Why Does Thailand Have Such A Bad Reputation ?

[Jingthing]

]It was the Thai OP who brought up Thailand's bad reputation as a fact. Sorry, it is a fact. I guess some people don't watch many Hollywood comedies, some dig at Thailand as a whoring sex zoo or even worse a pedo haven graces many of them. Those joke writers didn't write those jokes in a vacuum, people get the jokes and laugh loudly at them.

BTW, I am really not very old. (Yet.)

Not trying to be argumentative, but what movies are you watching? I can't think of any movies where pedo, for example, is a subject.

Not a subject, passing jokes. There are MANY! Typical example, a passing reference (for a cheap laugh) about a characters uncle in Thailand who married a 12 year old boy. It is ALWAYS Thailand. It's pop culture, these jokes are very common in Hollywood comedies.

[StreetCowboy]

8>< SNIP Nested quotes deleted ><8

Not a subject, passing jokes. There are MANY! Typical example, a passing reference (for a cheap laugh) about a characters uncle in Thailand who married a 12 year old boy. It is ALWAYS Thailand. It's pop culture, these jokes are very common in Hollywood comedies.

Must just be the shows you watch. I am lucky to have led a sheltered life.

Anyway, you appear to have hit the nail on the head. In order to address the OP's issue, we should be discouraging people from watching Hollywood Comedies or better still, banning them as libellous, or alternatively developing more appropriate lines for them - and doing everyone a favour.

What is the correct term for grafting a sense of humour on to someone? And could it be done to an entire nation?

We'll have the eugenics crusaders on our backs now...

No thanks JT, I'm not that way inclined.

SC

[nocturn]

I suggest we focus on Thailand here. It is true Thailand is not the only country with a bad reputation, but do we really need another proxy Israel bashing thread?

Arent you being a bit selective in your reading? Israel was one of several counties mentioned in his post.

[IanForbes]

Let's not delude ourselves, Thailand DOES have a bad reputation. That's not something that can be changed overnight. Thais can change things by first dealing with corruption. It is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet, and polls have said most Thais just accept that. That basically means it is hopeless. So the answer isn't on an expat board, now is it?

Bad reputation amongst who? The echo chamber of western expats who vent at each other daily? That's not the mainstream.

Thailand's mainstream reputation is mostly a safe fun holiday destination with beach resorts, sun, and women for single men.

A country with a bad reputation? Look at Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, or even Israel. Now that's a real bad international reputation.

No question that the Muslim based countries have a bad reputation, but they are hardly tourist destination countries. China has a terrible reputation for civil rights, but the big business corporations overlook that because of greed. Anything to do with money for the big guys and anything is acceptible.

[Jingthing]

I suggest we focus on Thailand here. It is true Thailand is not the only country with a bad reputation, but do we really need another proxy Israel bashing thread?

Arent you being a bit selective in your reading? Israel was one of several counties mentioned in his post.

True, it was my chosen country. Next ...

[Jingthing]

The Hollywood script writers will stop writing the Thailand sex jokes when they no longer get big laughs. In other words, not in our lifetimes.

[StreetCowboy]

The Hollywood script writers will stop writing the Thailand sex jokes when they no longer get big laughs. In other words, not in our lifetimes.

But the laughs are all canned. They only put the laugh in so that the rest of us can tell where the joke is, and what is supposed to be funny.

On the hollowwood comedies that i see, anyway. Its like the 'boing' on Thai shows.

So anyway, I think a brief summary of findings to date is in order:

1. Thailand does not have a bad reputation, and it doesn't put tourists off.

2. To a large extent, the reputation that it has does not deter visitors, despite the country having some faults.

3. To a large extent, its perceived bad reputation amongst prudes is based on prurient and salacious humour, combined with a desire to divert attention from the vice, eniquity and inequity within our own countries.

4. In fact, Thailand is no worse than many other countries in that respect.

Now that the topic is complete, we can concentrate on the slagfest - oh, that takes me back to my weekends in Newcastle!

SC

[Wallaby]

The Hollywood script writers will stop writing the Thailand sex jokes when they no longer get big laughs. In other words, not in our lifetimes.

But the laughs are all canned. They only put the laugh in so that the rest of us can tell where the joke is, and what is supposed to be funny.

On the hollowwood comedies that i see, anyway. Its like the 'boing' on Thai shows.

