- Email: [email protected]
Research Note:
\
Pergamon
English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 367–374, 1999 © 1999 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0889-4906/99 $20.00+0.00
PII: S0889-4906(98)00009-X
Research Note: Working the Bars G. Storer Abstract—The research I describe here is part of an ongoing study that explores the discursive practices surrounding bar-based male sex work in Bangkok, Thailand. More specifically, I am interested in three related research questions. First, how do male bar workers and their customers negotiate the sex session (the off )?* Second, what are the critical moments in the interactions among the workers, customers and bar management and how are these discursively resolved? And third, what are the implications for promoting safe sex behaviours among homosexually active men? © 1999 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Key words: Male sex work, discursive and sexual practices
The Context In Thailand, the male sex industry is extensive in the four major cities of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket with a variety of formal (organised in commercial outlets) and informal (free-lance) sites. In Bangkok, as many as fifty commercial venues are located throughout the city (Jackson, 1995). These include go-go bars, saunas and gyms offering massage services, karaoke bars, male escort services, and clubs that offer a range of services, one of which may be commercial sex. In addition, free-lance workers are found walking the streets (Narvilai, 1994; Poshyachinda & Danthamrongkul, 1996) or cruising the discos, pubs and cinemas frequented by homosexually active men. Studies of Thai male commercial sex work have shown that the majority of the workers are behaviourally bisexual and compartmentalise their commercial and recreational encounters (Kunawararak et al., 1995; Nopekosom et al., 1991; Sittitrai et al., 1994). It seems that many of the customers are also bisexual and that some are married (Storer, 1998). Thus, the sexual and social networks for male bar workers are complex, with considerable overlap between the commercial and non-commercial sites (McCamish et al, 1997). — –––––––––––––––––––– Address correspondence to Dr G. Storer, 15/130 Brougham Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney 2011, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. * The term off is part of the vernacular of the bar and is used by the workers when they ‘‘go off’’ with a customer. It also describes the off fee paid to the bar by the customer when he takes a worker out.
367
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G. Storer
Methodology The research draws on participant observation, in-depth interview, and focus group discussion techniques and was carried out from December 1994 to July 1997. Interviews with the bar workers were conducted in Thai at times convenient to the workers, usually late afternoons or early evenings. The interviews were typically one-on-one and were tape-recorded. I wrote up notes immediately after each interview and transcribed the tapes into English within twenty-four hours. I later confirmed the translations with English-speaking Thai men. The customers were both Thai and non-Thai (either resident in Thailand or visitors to Thailand). The interviews with customers were carried out at a place chosen by the research participants, either in the privacy of their homes or at some ‘‘neutral’’ venue. Interviews with non-Thai participants were carried out in English. Other participants have included self-identified gay men, lesbians, kathoey (transgenders), and community-based organisations working in the area of HIV/AIDS. All participants were able to contact me for a follow-up discussion if they so wished and I have met with some of the participants up to five times over the research period. The male sex workers informing this study were recruited from either the inner city bars in the Patpong area of Bangkok or from suburban bars. They ranged in age from nineteen to twenty-nine, with the majority between nineteen and twenty-two. Over thirty male bar workers have participated in the interviews. In addition, fifteen male customers and eight bar owners/managers also participated in the interviews. All names given in this report have been changed to maintain anonymity. The use of italics indicates either a transliteration of the Thai or words borrowed from English. While the findings presented in this report relate to a specific population, male bar workers in Bangkok, there is a high degree of concurrence between my own conclusions and those drawn by other researchers in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok (de Lind van Wijngaarden, 1995; McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996; McCamish et al., 1997; Sittitrai et al., 1994). In approaching the research, I have been guided by two concerns related to the interview process. First, the structure of any linguistic production depends on the symbolic power relations between speakers and on their ability to access and control the ‘‘language of authority’’ (Bourdieu, 1977: 648).Thus, the tenor† of my discussions with the research participants—as enacted through the dimensions of power and solidarity (Poynton, 1989)— is shaped by the dynamics of the interaction between myself as a middle class, non-Thai, gay researcher and young Thai male bar workers of quite different educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Though we share certain concerns relating to homosexuality, safe sex practices and health, I remain aware that the workers may engage in a process of ‘‘self-surveillance’’ — –––––––––––––––––––– † I use tenor here to refer to the negotiation of social relationships among participants and the projection of interpersonal meaning (Eggins, 1994: 63–55; Martin, 1992: 523–526).
