Gold Rush Abroad
The Trajectory of Singapore-Based Thai Transsexual (Male to Female) Sex Workers in Global Sex Tourism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0032Keywords:
Agents, Sex Tourism, Sex Workers, Singapore, Thai TranssexualsAbstract
Sex work is part of Thailand’s tourism-based economic development model. The country’s global reputation as a ‘queer paradise’ is an important factor shaping Thailand’s sex tourism and linking it to the global sex industry. This paper addresses transnational routes and networks of the global sex trade through Thai transsexual (male to female) sex workers who travel out of the country to Singapore for short periods to meet global demand. The research is based on in-depth interviews with 75 Thai transsexual sex workers who are working in districts such as Orchard Towers, Little India, and Geylang in Singapore. For some informants, Singapore is a final destination; for others, it is just a stop along the way to other places abroad. The findings show that the commercial sex trade involving these individuals is global in every sense, including the way it is funded, developed, structured, and organized.
References
Aizura, A. Z. (2011). The romance of amazing scalpel: “Race”, labor and affect in Thai gender reassignment clinics. In P. Jackson (Ed.), Queer Bangkok: Twenty-first century markets, media and rights (pp. 143-183). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Arunrat, T., Banwell, C., Carmichael, G., Utomo, I. D. & Sleigh, A. (2010). Sexual identities and lifestyles among non-heterosexual urban Chiang Mai youth: Implications for health. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 12(7), 827-841.
Association of Thai Travel Agents. (2018). Statistics international tourists arriving in Thailand as of 20 March 2020. Retrieved from http://www.atta.or.th/?p=4019
Billard, T. J. (2019). (No) shame in the game: The influence of pornography viewing on attitudes toward transgender people. Communication Research Reports, 36(1), 45-56.
Brenman, D. (2004). What’s love got to do with it? Transnational desires and sex tourism in the Dominican Republic. Durham: Duke University Press.
Chan, Y. (2020). Golden Mile Complex: The Idea of Little Thailand in Singapore. Austrian Journal of South- East Asian Studies, 13(1), 103-121.
Cohen, E. H. (Ed.). (2008). Explorations in Thai tourism: Collected case studies. Emerald Group Publishing.
Cohen, E. (2001). Thai tourism: Hill tribes, islands and open-ended prostitution. Bangkok: White Lotus.
Earth, B. (2006). Diversifying gender: Male to female transgender identities and HIV/AIDS programming in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Gender and Development Journal, 14(2), 258-271.
Gallagher, R. (2005, July). Shifting market, shifting risks: Male and transgender tourist-oriented sex work in South-East Asia. Paper presented at Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia: The first International Conference of Queer Studies, July 7-9, Bangkok.
Hornblower, M. (1993, June 21). Prostitution: The skin trade. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http:// content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978751,00.html
Human Rights Watch. (1995). World Report. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/
Human Rights Watch. (2015). Thailand Gender Equality Act. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/100442/120478/F764760666/THA100442%20Eng.pdf
Human Rights Watch. (2020, February 21). Thailand: Court Dissolves Opposition Party. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/22/thailand-court-dissolves-opposition-party
Jackson, P. (2011). Queer Bangkok: 21st century, media and rights. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Jackson, P. (1995). Dear uncle Go: Male homosexualities in Thailand. Bangkok: Bua Luang Books Press.
Jackson, P. & Sullivan, G. (2000). Lady boys, tom boys, rent boys: male and female homosexualities in contem- porary Thailand, Thailand Edition. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Book.
Jutathorn, P. (2018). Street and state discrimination: Thai transgender women in Europe. Ph.D. Thesis in Cultural and Global Criminology, University of Kent.
Jutathorn, P. (2014). Transprejudice in Thailand. Retrieved from http://thaitga.org/2019/th/2014/09/13/ transprejudice-in-thailand/
Kempadoo, K. (1998). Introduction Globalizing Sex Workers’ Rights. In K. Kempadoo & J. Dozema (Eds.), Global Sex Worker: Rights Resistance, and Redefinition (pp.1-28). New York: Routledge.
