Can Prostitutes Marry? Thai Attitudes Toward Female Sex Workers

This study explores popular attitudes towards female sex workers in Thailand by examining the general public s perceptions of a prostitute's ability to marry based on focus group data. The tentative conclusion that emerges from our analysis is that a relative lack of severe or lasting social stigma is an important part of a Thai context that facilitates recruitment into prostitution and permits it to persist on a wide-spread scale. We interpret this conclusion in terms of the broader value system in Thai society. We recognize that although our findings are comparative in nature, there is a lack information from other countries on how those who provide commercial sex are viewed by the general population. Therefore we call for research on this topic as well as on how sex workers view themselves, and how this translates into actual behavior.

Dataset(s): Focus group transcripts from the project ''The Influence of Primary Female Partners and Male Peers on Male Extramarital Sexual Behavior in Thailand''.