So anyway, I think a brief summary of findings to date is in order:

1. Thailand does not have a bad reputation, and it doesn't put tourists off.

2. To a large extent, the reputation that it has does not deter visitors, despite the country having some faults.

3. To a large extent, its perceived bad reputation amongst prudes is based on prurient and salacious humour, combined with a desire to divert attention from the vice, eniquity and inequity within our own countries.

4. In fact, Thailand is no worse than many other countries in that respect.

Now that the topic is complete, we can concentrate on the slagfest - oh, that takes me back to my weekends in Newcastle!

SC

In my experience Thailand has a very bad reputation. Whenever I mention it I get the usual comments about young girls and dirty old men (which apparently I am). Of course these comments come from people that have never been to Thailand but this doesn't alter the fact that whenever I mention Thailand it gets negative comments.

[GuestHouse]

I know what the outsiders think of Thailand and I gotta admit that I don't like it. How many times you have heard that ordinary Thai women have been mistaken to be prostitutes. As a Thai person I don't like it very much. Recently there's a show on Thai TV regarding foreigners who been lived in Thailand for a long time come to tell their story about how much they love Thailand. I think this program is really good. Anyway, since this forum has lots of Farangs who also love Thailand So I'd like to know if you have an idea to help Thailand out of this bad reputation?

While it is easy, as some here have, to take the simplistic view and brand as self rightous bigots all those who generalize Thai women bas being prostitutes doing so prevents the necessary analysis of where these views come from. They are certainly not limited to people in the west, as many a Thai woman passing through Singaporean or Japanese immigration will testify.

A huge part of the image of Thai women as prostitutes comes from the fact that Thailand has been marketting it's women in the Thai sex trade and in the growing Thai brides business.

Here in this thread we have a couple examples of guys repeating the big Thailand sell 'where else can an old guy with not too much money retire and find a young beautiful woman?'

A Thai woman is stopped at Singapore immigration and asked to demonstrate she has means to pay for her visit, not because the immiagration officer has a bigoted view of Thai women, but because s/he has direct experience of Thai prositutes on every single flight from Thailand.

Google sex services in your own country, and despite however many miles from Thailand you'll have no trouble finding Thai women working as prostitutes somewhere not too far from you.

Thailand has marketed it's women, directly in the sex tourism business and in the international sex business.

Sex sells and Thailand has branded it's women as the premier product - It's a maketting strategy that has got the message across.

[sarahsbloke]

In the western world men are restricted in their access to women and sex.

In Thailand men have sexual freedom, and everyone has a very casual attitude to sex.

Those who want to continue to control a western man's access to sex will bad-mouth any country that doesn't view things the same way.

[GuestHouse]

In the western world men are restricted in their access to women and sex.

In Thailand men have sexual freedom, and everyone has a very casual attitude to sex.

Those who want to continue to control a western man's access to sex will bad-mouth any country that doesn't view things the same way.

But as I have pointed out above. The negative view of Thai women is not restricted the west - It is present in both Japan and Signapore and you can't pin the "Big Bad West" badge on eitehr of those places.

[tgw]

To the OP:

The stereotype of "all Thai women are prostitutes" is held by very very stupid people.

Same as "all farangs smell bad" or "all farangs are rich".

Thailand does have a reputation for easy and cheap sex, yes.

Is that a bad thing?

I don't think so.

I don't think the friendly ladies giving foreigners a warm welcome in the bars give Thailand a bad reputation.

Thailand's culture also has a different stance to sex than most western cultures - think about all the mia nois, the husbands who flee their home and abandon family and children, etc. The women too are much more open and quick in establishing an intimate contact.

In the country I come from, if I look & smile too long at a girl in a bar or disco, I'll get an angry look or they will even get aggressive.

When I visited Hollywood disco last year, it was full of university students - a few smiles, some polite smiles back, and soon a cute student made contact.

That's not prostitution (no money involved) and it wouldn't have happened in my home country either.

There is something different about Thailand, and I love it.

What is damaging the international reputation of Thailand:

- people dying in the streets of Bangkok

- endless stories by dumb western reporters about child abuse

- scams (tuk tuk drivers and gem traders)

- drug-related crimes

- corruption

- bad farangs who are attracted by drugs, corruption and cheap sex like a magnet

[tgw]

In the western world men are restricted in their access to women and sex.

In Thailand men have sexual freedom, and everyone has a very casual attitude to sex.