Kempadoo, K., & Dozema, J. (1998). Global Sex Worker: Rights Resistance, and Redefinition. New York: Routledge.
Kim, Y. (2012). Female individualization? Transnational mobility and media consumption of Asian women. In Y. Kim (Ed.) Women and the Media in Asia (pp. 31-52). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kitiarsa, P. (2008). Thai migrants in Singapore: State, intimacy and desire. Gender, Place & Culture, 15(6), 595-610.
Limpangog, C. (2013). Migration as a strategy for maintaining a middle-class identity: The case of professional Filipino women in Melbourne. Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 6(2), 307-329.
Lines, L. (2015). Prostitution in Thailand: Representations in fiction and narrative non-fiction. Journal of International Women’s Studies. 16(3), 86-100.
Martin, F., Jackson, P., McLelland, M., & Yue, A. (2008). AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking genders and sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Indian Tourists: New Hope for Thailand’s. (2019, July 21). Manager Online. Retrieved from https://mgronline.com/china/detail/9620000068814
Matzner, A. (2002). The politics of re-presentation: An analysis of western academic treatment of male transgenderism in Thailand. Retrieved from http://home.att.net/~leela2/politics.htm
Meyer, W. (1988). Beyond the Mask. towards a transdisciplinary approach of Selected Social Problems Related to the evolution and Context of international tourism in Thailand. Saarbrücken: Breitenbach
National Human Rights Commissions of Thailand (NHRC). (2008). Evaluation report on the human rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people. Bangkok: Thailand.
O’Donoghue, T., & Punch, K. (2003). Qualitative educational research in action: Doing and reflecting. London: Routledge.
Ojanen, T. (2009). Sexual/gender minorities in Thailand: Identities, challenges, and voluntary-sector counselling. Sexuality Research & Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, 6(2), 4-34.
Ojanen, T., Bredford, J., Juntrasook, A., Kongsup, A., Assatarakul, T., & Chaiyajit, N. (2018). Intersection of LGBTI exclusion and discrimination in Thailand: The role of socio-economic status. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 16, 529–542.
Phayakvichien, P. (2005). Thailand’s tourism development: Past, Present and Future. Workshop on Mekong tourism: Learning across Borders. Chiang Mai: Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University
Prayuth, C. & Preecha T. (2004). Sex reassignment surgery in Thailand, Journal of Medicine Thai, 8(11), 1404-1405.
Richards, G. (1999). European cultural tourism: Patterns and prospects. In D. Dodd and A-M. van Hemel (Eds.), Planning cultural tourism in Europe. A presentation of theories and cases (pp. 1-19). Amsterdam: Boekman Foundation.
Roen, K. (2006). Transgender theory and embodiment: The risk of racial marginalization. In S. Stryker & S. Whittle (Eds.), The transgender studies reader (pp. 656-665). New York: Routledge.
Schiller, N. G., Basch, L., & Blanc, C. S. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant: Theorizing transnational migration. Anthropological quarterly, 48-63.
Schwab, K. (2015). World Economic Forum. The Global Competitiveness Report. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2014-15.pdf
Sinnot, M. (2000). The semiotics of transgendered sexual identity in the Thai print media: Imagery and discourse of the sexual other. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2(4), 425-40.
Slamah, K. (1998). Transgenders and sex work in Malaysia. In K. Kempadoo, & J. Dozema (Eds.), Global sex workers: Rights resistance, and redefinition (pp. 210-214). New York and London: Routledge.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research. (1st ed. pp. 273–285). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Stryker, S. (2004). Transgender activism. Online Encyclopedia of the Social Science, Retrieved from http://www.glbtqarchive.com/
Thais ban dictionary over “city of prostitutes” slur (1993, July 6). The Independent. Retrieved from https:// www.independent.co.uk/news/world/thais-ban-dictionary-over-city-of-prostitutes-slur-1483226.html
Thaiwebsites (2020): Revenue from foreign tourists visiting Thailand. Retrieved from https://www. thaiwebsites.com/tourism-income-Thailand.asp
Totman, R. (2003). The third sex: Kathoey- Thailand’s ladyboys. London: Souvenir Press Ltd. Trupp, A. (2017). Migration, micro-business and tourism in Thailand. London: Routledge.
