Recent Changes in Sexual Attitudes, Norms, and Behaviors among Unmarried Thai Men: A Qualitative Analysis

In-depth interviews are used to explore recent changes in the normative context of male heterosexual relations in Thailand. Changes in ideas about the appropriateness and availability of both commercial and noncommercial relationships are examined, as well as changes in ideas regarding the importance of condom use during various types of sexual encounters. Due in large part to fears about AIDS, many younger Thai men have rebuffed older peers' efforts to initiate them into traditional patterns of sexual life. This resistance, along with several other concurrent social changes underway, is causing the long standing modal pattern of sexual initiation with sex workers to give way to more varied formative expressions of male sexuality. Implications of these changes are discussed with respect to both social policy and further research.