Those who want to continue to control a western man's access to sex will bad-mouth any country that doesn't view things the same way.

agree

[way2muchcoffee]

You're confusing a symptom with the disease. Burning Pattaya would do nothing.

You still have Bangkok, Phuket, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai.

... and Kanchanaburi, Cha-am, Samui, Koh Chang, Koh Samet, and if you want to include the karaoke joints you have about every city in the entire country.

[IanForbes]

In my experience Thailand has a very bad reputation. Whenever I mention it I get the usual comments about young girls and dirty old men (which apparently I am). Of course these comments come from people that have never been to Thailand but this doesn't alter the fact that whenever I mention Thailand it gets negative comments.

This is very true, and as a single man I see it every time I return to Canada. I always get thoroughly searched and it will take an hour or more for the authorities to go through every file on my computer, cameras and cel-phone, and all my back up disks. Most other passengers get a free pass. I know it has to do with the so-called sex trade in Thailand. I've learned not to carry anything remotely suspicious. I even get the third degree about the pictures I have of the children and Thai family I take care of. it's annoying and time consuming, but it excentuates the fact of the bad western bias by people with perverted minds.

[MAJIC]

Take all the bunch of self righteous bigots in foreign countries who think their own poop doesn't smell and it doesn't surprise me. There are only a few relatively modern Asian countries that are still fairly inexpensive to live in and it is bound to happen. Provide a fairly stable environment with beautiful women and it will attract men from everywhere. Foreign press LOVES to stereotype ANYTHING that involves sex. The press will over excentuate anything remotely involving sex. The press passes that onto the bigots and you have your answer. Thailand doesn't offer anything that can't be had everywhere else. Just yesterday I read a local, free newspaper and the whole last page was advertisements for sexual massage or escort services. That is in the sleepy, staid city of Victoria on Vancouver Island in Canada. A holiday center like Las Vegas is saturated with hookers. So are all the other adult tourist centers in the USA.

Ian, I agree with you 100% on this. There are so many ignorant people in this world. Thailand gives a chance to retired folks from all over the world a decent place to live cheaply on their meager pensions and even get a nice looking wife/gf half their age along the way, yet so many complain as if they live like a royal family in their homeland or their countries are so perfect in every sense. You hear of people compaining about Thailand and then tell you that they have been living in Thailand for a decade. If you don't like Thailand, why don't you go back home? Like Ian said, prostitution, corruption etc is everywhere. There are as many prostitutes who harass tourists in London as there are in Pattaya. I couldn't run away far enough from them in Earl"s Court, London. They were far more aggressive than your average Thai girls. And about corruption, it is just as common in EU and North America as it is in Thailand. Ever heard of "cash-for-honours affair" in the U.K? How about the BAE bribes to the Saudis, which was conveniently dropped by the U.K. government? How about the "campaign contributions" in the U.S. which is a nice convenient word for "bribing" to influence the Senators' voting? Corporate moneyhas hijacked American democracy for a very long time. Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic candidate for Vice-President. He has taken $448,066 in campaign contributions from private healthcare companies while his wife raked in $2m as one of their chief lobbyists, and he has blocked any attempt in the Senate to break the stranglehold of the health insurance companies and broaden coverage.

The US political system now operates within a corporate cage. If you want to run for office, you have to take corporate cash – and so you have to serve corporate interests. Corporations are often blatant in their corruption: it's not unusual for them to give to both competing candidates in a Senate race, to ensure all sides are indebted to them. It has reached the point that lobbyists now often write the country's laws. Not metaphorically; literally. The former Republican congressman Walter Jones spoke out in disgust in 2006 when he found that drug company lobbyists were actually authoring the words of the Medicare prescription bill, and puppet-politicians were simply nodding it through.

I think I have made my point.

Max2010

Yes you have made your point Max,which comes across in your post as: Denigrate and Denounce more stable and vastly more advanced Countries,and thus by default,Thailands image will appear squeaky clean? so no problem,eh!.......I don't think so!

[Spoonman]

Frankly, in my circles in the US, Thailand has a rather positive reputation. Most people with whom I have discussed Thailand want to visit it if they haven't or want to come back if they have already been there. And I am not writing only about American men. To a person, American women have expressed to me a desire to come to Thailand.

Even with Thai women, I don't know anyone who thinks that all Thai women are prostitutes. There is the caveat, though, that if an older American comes home with his new young wife, many might assume she was a prostitute, but that would happen no matter from what country she is, even from the USA.

