Of Amoral Thai Coeds & Campus Bunnies

It’s back-to-school time again and you must wonder how any work gets done in Thai colleges in view of all those distractions. Recently we heard about that professor who was more interested in a female student’s special service than intellect.

I’m talking about the Chula and other campus bunnies. Who wear those most boring white school blouses extra-too-small and the most boring black skirts extra-too-short. The result: All the attention is happily and bashfully focused on trying to keep covered.

A zero sum game though, as the very essence of wearing a black skirt and white blouse two sizes too small and stuffing a little tight Thai girl into it is to transform that plain uniform into a distraction. Some lithe and lissom Thai college girls seem to have no other worries than to draw the attention. They may avert their eyes, but how they love it. There are even magazines celebrating the art of transforming yourself by means of a uniform into a starlet on campus.

The very reason for having to wear a school uniform is to save time in the morning not having to make up the mind on what to wear. School uniforms are all about less distraction. And – more importantly – to make the richer undistinguishable from the poorer.

A school uniform is all about equality. No pressure to always buy the newest fad or otherwise getting harassed or embarrassed.

 

But here you have the Thai coeds, perfectionizing the artistry of looking same same but different.

They’re all wearing the same but couldn’t wear it more differently.

Leading to the question: “Student, is that a uniform you’re wearing?”

Student: “Yes teacher, same same but different.”

There are even fake students, sporting that most boring uniform of the world in a manner that regularly raises the blood pressures of Ladda Tangsupachai and her dedicated Surveillance Center of the Culture Ministry.

Respected New Mandala called Khun Ladda “a cultural dinosaur and it’s time for her to go.”

But hey, Khun Ladda’s moralization has its merit. All she’s concerned about is the purity of the Thai body and mind. Just to mention the crusade against after skool coyote dancers – and those hairdos and piercings!

Expect the guardians of public morals to roam the campuses again. Because uniforms that are no longer uniforms give rise to a wide host of new problems: Distractions lead to unwanted pregnancies and abortions and families torn apart.

Dress up? Dress down?!

Thammasat University at the Bangkok Rangsit campus meanwhile has banned tight blouses and short skirts unconditionally. The skirt “should cover the knee,” reads the Dress Code.

Damn.

What a shame.

What a cultural loss that would mean.

But there’s hope that Thai coeds are indomitable.

Despite the dress code, quotes Xpress a TU-student in her sophomore year: “Sometimes, I’ve seen students wearing tank tops and shorts.”

Looks like a Sisyphean task keeping those uniforms in check.

Those dress codes and morals may need an overhaul.

Thai coeds rule.