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The Oldest Profession
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17 July 2016
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An estimated 250,000 people in Thailand work in the sex industry, accounting for about $6.4bn in annual revenue, according to Havocscope, a database of information on world black markets.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/17/thai-sex-industry-private-arts-bangkok-this-is-us-museum-chantawipa-apisuk
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Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but the law is almost invariably ignored. Experts say it will be hard to rid Thailand of an industry that is so entrenched and that provides pay-offs to untold numbers of officials and policemen.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/thai-sex-industry-under-f/2963300.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Channel NewsAsia @ChannelNewsAsia
Thai sex industry under fire from tourism minister, police
Posted 17 Jul 2016 07:15
BANGKOK: Thailand’s infamous sex industry is under fire, with the tourism minister pushing to rid the country of its ubiquitous brothels and a spate of police raids in recent weeks on some of the largest establishments providing sex services in Bangkok.
Those who work in the industry say curbs on commercial sex services would hurt a flagging economy that has struggled to recover after political turmoil took the country to the brink of recession in 2014.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and deeply conservative, but is home to an extensive sex industry, largely catering to Thai men. Hordes of tourists also flock to the bright lights of go-go bars and massage parlours in Bangkok and main tourist towns.
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There are about 123,530 sex workers in Thailand, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report, compared with 37,000 sex workers in neighbouring Cambodia.
Last month, police raided dozens of brothels in major cities in what they said was a routine operation.
Police said they were looking to prosecute venues employing underage and illegal migrant workers, but only one of the venues raided was shut down.
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Many sex workers come from the impoverished northeast and see selling their bodies as a way out of poverty.
One former sex worker from the northeastern province of Maha Sarakham, who declined to be identified, told Reuters she entered Bangkok’s sex trade at the age of 19 and earned up to 5,000 baht (US$143.14) a night, nearly 20 times the minimum wage of 300 baht (US$8.59) per day.
“No one wants to work in this business, but it’s fast and easy money,” she said.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/thai-sex-industry-under-f/2963300.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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Murdani Benbuleuen and 25 others follow
Timothy Karera @Tkarera 17m17 minutes ago
#Kobkarn told #Reuters: “We want #Thailand to be about quality #tourism. We want the #sexindustry gone,”. – Reuters
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ZEE is Green and 1 other follow
Zee News Verified account @ZeeNews 18 Dec 2015
Stripper poles, sex toys, condoms on display as museum celebrates Thai sex industry http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/stripper-poles-sex-toys-condoms-on-display-as-museum-celebrates-thai-sex-industry_1836143.html …
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20 December 2015
GlobalCalltoAction and 5 others follow
AWID @AWID 20 Dec 2015
This Bangkok museum is celebrating the Thai sex industry and its workers: http://bit.ly/1P9cXlN #SexWork
Private arts: Bangkok museum celebrates Thai sex industry and its workers
Access is by appointment only, but a museum run by a charity championing the rights of women employed in the Thai sex trade is backing decriminalisation and upholding the values of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
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The entrance to the This is Us museum in Bangkok, an exhibition run by the sex workers’ rights charity Empower. Photograph: Oliver Holmes for the Guardian
In a museum on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand’s famed sex industry is proudly celebrated. Stripper poles, condoms and sex toys are among the items on display, while another exhibit lauds the trade’s contribution to the economy.
Entrance is strictly by appointment only, says 68-year-old Chantawipa Apisuk, founder of the charity Empower, which runs the museum. The organisation supports women working in the sex industry and – unlike many others in the field – does not pressure them to leave it.
“The museum is not open to the public. People in Thailand still have their perceptions,” says Apisuk, during a tour. Instead, private visits to the This is Us museum can be booked in advance.
Presenting the sex trade without judgment and as equal to all others is highly contentious, especially for those who believe sex work is always an exploitative and desperate way to earn a living.
