Discourse on Sex Workers in Thai Society

Abstract

This article is synthesized from the part of dissertation that is discourse on sex workers in Thai society. The purpose of this study is to analyze discourse on sex workers in Thai society in absolute monarchy during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (The King Rama V).The results found that Thai Sex worker in absolute monarchy era were dominated by political economic discourse with tax payers on the tax system. Thai sex workers are the key importance to keep the relationship between the state and elites. Because of sex workers trade in that era could generate the huge income for the state and the elites. It is the main income that can be used for developing the national infrastructure such as the road; it is called road tax that charged from Thai sex workers and sex workers traders. In that era, Thai sex workers were a legitimate occupation until it was became the conflict between the state and elites. It was led to a new set of Thai sex workers discourse knowledge by the state. This new set of knowledge was reacted from the state to elites. It was reorganized under Thai law because it was the cause many problems; especially the contagious disease, the deceiving sex workers, tax avoidance. In fact, a new set of Thai sex workers knowledge was created by the conflict about tax benefits allocation between the state and elites lead to a reproduction of Thai sex workers image more than considering the quality life and problem of Thai sex workers.