Hacker News Reader

Comment by anon8418 | Hacker News Reader

Having traveled to Thailand I was pretty shocked at how open(ly exploitive) and shameless the sex trade there is.

I've always wondered why the Thai government and King are okay with condoning the massive sex tourism industry there (the majority of which is built to serve foreigners... which stands in contrast to the sex industries in other Asian countries). Don't they know that in the western world, Thais are at the butt of all the stereotypical sucky-sucky-me-so-horny jokes?

I find it unbelievably demeaning culturally... and it seems so contradictory to the otherwise prideful Thai culture...

Any local Thais care to comment?

View on HN

Thailand's sex industry is indeed massive, but the vast majority of it caters to Thais; the bits that target Westerners -- a few dozen gogo bars in a country of 67 million -- just happen to have a much higher profile. Essentially all the women working in it are there of their own free will, if almost always because of economic hardship. (Typical scenario: Poor rural girl gets pregnant, boy disappears/dies in traffic accident. Girl can't support child and herself with farm labor or factory work, so she leaves the kid with grandparents and goes off to Pattaya.)

And oh: the "me so horny" line comes from Full Metal Jacket, a Vietnam war movie.

I think comparatively, Thai's sex industry is way more foreign-friendly than any of the other asian countries (with maybe the exception of Phillipines).

And yes, I do know the genesis of the "me so horny" line, but my point still stands. Thailand, especially the seedier aspects, is synonymous with "sex tourism" in the west.

Compare the image of Thailand's sex industry with say that of Amsterdam's red light district...

You are massively overstating the case. While I'm vaguely aware from various news stories that sex tourism does exist in Thailand, it's hardly the first thing that comes to mind. Food and diving have 40X and 13X and more google hits, respectively, and sex tourism doesn't show up on the list of google typehead choices even if you push it to "thailand se".

You are right of course - people have different perceptions; for me, diving is definitely the thing that comes to my mind from Thailand, even if I have never done any scuba diving myself. The next things are beaches, food and the tsunami.

But regarding what Google typeahead suggests to you, it depends on your location and perhaps your own search history. For me the options with "Thailand se" are september, seasons, sevärdheter ("sights" in Swedish). So if someone sees proposals with "Thailand sex", it could be because he or she has been doing previous searches for Thai sex tourism.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com