Bar Talk: Thai Male Sex Workers and Their Customers

In Thailand, the male sex industry is extensive in the four cities of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket. In Bangkok, for example, as many as 50 venues are scattered throughout the city (Allyn, 1992; Jackson, 1995). There are male bar workers, masseurs in saunas and gyms, ‘singers’ in karaoke bars and male escorts. In addition, freelance workers are found walking the streets (Poshyachinda and Danthamrongkul, 1996; Narvilai, 1994) or cruising the discos, pubs and cinemas frequented by homosexually active men. In this chapter, I will focus attention on male bar workers in Bangkok. There are a number of reasons for being concerned with this particular group. First, the sexual network for the male bar workers is complex and can include homosexually active men (both gay and non gay-identified), kathoey (transgendered persons) and women. Second, the relationships among the bar workers, customers and bar operators are characterized by a lack of personal reflection and the workers’ ability to negotiate sex is constrained by the power exerted by the customers and management. And third, the customers may be either Thai or non-Thai; this provides a further complication for the sex workers who may be called on to negotiate the sex session (the off) either in their first language, Thai, or in a second language, usually English (Storer, 1996). ¹