Don't feel sorry for the women.

There are plenty of women who work in factories, markets etc etc etc. They do not resort to prostitution.

There is often a choice, they chose to sell their bodies. And that's fine. But, don't be surprised by the clients.

What do you expect?

Traditional Thai women have been raised to be submissive to their parents, and then to their husband. They often are raised in a sheltered existence where going out of the home is frowned upon because parents don't want to have what appear to be promiscuous daughters. That would make them less "valuable" when it comes to getting a dowry I suppose. Male children are often raised with a boys will be boys attitude where they are allowed to do just about anything.

Traditional Thai women learn to obey their husbands wishes and not ask a lot of questions and just go along with what he wants. They put their own desires including sexual ones second to his. This can make them seem incurious. This I think is why they tolerate minor wives. From a young age they are taught that the man gets what he wants, and they have to submit to him.

Modern Thai women however are growing up in the digital age and are blending their parents traditional viewpoints with the messages they get from the media. They are far more westernized in their attitudes to all subjects. They are more willing to express themselves but may still be more reserved than you might find in a woman from the west.

Basing you opinion of the attitudes of Thai women on experience with Thai prostitutes will leave you with a completely skewed view of Thai women and Thai people. Unfortunately these are the only women some foreigners meet, which perhaps spares decent Thai women from having to meet those sorts of foreigners, so it's a mixed blessing.

Hmm. Maybe I've spent the past 22 years in some kind of weird limbo, but the local women on Koh Phangan, certainly raised very traditionally, range from out and out wild (my sister in law) to submissive (my husbands sister in law) and unsurprisingly, all shades of behavior in between. Perhaps Southern women are more independent. Perhaps island life breeds self sufficiency. But I can't say that most or even alot of the local women I know are submissive in any way.

nope nothing to do with being from the south or anywhere else. Women are women the whole world through, even in places with extreme religious control women will still act how they want if they are prepared to accept the reaction to it imo.

I've only ever met one submissive thai women, my husbands sister & she wasn't always like it so he tells me, the proverbial wild child in her day, just seem like her life just got her down so she is an obedient & quiet thing with a nasty glint in her eye that one day her alkie husband might jut get to see whats behind it.

I find myself completely agreeing with SBK and Boo. Submissive women are as common in Thailand as good cheap wine and Sicilian pizza. The only people who refer to submissive Thai women as the norm are people who don’t live in Thailand.

I have lived in five major Thai cities, north, south and in between and it is the same all over. I have known quiet Thai women, loud Thai women, old Thai women, young Thai women, Issan women and Thai Chinese women, educated women and farmer’s daughters. If I had to pick one trait that links them all I would say it was non-submissiveness.

This has been an interesting thread to read. Thank you Kaewmala

My former UK wife was extermely submissive (while she was my wife), nothing like any of the Thai ladies I have met.

My current wife (Thai) would give me a smack in the mouth if I were even to suggest she was, and so would either of my previous Thai gfs.

If I had so assign common character traits to Thai ladies, vindictive, vicious and vengeful would be my choice, not submissive!

Edited April 19, 201016 yr by sarahsbloke

Rural Thai women don't talk about sex with a foreign woman, they ask me loads of other questions about farangs, but not that particular one. So, no I dont' think that makes them incurious. Just sensible

That's what I thought. ...

I was a little surprised that she answered so quickly and so adamantly that the ladies she knew in Bangkok had no interest in a Falang. I would have not guessed that. I would have thought the opposite.

I believe rural women are a lot more open about sex (to each other) than city (middle class) women. They can be quite rowdy together. More educated, urban middle class Thai women are more conservative (due to more conservative upbringing & conservative education), though I believe at least some do talk about it among close friends.

Interesting what she said about they (her rural girlfriends) think of a 'farang' not as a person, or not as a normal person -- kinda confirms my "tribal" theory. But what exactly is the "khun" and "po kut tee" that she was talking about? I can't conceive of the words in Thai.

I would guess the words in question are คุ้น as in and ป(ร)กติ - i.e. allegedly, the rural women said they "aren't used to (farang) and (farang) are not ordinary/normal".