The Female Sex Tourist

Call it hypocrisy: How the Bangkok Post dropped the Nite Owl a few years ago, but enjoys good business with classifieds such as “Barbar – Fetish Experience”, “V.I.P. Models – Business Men Choice” – or “Body Club – Oil Massage by Men.”

Massage by men. Not only for men. There’s quite a trade in town of male prostitutes offering their services to female clients.

Talk about it with associate professor Nither Tinnakul of Chulalongkorn’s Department of Sociology. He did a study about this newer escort culture. Puts the number of female prostitutes in Thailand at 100,000. The number of male prostitutes at a not less staggering 30,000.

Professor Tinnakul’s project was mainly aimed at new escort services that are importing hundreds of prospective black gigolos – “forungs” – from Jamaica and Africa to Thailand to satisfy the surge in the demand for these services among the Thai female elite.

According do Tinnakul Thai women are paying upwards of 10,000 baht per night for the servicers, who are “fiercer”, more “thrilling” in bed and more “well built” than their Thai peers. Or Western peers for that?

But it is not only lust driving a market that is mainly kept under cover. We’re all aware of the old culture of cut off penises here in the Land of the Free. Thai women are leaders in penis slashing. The tradition has kind of died down. Or has it?

Read, in this context, our story about Mara Altman who still hasn’t orgasmed in Bangkok.

But one of the lingering effects of the Asian economic crisis is prevailing as ever: The women’s need for revenge against their philandering husbands. “The women want some equal rights,” says Tinnakul. “Some kind of freedoms. They need something.”

Tinnakul goes on: “Male prostitutes here not only serve for Thai women, but also for Western females and female tourists from mainly Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.”

Oho, and what about the “horny Japanese housewives heading off to Bangkok to grab a slice of the Thai life“?

We talk about substantial figures.

How they get their servicers? “Mostly through friends,” professor Tinnakul told absolutely. “They have their own networks and websites. There are bars and places. It is had to get into these circles, they’re built on trust” – but are all common and readily available in Bangkok.

And constantly evolving. Professor Tinnakul did the research some years ago. “Nothing basically changed. The balance of supply and demand is still the same.” With supply increasing during more difficult economic times – and prices falling with falling arrivals of relevant tourists.

The local male market prostituting itself consists of Thais as well as immigrants, Tinnakul says. “Thais and immigrants are more for the tourism market” – whereas the long-perpetrated image of the black man as a sexual toy flourishes as a niche market among higher-up Thai females.

Call them “escorts” or “gigolos” – they’re a stereotype, but not rare here in Thailand, as the comprehensive study of Tinnakul shows.

Sensing any racial degradation? Sexual prowess at the cost of black men being less progressive or caring? And honestly, I don’t see too many black men around anymore lately …

How scandalized Thai society felt by Tinnakul’s report. Since in paying for the favors of such men, Thai women are defying tradition. A Thai top politician was quoted as saying that all the hoopla about foreign gigolos raised by Tinnakul’s report was undermining the good traditional Thai family and making men suspicious of their wifes.

And don’t forget about the so called Thai ballroom dancers: Mostly young, good looking dancers and dance teachers who spend their Saturday evenings and Sundays in the company of an elder, paying Thai lady – who not only expects to dance.

Tinnakul knew about the sensitivity of his research. He says he was just uncovering what is viewed as a taboo in Thai society: “This exists in the Thai society – just look at the English newspaper for an example. You look at the advertising and you’ll find lots of advertising about this kind of job,” Tinnakul once told Australia’s ABC. “This topic is not talked about because it is something people don’t think it exists in Thai society – or maybe think it’s not a good thing to talk about it.”

Fact is: Forungs fetch the highest prices.

“The place where most male prostitutes are from though,” says professor Tinnakul, “is Cuba. A student of mine did the research. Cuba seems to be the world’s biggest market with male prostitution and female tourists.”

Met any Cuban lately?

And competition here in Thailand is ever increasing, the professor says. With white male prostitutes arriving from Europe.

Why all the black and white servicers in Thailand?

“Maybe,” says the professor, “they can satisfy the women better.”




Sphere: Related Content

Related posts on absolutelyBangkok.com:

  1. Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand
  2. Thai Love Talk
  3. Pandaphantitis
  4. Walking The Bhikkhuni Path
  5. Dr. Saul: Thailand To Tackle World’s Desire Deficit
  6. Dangerous Ground

November 15, 2007 | Filed Under Nightlife & Entertainment, The Thai Mind, Travel & Tourism 

Comments

16 Responses to “The Female Sex Tourist”

  1. BangkokDan on May 1st, 2008 10.23 pm

    Interesting. The so far by far most read story on this site – and nobody caring to comment.

    BangkokDan

  2. Rainer Hansen on May 13th, 2008 7.23 am

    My white girlfriend was served by a male Thai prostitute and did not regret it at all.

    Rainer

  3. oneditorial on May 14th, 2008 3.23 am

    There is nothing much to say as the story has been told quite q few times before. It is something that we all know, and some even take part in it.

  4. Saiya on June 9th, 2008 5.36 pm

    Can anybody specify the locations? I really want to go … indeed.

