females are shy, dare not express their sexuality in conformity with the mainstream
discourse that good females must keep their virginity, and know little about sex.
This discourse differentiates“good women”, those who keep their virginity, from
“bad women”, those who sell their bodies. The study of Manokasemsook et al.
( 2008 : 171–258) on sexuality on TV advertisement found that television adver-
tisements in Thailand are made to reinforce the sexual norm that females lack
negotiation power, and, as a consequence, suffer. The third gender is not accepted in
advertisements. Moreover, Thai advertisements stigmatize those who do not con-
form to the sexual norms.
Chanthong et al. ( 2008 :67–112) studied sexuality of Thai teenagers online via
the camfrog program. It is a social media network equipped with a video camera on
which female members show their nude image live and male members watch and
comment. They found that many females disguised themselves by using a male
username. The male usernames use vulgar and sexist language. This is a conflict of
power where the female showed that they had power by choosing to show or not to
show their bodies to seduce the males. At the same time, the male commentators
use their abusive language to show that they also had power above the image. The
females use a male’s name to conform to the sexual norm that good Thai women do
not express or talk about sex.
Vulgar and sexist language can be found in general comments from male users
online on social media networks. Gossiping and mudslinging are what we some-
times see from Web boards that allow the online users to raise issues for discussion.
Although, traditional Thai folk plays, such as choi or pleng yao, also contain under
the belt language and dirty jokes or pun words, the verbal violence online and
bullying is now growing as we can see from many Websites and anti-Websites that
anyone create by using a false name to criticize a person online. These phenomena
are symbolic representations of the conflict avoidance value of Thais.
3.4 Conclusion..........................................
It is undeniable that the Thai worldview is patriarchal, and that can be traced back
for centuries. There are those who argue that Thai culture gives honor to females as
many important compound words have the word,“mae”or mother in them, such as
Mae Nam or river. Inheritance was given to the daughters. Traditionally, when a
male and a female got married, the male moved to build a house in the female’s
land. But during the contemporary period, that does not happen anymore due to
social change. Urbanization has changed the family unit to a nuclear family. The
price of land has increased, and people in the urban areas do not have enough space
to build another house for their daughters. More and more couples live in a small
condominium. More important than that the worldview of Thais is still the same as
in many cultures: masculinity is dominant. Symbolic representations can be seen
from the polygamous behavior of Thai males, rape as entertainment in melodrama,
and sexist comments found online. Sexy portraits of girls are on the front pages of
3.3 Analysis: Gender and Power as Represented in the Media 45