Wednesday 20 July 2011

Thai Women and (Farang) Foreign Men – What's that all about?


Sex and money make the world go round. Add power and the combination of the three makes up the ideal recipe for success, be it in business or pleasure. Is that a cynical view? Maybe. but when a sanctimonious English female reporter asks the question: Why do Thai girls want to marry foreign men? I think that's a pretty daft question. The reasons are obvious, but let's look at the route to the pot of gold.
Many Thai girls, particularly those from the rural north east, can have a fairly rough time in both childhood and in their teens. Go into any bar in Bangkok and the bar girls will repeat the same story. They had a Thai boyfriend, who got her pregnant, he then did a runner, and she was left with baby and probably mother, father and a few lazy brothers to support.
Often the male contingent of that family and even the mother will tell the girl there is one solution: "Go to Bangkok, get a job in a bar, make money using your feminine charm and send us the money you make". Simply put, go and have sex with as many foreign men as possible and give us the money.
This is the reality of the situation and no matter how it is dressed up and had spin put on it, this is simple fact in Thailand, It has been for decades and I see no sign of it changing, no matter what the 'do gooders' and politically correct females of the west may think. They have not had the same pressures put on them as these girls have.
There are choices of course and I know a few girls who have moved on from the bar scene without grabbing a foreign husband. One went back to grow and pick potatoes, and as far as I know she still sells them at the roadside, and is doing OK. Some try the factories but find the money paid by the foreign manufacturers just isn't enough to support their family as well.
In the true tradition of worker exploitation, these manufacturers are treating their female staff with as much disrespect as any foreign sex tourist. Working on the farm is the other option, but again, it's not enough to sustain a whole family, so it's off to Bangkok and use the most valuable asset they have to lure a nice foreign guy.
There are no shortage of takers, but as in any job, some effort has to be made to be successful. It's no good just sitting at the bar every night and not learning how to communicate properly. Let's face it, some of the girls are not the sharpest knives in the box and they will always have trouble in achieving their goal
Some are just downright lazy and would struggle wherever they worked. And some are cunning to the degree of deliberately getting pregnant and using this as a lever to get the man. But this is not just Thailand, it happens the world over.
In contrast, some are bright, learn and pick up English (the most common language used) and are fun to be with. This is important as many men will not want to be sat there with a bored looking, dim, sad girl. That's not why they came to Bangkok. If the signs are good, and after a few nights of pleasure, the guy is still keen, then the girl from the North Country may well have cracked it. But the driving force behind all these relationships is money.
After a while the sex can wait, but the money has to keep coming in a steady flow. Eventually they may marry and both go to live in a new house built in the home Isaan village, where the Farang and his beautiful Thai wife live and maybe have children. The teenage girls in the village will see the new house and look with envy.
They may ask: "How come Lek have big new house like this?"
The answer : "She go Bangkok and find Farang man – I think I do same"
The circle is complete, and off we go again with some more of the beautiful girls of Isaan looking for their man. That's why many girls from Isaan look for a foreign man. Security and money.
Simple – Yes?
So having answered one question, our dim British TV reporters then come up with another daft question:

Why do western men come to live in Thailand?

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