Apisuk, an irreverent fellow of Harvard Law School who wears round tortoiseshell glasses, believes otherwise. She is pushing to decriminalise the trade so that sex workers can have equal rights. “It’s normal work,” she says. “Sex workers are not victims.”
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The first exhibit in the museum has a painting on the wall of a 400-year-old Chinese trade ship in Thailand. Wooden buckets of rice sit in front of it, the payment used for sex by sailors.
“Sex work was legal back then,” Apisuk says. “Sex would cost 15 kilos of rice. That much rice costs roughly 1,050 baht [£20] today. So the price hasn’t changed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/17/thai-sex-industry-private-arts-bangkok-this-is-us-museum-chantawipa-apisuk
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12 August 2015
WomenCanSee @WomenCanSee 12 Aug 2015
“Thai estimates that the sex industry involves around 40% children” #CSA http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/08/12/4291759.htm
The Pro-Pimp Dogma of the ‘Feminist Left’: A Case Study in Hypocrisy
Laura McNally ABC Religion and Ethics 12 Aug 2015
“Love how you treat them like slaves too bro love your work” pipes up one young Australian dad on Facebook. He is messaging Tim “Sharky” Ward, a notorious Australian pimp who lives in Pattaya, Thailand.
Pattaya’s lucrative sex trade boomed off the back of the United States Army who frequented the town for a bit of “rest and relaxation.” The trade continues to this day, bolstered by favourable economic policy and cohorts of sex tourists.
Pattaya’s demand for young women is particularly well served by the continued exclusion of minority and ethnic groups in the region.
Sharky, Pattaya’s resident pimp, boasts several hundred thousand online fans that flock to view his explicit images of young women. He also shares stories of how he demands respect and uses violence if “girls” don’t pay up – for instance, he put one woman in a “sleeper hold” in order to snatch her money. Sharky’s fans applaud.
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The necessity of ongoing revenue is the apparent logic behind promoting the sex trade. Yet this logic is not applied to any other industry on earth. There are calls to shut down coal and shut down global supply chains – “smashing the state” was even a topic explored at the recent All About Women feminist conference. Little concern is expressed for the workers in any of these industries. Undoubtedly anti-free trade, and yet bizarrely pro-sex trade, the feminist left seeks to undermine capitalist industries, except the one industry responsible for some of the most heinous human rights violations on earth, all the while proudly declaring its impeccable moral bona fides.
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Amnesty and their supporters in the Australian feminist media argue that there are sufficient laws to deal with sexual exploitation and trafficking, including child sex abuse. They argue that not all prostitution involves sex trafficking.
On the contrary, all sex trafficking results in prostitution and any increase in the industry influences rates of trafficking. Research out of various European states, including the London School of Economics, has shown that any legalization of the sex trade significantly increases the flows of sex trafficking. An international study of male sex-buyers found that fully one quarter preferred women under the age of 18, with a universal preference for young women. This is reflected in Thai estimates that the sex industry involves around 40% children. Research shows over half of the women in Sydney’s sex trade are from overseas and many lack English comprehension.
The Australian feminist media not only evades many of these issues, but effectively represses these women’s stories by focusing solely on Australians who engage in sex work of their own volition.
While the causes and solutions to sexual exploitation are complex and varied, the Australian feminist left leaves little room for any perspective other than their own – that is, the privileged, naive position that they so despise, yet doggedly espouse in equal measure. After all, the author who claims to have drafted Amnesty’s pro-pimp policy is Douglas Fox, a man with vested interest in UK brothels. The endorsement of sexual exploiters is now the purview of Australia’s feminist progressives. You find friends in the strangest places, right Sharky?
Laura McNally is a psychologist, researcher, author and PhD candidate. Her doctoral research examines the political and social implications of global corporate social responsibility. She is the chair of the Australian branch of Endangered Bodies and provides social commentary on issues related to gender inequality. You can listen to her in conversation with Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens tomorrow on The Minefield on RN.
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/08/12/4291759.htm
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