The issue of Thai women or female massage therapists being perceived as sex workers is not the only problem they face. Being a woman from Southeast Asia often means being seen as someone from the “third world” trying to escape her country for a better life. Even being a Thai woman can lead to questions about whether one is a biological woman or a transgender person, given Thailand’s reputation for this. However, it is not that people are unaware of these issues; rather, it is that no one seems to be trying to change them.
Everyone I interviewed acknowledged these problems but didn’t know how to solve them. They could only protect themselves and raise awareness among those around them. This issue has become so normalized that people often make jokes about it, treating it as something trivial rather than a gap that needs to be addressed. For example, last summer, there was news about American soldiers coming ashore.
It should have been an ordinary news story, but instead, the internet was filled with jokes encouraging women to put on makeup and go out to greet the soldiers, framing it as a great opportunity to find a foreign husband.
Personally, I find myself laughing at these articles because, in truth, I feel indifferent. This may be because I grew up in a society where these issues seemed distant. However, people around me consider buying sexual services to be normal. By ‘normal,’ I mean that they don’t publicly announce it but discuss it casually among close friends, often in a joking manner. The reason I bring up this topic is that I see it as a potential gap that has been consistently overlooked. Many people have tried to make these issues more openly discussed to encourage change, whether through satire or educational content aimed at development.
I recently had the chance to attend the final project exhibition of UAL students and met a Thai student pursuing a Master’s in Graphic Design. Her work was another example of social satire, critiquing Thai society through clever wordplay popular among Thais, combined with visual elements, under the project titled “How to Bangkok.”
I had the chance to hear her explain her work briefly. Her idea came from specific terms used among Thai people that are often used to insult or mock someone’s gender or sexual preferences. These terms have evolved into common expressions used casually to indicate someone’s gender identity. She wanted to present these in a way that is more accessible and understandable, especially for foreigners. So, she chose to create them in a graphic format with explanations on the back.