I was out in Chantilly VA a few weeks back, was speaking to some of the guys at the motor dealership I was working at. One guy (when I mentioned I lived in Thailand) commented that the place is disgusting and full of whores...........

I didnt bother talking anymore.

[sarahsbloke]

In the western world men are restricted in their access to women and sex.

In Thailand men have sexual freedom, and everyone has a very casual attitude to sex.

Those who want to continue to control a western man's access to sex will bad-mouth any country that doesn't view things the same way.

But as I have pointed out above. The negative view of Thai women is not restricted the west - It is present in both Japan and Signapore and you can't pin the "Big Bad West" badge on eitehr of those places.

If you want to exchange my "western world" for "the civilised world" then feel free.

I've never lived in any country where the ladies (respectable and not) have had such a casual and easy going attitude to sex. Maybe it is unique to Thailand. Anyway ladies in other countries don't like it, they want control of (white) men. Men who are already controlled won't like it either.

[dumball]

I have litle to say that would be in any way constructive in defense of thailands reputation , it was built and is maintained by Thai , how many countries rounded up Thai prostitutes working out of massage parlours and shipped them back where they belong ? No matter how or why you try to liken other countries to the Thai reputation , it will be of little avail , sex is most likely the most talked of and discussed topic on the planet , it is what drives the male engine of desire , in fantasy or in deed . Every where I went in Thailand there were special facilities for males to engage in sexual activity , from the covert to the blatant in your face approach , I can think of nowhere it was not advertised/available/blatant and readily available at any time 24/7 .

Add to this all of the other problems in the country , bad reputation , Thai have a lot of hard work ahead of them to remove the stigma , but little to no effort seems apparant , it is not a farang problem , it is home grown .

[GuestHouse]

I have litle to say that would be in any way constructive in defense of thailands reputation , it was built and is maintained by Thai , how many countries rounded up Thai prostitutes working out of massage parlours and shipped them back where they belong ? No matter how or why you try to liken other countries to the Thai reputation , it will be of little avail , sex is most likely the most talked of and discussed topic on the planet , it is what drives the male engine of desire , in fantasy or in deed . Every where I went in Thailand there were special facilities for males to engage in sexual activity , from the covert to the blatant in your face approach , I can think of nowhere it was not advertised/available/blatant and readily available at any time 24/7 .

Add to this all of the other problems in the country , bad reputation , Thai have a lot of hard work ahead of them to remove the stigma , but little to no effort seems apparant , it is not a farang problem , it is home grown .

Precisely. And no amount of bleating on about the baggage of problems some people have with the west and their failed relationships in the west is going to change that fact.

[Jingthing]

This is so true. This is a THAI issue for Thais. It has little to do with expats except if you're ultra sensitive to gossips tongue wagging back in your home country. Expats have enough of our own problems, such as practicing the perfect whinge, the whinge to end all whinges. Let's focus on our areas of specialization and leave the non-action of fixing Thailand's reputation to the Thais.

[buddy]

Israel tourism --

Tourism in Israel is one of the country's major sources of income, with 2.7 million tourists in 2009.

Take away the draw of the ahem "Holy Land" for the followers of the 3 major monotheistic Religions and what would the true Israel tourist figures be...virtually Nada!

The majority of "tourists" go to Israel/Palestine not because of the beach or sunshine but because of religious shrines.

Saudi Arabia could re-classify the millions of Muslims Pilgrims who attend the Hajj at Mecca every year as tourists to achieve the same statistical result?

Not a real comparison on the level of Thailands attractiveness to tourists.

dam_n lies and then there are statistics!

[mrdeedee]

I don't know, enforce the prostitution laws, how about that?

how? what happened on the room is just between 2 people, want to change that?

I don't want to change that, but the OP asked how to change Thailand's rep, not me. I don't really care, it's not my country, it's his country. If I was allowed a path to permanent residence here from my current status, I would care more. Countries that seriously decide to enforce prostitution laws can indeed enforce them, its not that hard, look around the world.

if thailand did decide to enforce its prostitution laws the majority of thaivisa members would up and leave.

nothing much here but cheap wimmin and booze!

[thedistillers]

Thailand overall has a good reputation. The most common opinion of Thailand = tropical paradise. There is a reason Bangkok was recently voted the best city in the world, how could that happen if Thailand has a bad reputation? As if the average person knows, or care, about the country's corruption or cheating tuk-tuk drivers. Only expats and people-who-moved-to-Cambodia-because-it's-so-much-better-than-Thailand care about Thailand problems. Even with the recent events in Bangkok, there is a large number of tourists all over the city.