Tuohy, T. (2018, January 27). Chinese ‘zero dollar’ tour companies dodge Thai crackdown – and travel agen- cies defend the practice. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/ travel-leisure/article/2130551/chinese-zero-dollar-tour-companies-dodge-thai-crackdown-and
Turner, R. (2015). Travel tourism, economic impact 2015, Thailand. London: World Travel & Tourism Council.
UNDP (2014). Being LGBT in Asia: Thailand country report. Bangkok. Retrieved from https://www.undp. org/content/dam/rbap/docs/Research%20&%20Publications/hiv_aids/rbap-hhd-2014-blia-thailand- country-report.pdf
UNWTO (2017). International tourism highlights. Retrieved from https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/ pdf/10.18111/9789284419029
UNWTO (2019). International tourism highlights. Retrieved from https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/ pdf/10.18111/9789284421152
Wathinee & Guest. (1994) Prostitution in Thailand, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, IPSR Publication No. 171. A report prepared for the research project: The sex sector: Prostitution and development in South East Asia (pp. 5-18).
Warunee, S. (2003). Life without identity of kathoey who have a sex change. Master’s thesis, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Winter, S. (2011). Transsexual (Khon kham-phet) in Thailand: Transprejudice, exclusion, and the presump- tion of mental illness. In P. Jackson (Ed.), Queer Bangkok: 21st century, media and rights (pp. 251-267). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Winter, S. (2005, July). Of transgender and in Asia. Paper presented at Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia. The First International Conference of Queer Studies, July 7-9, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Winter, S. (2004). Gender identity formation thermodynamics. International Journal for Gender Identity Disorder Research, 2(1), 7-13.
Witchayanee, O. (2015). Queering Thailand: On the emergence of new gender and sexual identities. In
T. Ashley & S. Bala (Eds.) The global trajectories of queerness: Re-thinking same-sex politics in the global south (pp.145-160). Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Witchayanee, O. (2013). Re-thinking gender: Negotiating future queer rights in Thailand. Gender, Technology and Development, 17(1), 79-104.
Witchayanee, O. (2012). Transsexual emergence: Gender variant identities in Thailand. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 14(5), 563-575.
Witchayanee, O., & Earth, B. (2013). Identity diversification among transgender sex workers in Thailand’s sex tourism industry, Sexualities, 16(1-2), 195-216.
WTTC – World Travel and Tourism Council. (2019). WTTC Report. Retrieved from https://wttc.org/en-gb/
Xinghui, K. (2017, November 20). Singapore’s sex trade: Licensed brothels, “sugar babies”, and laws you can run rings around. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/ article/2120339/singapores-sex-trade- licensed-brothels-sugar-babies-and-laws-you-can-run
Yot, S. (1992). Buddhist cultural tradition and the politics of national identity in Thailand. Culture & Communication Working Papers, No.4. Honolulu, Hawaii: Institute of Culture and Communication East-West Center.
Yutthana, S. (2000). Rights and liberties of male homosexuals under the constitution law: Analyzing from Thai social problems. Master Thesis, Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS)
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
For all articles published in ASEAS before December 2014 and after July 2022, copyright is retained by the authors. For articles published between January 2015 and June 2022, the Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS) is the copyright holder. Articles published in ASEAS before December 2019 are licensed under the following Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Articles published after that date are licensed under the following Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International. In both cases, this means that everybody is free to share (to copy, to distribute, and to transmit the work) under the following conditions:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
-
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
-
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.