  5. BangkokDan on June 9th, 2008 9.43 pm

    That’s exactly the question I asked the professor, Saiya.

    He didn’t tell me any.

    BangkokDan

  6. BangkokDan on June 26th, 2008 11.04 pm

    Got several emails of men praising their manhood in all colors with all contact details and such.

    Sadly folks this is not the place to advertise your skills.

    There are tons of places in Big Mango to make your rut call be heard.

    BangkokDan

  7. jim on September 20th, 2008 11.06 am

    I will be bringing my girl friend to Bangkok in Oct, next month. Where can I find gigolo (local as well as Eurasian) for her to have some fun? And how much is the service?

  8. Rainer Hansen on September 23rd, 2008 10.31 pm

    … as far as I rembember my girl made her first contact somewhere on Sukumvit Road. Be aware of the consequences for your relationsship, if she really intends to do be bedded by a Thai boy: What was supposed to be a one-night stand went totally wrong in my case. Once the Thai lover had sex with her and he knew she enjoyed it, he immediately seized his chance for “long term sex” with a white girl and constant good payment. The next morning he quickly chocked my resitance, fastened his grip on my girlfriend and took my girl over for the rest of our holidays. You may read more if you google: “My girlfriend had paid sex with a Thai boy” or “Why did I let my girlfriend had paid sex with a Thai boy.”

    Rainer

  9. Stefan on April 26th, 2009 3.40 am

    Hallo Rainer & Claudia,

    Sorry dass ich mich so lange nicht mehr gemeldet habe (ich habe eine “herausfordernde” Zeit hinter mir). Ich hoffe es geht euch gut und ich gratuliere euch besser spät als nie ganz herzich zu eurer Verlobung! Ich bin gerne bereit, unseren anregenden Gedankenaustausch fortzusetzen.

    Liebe Grüsse,
    Stefan

  10. Steph on July 28th, 2009 1.30 am

    I absolutely understand Rainer, the same thing happened and still happens to me and my girlfriend. We just came back from a one month long vacation in Thailand. It is not at all an easy situation to be in and to deal with. Either it destroys the relationship or it moulds it even stronger together than before. My sympathy and best wishes go out to Rainer and all other men in our situation who dare not speak in public about their humiliation.

  11. Rainer on August 10th, 2009 3.12 pm

    Thanks Steph! Not just another abusive comment!

    You are still the only one who openly admits that he had to share his girl with a Thai. I believe strongly that not only single female travelers from Europe seek contact to young Thai guys, but also some who travel with their partners.

    On the one hand there are our farang girls, who feel attracted by exotic Thai guys … on the other hand there are the very smart and clever Thai guys luring our girls: The very easy and big cash young Thai beach boys/money boys can make with an interested white girl seems to be so tempting that they try everything to isolate her from her Western partner … if the Western guy is too weak, too nice, too polite, to scared, (… as we obviously were) the greater the chance for the Thai competitor to bed the farang girl.

    Rainer

  12. tom on August 11th, 2009 9.36 am

    For all of you men that want this to happen, and allow it to happen, hopefully you enjoy it. If you do not want to happen, then tell you gf/wife to stop. If you are not man enough to stop her, then you deserve what you get. I was married to a woman that was unfaithful to me, and I was glad when I found out. Sometimes it takes extreme situations to find out what your partner is really like. Leave her, divorce her, or use this as an excuse for you to be unfaithful. But do not just sit there and take it like a pussy!

  13. male escorts on October 19th, 2009 3.29 am

    Incredible article, it’s hard to say what the cause of the phenomenon is, it’s difficult to come to grips with what some people consider cheating. Male escorts are in business though, and the people who seek them out are responsible for the effects on their own personal lives. Make sure you do something about it!

  14. Rainer on November 16th, 2009 3.11 pm

    Read this article by a guy who lived for a long time in Thailand about thai beach boys, how they “capture” white girls for fun, sex and money. An excellent article which shows the truth!

    http://www.travelpod.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6742&pid=217701&st=0&#entry217701

    Rainer

  15. ChuckWow on February 20th, 2010 2.50 pm

    Random thoughts/questions stirred by this posting :

    1. I still miss Bernard Trink’s column in the Bangkok Post.

    2. I am familiar with the Thai word falang/farang but not “forung.” Is this a way of denoting that you are talking about a “chocolate man”?

    3. If you take your wife/girlfriend to Thailand for vacation and plan to do a little carousing yourself then I think it is only fair that your wife/girlfriend be allowed to do so as well. If you don’t then she shouldn’t either.

    4. Interesting question – “what about the “horny Japanese housewives heading off to Bangkok to grab a slice of the Thai life”?”

    Years ago when I worked in northern Japan the Japanese men would go to Thailand for sex and the Japanese women would go to Bali for male companionship – not necessarily for sex but rather to have a man treat them as they wanted to be treated because their husbands would not. Apparently the times they are a changing.

  16. Matthew on February 21st, 2010 6.26 am

    Why is it cool for girls to buy sex but when men do it they considered low life scum by the mainstream?

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