Sickening Story

[Sabum]

This is just the current fashion of the students in many Asian countries today.

The irony is that the country with the university policy on uniforms that's most "relaxed" is probably China, as most students don't have to wear them. Here in Thailand, grad students don't, at least at my uni.

A lot of what the students do is influenced by the Korean culture (think Wonder Girls group) and, to a lesser extent, Japanese culture...and also the West.

I've been to many Catholic high schools (in the US) as a speaker and they do the same thing....shirt 2-3 sizes too small, tight/short skirts...they change/adapt the existing uniform to make it their own style, because nobody wants to look the same as everyone else. They might even tie their uniform shirt off in the front (something you wouldn't see here in Thailand) until they're called on and it have to change or their parents are called too many times. Think about it...go back to the very first Britney Spears video, the whole "sexy schoolgirl" look.

Many of the students wear fairly normal heels, little to no make-up or jewelry, longer/pleated/billowy skirts....it might be 25-33% that dress in a different way. But I think that you would find this to be true in any country in the world with a uniform policy.

You also have to think of it this way....they don't have so many places like Victoria's Secret here and every girl isn't going out to buy a sexy new swimsuit each summer season...so this is the way they express themselves, by their uniform style and/or when they go out at night, especially on the weekends.

Is it commodifying women when all the Americans, Europeans and South American women wear g-strings/Brazilian style itsy bitsby teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikinis? Sure, if you're a pretty girl, you will buy a swimsuit that flatters your body...and if you're chubby, you will hide your stomach and accentuate your chest or wear black. The girls in Thailand are also very thin (usually), so they have to make their height (high heels, taller girls wearing even shorter skirts) and their tight t-shirts as a way to attract a guy. You won't ever see a Thai girl coming close to showing her cleavage in class, which is very normal in Western universities...and American/Western women definitely dress just as much, if not moreso, like "commodities" when they go out. If you don't think, check out cities like NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Prague, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, Milan, etc., on the weekends where the teens and twenty-somethings go to party.

Hate to tell you buddy, but you are obviously part of the whole problem that leads to rape, ya bastard.

This is part of what I was trying to say, what I think is fairly normal in western culture and here with women wanting to look attractive (and I dont know any guys that dont either to some degree at least but most alot!) is seen as a lead up to rape... are we mindless creatures that rape based on this kind of thing? Pretty insulting to suggest so. This is seperate from the issue of the way Asia treats women that IS part of the problem for rape.

[BarryM]

A Thai boy I know says he was raped continually whilst a monk, by none other than the abbot, when he was 13.

He believed, correctly probably, that to speak up about it would have landed him in an even more dangerous situation.

No different to the situation as it existed in the Catholic church thirty years ago. The difference is in farangland people are safe to speak up about it.

[bonobo]

 

I bring up women (sorry I mean " Girls" ) wearing tightly uncomfortable and revealing clothing because their entire intrinsic value is now wrapped up in how sexually desirable they are.

It ain't like that for men .

Realize that breasts weren't always sexualized , at one time women walked around with bare breasts in all tropical climates.

The Victorian age and British colonialism put an end to that .

Look at Indonesia , just banning the wearing of penis gourds by men in tribes, as obscene.

It's the religious obsession of sexuality , the distortion and oppression of it that causes rape.

Horsedoctor, I do think you tend to come across rather stridently at times and a little over the top, but I agree with the basis of much what you write.  I have quite referrring to women as "girls" on this forum based on one of your complaints, for example.  And I agree that a woman is tended to be judged by her perceived sexuality or lack thereof, and this is especially true here in Thailand.

However, I do not think it is the "religious obsession of sexuality" which causes rape.  WHile there is a sexual aspect to many rapes, and I would say for most date rapes, for example, studies which I have read tend to point to the fact that the physical act of intercourse or sodomy is almost an afterthought to rape. That is just the tool used to accomplish the real reason for rape which is violent subjugation of a person.  Rape as a crime of violence and control, of showing power, of being powerful.

[Choscura]

It is a huge problem here & mostly undereported.

Yes it is a problem here.

And will be so until we get into the same way of thinking as we did back in the West.

I now talk purely about how the society look, think and act about this particular issue.

It also used to be a dark issue back home (just as incest was) that nobody rather wanted to talk about.

As soon as we got it out and people became aware that this was not going away unless it was dealt with properly, then finally things started to happen.

this is going to be a problem. thai society isn't good at dealing with things in the open. everybody wants to look polite, which is kind of funny, because almost nobody actually *is* polite. I'm not saying this is a bad thing: they have an established social system in place which has worked for hundreds (if not thousands) of years- but I am saying that dealing with things in the open is difficult in thai culture.

[bonobo]

To try to limit even more misunderstanding... is military pumps a shoe term or do they actually make women wear heels in the military?

In the US military, women are not allowed to wear heels over a certain length.  So "military pumps" is a phrased used to describe rather plain, usually black shoes with the maximum allowed heel or less.

[Sabum]

Thankyou Bonobo, Im pretty sure Horsedoctor immediately assumed you meant women in the military are forced to wear heels and if they werent high enough you considered them non sexy, just wanted to clear that up. Lots of misunderstanding going on here, people need to take a breath and not jump the gun so much. I think all of us are actually of the same frame of mind for the bigger issues, i.e. this crime is one of the most horrible and disgusting things we've heard of and we would all like some serious steps taken to prevent it from happening again, but we know that will not be the case in Thailand for a long time yet and it frustrates and saddens us.

To be told I am personally part of the problem of rape is just about the most viscious thing someone could have said to me given my past experience. Out of line Horsedoctor.

[mc2]

dont be sad, it was just a misunderstanding