Sex Work Is the Only Route out of Poverty for These Young Women – but They Refuse to See Themselves As Victims, Writes Sian Powell Photography James Robert Fuller
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The Can Do Girls Sex work is the only route out of poverty for these young women – but they refuse to see themselves as victims, writes Sian Powell PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES ROBERT FULLER laugh rings out; one of the young women family, for her brothers and sisters, for her parents, is she a leans over, grinning, and whacks her neigh- good person?” Mayoe asks, a small smile on her face. Usu- bour on the arm. There are eight or 10 friends ally known by her nickname, Wi, she is brutally frank about here in the Can Do bar in Thailand’s northern her choices. She is from the Akha hill tribe, from Burma, cityA of Chiang Mai, sitting in easy camaraderie around a and her earnings help support her parents, a nephew, two big table in an open-air back room. Eating noodles, teas- younger brothers and one younger sister. Another younger ing, gossiping – they are clearly enjoying themselves, at sister has recently joined her in the bars. ease with one another, relaxed. These women could be “I did many, many jobs,” she says. “Working on the students, or colleagues, or factory workers on a break. land, looking after children, cleaning, selling nail polish Instead they are all prostitutes – forced by economic and, when I was little, selling noodles. I sold clothes. necessity and a lack of opportunity t o make a living sell- There were lots of choices. I chose this. Like anyone else in ing sex to men. Thailand has limited social welfare provi- any job, my motivation was to earn. I also really wanted to sions and life is hard for the poor, especially refugees. The study. I was from a hill tribe, so I couldn’t study. I really choice often comes down to selling sex or seeing a young wanted the freedom to do other things. This gives me sister or brother, or a child, go hungry. But these women money and time.” refuse to see themselves as victims; they make the tough The Can Do bar is run by the Empower Foundation, decision to work in the sex bars and they do the work an advocacy group for women working in Thailand’s sex without complaining. They don’t want to be rescued. They trade, so it imposes none of the stringent rules followed want the right to ply their trade without being harassed, elsewhere. Mayoe has worked in bars where their salaries fined, subjected to ridiculous and restrictive work rules, were docked if they gained weight, if they didn’t smile arrested, demeaned. enough, if too few drinks were bought for them by the Sachumi Mayoe is tall and slim, with long black hair, patrons, if they slouched, if they put a glass or bottle down and she’s wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a colourful scarf too heavily on a counter. The Thai sex workers were each wound around her neck. She could easily be mistaken for docked about 50 baht ($1.70) a month as a contribution to a student from one of Thailand’s many universities. But paying off the police; the women from Burma and else- the 25-year-old has been a so-called “bar girl” for six years. where were docked four times as much. AFP “If a young girl sacrifices herself to make a good life for her Some of the bar girls in the Thai capital, Bangkok, in 28 THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE / MARCH 13-14 2010 Supporting each other: far left, Liz Hilton (at left) has a drink with Malee Van Driesten; Linda U’Para; and girls dancing at a Patpong bar maRCH 13-14 2010 / THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE 29 The office: Chiang Mai’s Can Do bar, outside and in. It’s run by the Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for sex workers; below, some graffiti on the walls the Soi Cowboy strip of neon-lit bars, are naturally like having sex with strangers, and ries, say, or domestic labour – which in any case required to wear what appears to be a variation that there is no stigma attached to the sex trade often requires a school certificate, which is far on netball uniforms. Others wear sailor suits or in Thailand. Hilton says bar girls do actually like more difficult to find for non-Thais, the women what look like school dresses. Yet others wear older men, but for pragmatic reasons: they take who have fled neighbouring Burma, Laos or matching high-heeled boots, a frill of a skirt far less time to satisfy sexually, and they are Cambodia in search of much-needed cash. The and a bra-type top. In some sex districts in often financially generous. And she says it’s Empower Foundation hopes other bars will fol- Bangkok, such as Nana Plaza with its three wrong to think ordinary Thais don’t frown upon low the Can Do’s lead and abolish some of the floors of exotic bars, or the bars in Patpong the sex trade; bar girls routinely cope with con- restrictive rules and fines, but it’s unlikely to with their infamous ping-pong ball shows, the tempt or outright hostility. happen any time soon. dress requirements appear to be anything that’s Originally from Sydney, Hilton has lived in Meanwhile, the foundation provides lan- extremely short and tight. Or, indeed, entirely Thailand for 17 years, speaks fluent Thai and guage lessons at Can Do, computers for emails, absent – nude dancing is always popular. knows how the industry works. Sitting in the and a different sort of work: hosting regular “Bad With the uniforms, the employers’ fines and Can Do bar’s backroom, she says the trade has Girls” community radio broadcasts, where they the restrictive rules, it’s little wonder that more existed in Thailand for a long time. She has seen answer questions suh as “How do you get a stuck and more women in the Thai sex trade prefer to an accounts ledger from the Ayutthaya period condom out?” These women don’t need rescu- look after themselves and cut (the four centuries leading up ing, the thinking goes; they’re not victims. Like out the middleman. They solicit to the late 1700s), kept by a every other worker in every other field, what customers on the footpath clerk to record payments in the they need is legislation to protect their rights. along Bangkok’s Sukhumvit royal brothels. Back then, Road, or hook up with men via prices for sex ranged from a Doing the right thing internet “dating” sites; or swap small sack of rice – which today mayoe doesn’t have a boyfriend or a contacts via mobile phone. would cost about 1000 baht husband, but she doesn’t feel cheated. She’s There’s no fear of their salaries ($33) – to a large sack of rice happy, she’s getting on with life; and a year ago being docked, nor are they told that cost two or three times as she became a Thai citizen. “It gives me freedom what to wear or how much to much. Today, bar girl prices, at of movement, it lets me travel. You have to fight smile. Yet health workers worry least in the bars patronised by for your rights, for the papers. You need lan- that these independent workers westerners, still range upwards guage and everything to push it through. My are more difficult to target with from about 1000 baht. mum and dad still haven’t got papers.” health messages, including The trade flourished during Out in the functional Can Do bar, with its essential information about the Vietnam War, when hun- tiled floor and wooden bar and stools, Mayoe HIV and AIDS. There are also dreds of thousands of soldiers plays pool with some Thai men, and every now concerns that independent sex workers find it were flown into Bangkok for “rest and recrea- and then looks over and smiles. The night is more difficult to refuse customers who want tion”. After the war, Hilton says, the IMF and the young and she has hours ahead of her. She has unprotected sex, and are more at risk of assault World Bank encouraged Thailand to replace the become accustomed to the life that is the lot of or rape. lost R&R revenue with tourism earnings; hence many young Akha women in Thailand. But Liz Hilton, a 48-year-old Australian who today’s world-famous sex trade. “It used to be “When you’re from an Akha village, and you is an Empower Foundation advocate and a that 70 per cent of the tourists coming to Thai- leave to work, everyone thinks that’s what’s “member of the sex worker family”, says these land were men travelling on their own,” she says. happened – you have left to become a sex women are capable of looking after themselves. “These days the proportion of women is slowly worker,” she says with a shrug. “For my family, They know the risks, and how to weigh up poten- increasing; but nobody comes to Thailand once, I’m doing the right thing, taking money home. tial customers. twice, three times, to see the temples.” My family has no problem with what I do. The They are skilled, too, at telling clients what Bar girls earn several thousand baht a month; other people in the village might.” She recently they want to hear. Certainly there are any depending on the bar, and depending how much moved from Chiang Mai to Ubon Ratchathani, number of older western men who have fallen their salaries are docked, and a fluctuating fee in Thailand’s east, where her customers are for the bar girl myths in Thailand.