you claim, and not ‘there was a study done and reported in such and such/time frame’.
but I’ll leave it at that here.
I’m sorry, I was quoting from my own research conducted offline and forgot that not everyone lives in a dorm next door to a college library with back issues of the JAMA readily available. I hadn’t even looked to see if the JAMA kept online archives. Luckily they do, and the particular article I refered to is there. Here it is:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n6/rfull/joc80785.html
The specific stats I used came from this table:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n6/fig_tab/joc80785_t1.html
thanks Lamia - I don’t subscribe, so I could only access the tables. So, the problem is that the data doesn’t explain details. I can see a certain percentage says ‘pain during sex’ in various age groups, but I don’t know if the question was “have you ever experienced pain during sex”, or if it was a frequent problem.
but thanks anyhow.
Hmmm, I am not a subscriber and accessed the article just fine. Perhaps there is a problem with linking directly to it. Here is a link to the table of contents for that issue, maybe that will work better:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n6/toc.html
But if that doesn’t work, here is the relevant portion of the “Methods” section:
I’ve spent a few months travelling in Thailand, though I’m by no means an expert on the culture. True, there are lots of prostitutes catering to foreign men, and lots more (reportedly working in much worse conditions) catering to the local men. I’m inclined to think that one reason prostitution is so common there is that there is such a social taboo against promiscuity, at least for women. In order for “pure” girls to remain “pure,” there needs to be some “bad” girls for the men to have fun with. Mostly a guess, but I’ve read things to that effect as well.
Concerning Japan, based on the two years I spent there (I was single then), women in general seem to enjoy much more sexual freedom, though of course that’s a big generalization.
“I’d like to go to Tailand for a couple weeks, just to sample it.”
Well, don’t forget,
I think it was Pres. Clinton, of all people, made a law that states any american going to a foreign country cannot legally have sex with anyone under 18in a foreign country… 
There was a story on one of the TV newsmagazines about this. The Feds set up a sting and netted quite a few “tourists”.
That’s OK, I’m in UK. Under 18 isnt my thing though anyway.
That is a gross misconception. Thai people look down on prostitutes, big time. A good Thai girl is supposed to remain a virgin until marriage, this very important status to a young Thai woman. If it is ever commonly known that she is not a virgin, she is likely to never find a Thai husband. Thai men are aloud to do pretty whatever they want before marriage. In short, women have to stay virgins, men don’t have to worry about it. My wife is Thai and I quiz her on her culture often, and I’ve learned a lot. Thai people in general are sensitive about the sex trade in their country, the only reason its not abolished is the fact that its one of main reasons the country survives financially.
I greatly discourage this. AIDS is rampant in the prostitution community in Thailand. Messing with Thai prostitutes is like playing witha loaded gun.
This is a kind of true statement. Thailand has a large gay population. They are in general very opened minded about such things. In fact it is sort of a fad among sexually flustrated Thai males