Now of course there is the sex industry and pedophile association, but people usually express their disgust at the industry or at the pedophiles, rather than bashing Thailand. I don't see how it is relevant that some Hollywood movie make jokes about that, it says nothing about the country's reputation. Each country has one or several "negative" elements associated to it. Hollywood comedies are all about clichés and cheap laugh.

[Jingthing]

Take away the draw of the ahem "Holy Land" for the followers of the 3 major monotheistic Religions and what would the true Israel tourist figures be...virtually Nada!

The majority of "tourists" go to Israel/Palestine not because of the beach or sunshine but because of religious shrines.

Saudi Arabia could re-classify the millions of Muslims Pilgrims who attend the Hajj at Mecca every year as tourists to achieve the same statistical result?

Not a real comparison on the level of Thailands attractiveness to tourists.

dam_n lies and then there are statistics!

Your point about Israel is beyond absurd. Yes they do have good beaches and there is a fantastic modern liberal beach city metropolis, Tel Aviv (which BTW has the only gay freedom day parade in the Middle East which does attract lots of international tourists for the party). But true most don't come for the beaches. They come for the culture, the history, the architecture, etc. Different countries have different attractions to tourists. So what? In Israel, tourism is most likely a bigger slice of that tiny countries economy than is tourism in Thailand. Imagine if peace came to Israel, I reckon tourism would double overnight, as being firebombed isn't most people's idea of a good time.

[thedistillers]

This is very true, and as a single man I see it every time I return to Canada. I always get thoroughly searched and it will take an hour or more for the authorities to go through every file on my computer, cameras and cel-phone, and all my back up disks. Most other passengers get a free pass. I know it has to do with the so-called sex trade in Thailand. I've learned not to carry anything remotely suspicious. I even get the third degree about the pictures I have of the children and Thai family I take care of. it's annoying and time consuming, but it excentuates the fact of the bad western bias by people with perverted minds.

Every single man who spends a long time in South-East Asia is likely to be scrutinized by the authorities, because they are simply going with the statistics of which individual or group is the most likely to bring back illegal material. Just the same way a single guy coming back from Peru who looks slighly nervous will be scrutinized. I'm sure there are thousands of couples and families who visit Thailand every year for 2 or 3 weeks who get a free pass as well.

[phetaroi]

I don't think Thailand has a bad reputation per se..but it also depends on what you call "bad" reputation wise. Thailand mostly has a rep of being an easy place to retire and have fun. Prostitution etc.. is an element of it but then again that fits in with the whole reputation of being easy going.

If you want to know the truth I don't think many people take Thailand or Thai people seriously though.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "bad". I think replacing "bad" with "sleazy" might define one of Thailand's reputations. I think Thailand also has a reputation as being a great tourist destination, and one as having friendly and smiling people. But in many people's minds it has a reputation as being a cheap sex destination. Over the years that's been mentioned to me by my friends, travel agents (with a quick wink), and many other people.

And to the OP, no one should help Thailand change its reputation -- whatever it is. It's up to the Thais to do that. It's your country and you've made it what it is, while outsiders have taken advantage of what you made.

[Jingthing]

People are confused about this. Being popular with tourists does not preclude a bad reputation. Remember the sluts back in school with the bad reputations? They were super popular too. Next ...

[mrdeedee]

omg you people live in a box or wot?los has a reputation as a cheap sex destination because it is one. the girls deliver!!!!!!!!! and have been for many decades! and i hope and pray will continue to deliver...........lol.

ps has anyone noticed a few more facially challenged girls working places where usually were nowher to be found. i saw a girl with a dark skin , unattractive , female dancing on stage w a black eye to boot. not a good marketing move to allow her on stage ,im ho.

[phetaroi]

I suggest we focus on Thailand here. It is true Thailand is not the only country with a bad reputation, but do we really need another proxy Israel bashing thread?

In fact, that's what a lot of posters always do -- make excuses for Thailand's short comings by saying it's (whatever "it" is in the discussion) not the only country where "that" (whatever the issue up for discussion is) is a problem. Thailand (and any other country) will rise and fall on its own merits, and the conditions in other countries -- whether better or worse -- has no bearing on what Thailand is.