Working the Bars
369
(Bourdieu, 1977: 658–62) in order to maintain face and satisfy their wish to be seen as regular guys (Goffman, 1963). My second concern rests with the nature of reported data which is often construed as ‘‘proof’’ even though it is secondary and mediated (Bloor, 1995: 92–93; Lane-Mercier, 1991). But reported speech is always shaped in the re-telling and while it may be close to the original, it can never be an exact correspondence to what happened. I have attempted to address these two concerns by drawing on a methodological framework in which a process of reflection is central to the data analysis. An assumption I make is that the stories related by the participants verbalize and situate their experiences as text (Schriffen, 1996) and thereby explicate the ‘‘bar talk’’ (what goes on in the bars). Engaging the research participants in a process of reflexivity provides the text analysis central to understanding how culture, power and discourse interact, reinforce and subvert one another. It also allows the workers to comment on each other’s talk, and on my reading of the text, and thereby to re-claim the talk as their own.
Negotiating the Off Male bar work, as it occurs in the four major cities of Thailand provides an interesting context for study if we distinguish the bars found in mainly tourist areas (such as the Patpong area of Bangkok) from ‘‘local’’ bars, generally located in suburban areas. Customers in the tourist areas are both Thai and non-Thai ( farang). This provides a complication for the workers who may be called on to interact in either their first language, Thai, or a second language, usually English. While non-Thais also frequent the local bars, they tend to be resident in Thailand and speakers of the language. Alex, a customer informant, suggested that different discursive conventions are at work in the local and tourist bars. I think the boys [in the local bars] are more used to a regular clientele. They don’t operate in a vacuum so to speak, as the boys in the tourist bars do, where a tourist may show up and they may never see him again. . . They are very aware of who the regular customers are. They are aware of the Thai social norms of behaviour. They know how they should treat a regular customer. Alex, 33, American business resident in Thailand
What my research has uncovered is how the local and tourist bars structure the interactions between the sex workers and their customers. Generally, the workers in the tourist bars can move about and cruise the customers, but in the local bars, they must sit to one side and wait for the kaptan (headwaiter) to intervene. In these bars, it is the kaptan who mediates and sells a particular service to the customer. For Alex, this protocol of service ensures ‘‘accountability:’’
370
G. Storer The kaptan knows it is in his best interests to please [the regular] customers. . .One of the moves is to make it clear to the kaptan what you want and how you want it.
In addition, in bars operating a call service, it is the manager or kaptan who takes the phone call and who is in a position to favour certain workers. It is important to be on good terms with the kaptan: [The manager] has 3 or 4 boys in the bar that he looks after. The rest he doesn’t care about. Even the bar staff are not with us. That’s how he controls us. San, 22, northeastern Thailand The kaptan wanted me to sleep with him. I didn’t agree. So, he wouldn’t cheer the customers for me. So, I left. Nikon, 22, northeastern Thailand
Unfortunately, these negotiations between the customer and management exclude the worker and he may find himself committed to a sexual performance which he is unprepared for or, perhaps, unwilling to carry out. This can lead to disagreement later on. Penetrative sex cannot be taken as the norm in male sex work encounters and for the worker there is a constant juggle to please the customer, negotiate sexual practice and ensure payment (Storer, 1998). [We] have been told [by the owner] not to talk to the customers about work or about how much we will charge. We can’t talk about these two things. ‘If I go with you, how much will you pay me? If I go with you, what do you want me to do?’ . . . We talk about ordinary things*the weather or something on the news. Pong, 19, eastern Thailand
Thus, on one hand, the bars provide the workers and customers with a measure of protection outside the law and beyond public gaze. On the other, they constrain the workers to act within a set of regulatory and discursive practices. A subtle hierarchy operates in the bars with uniformed doormen and waiters seeing themselves as superior to the male sex workers (McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996) and negotiation of the off may be hijacked before it even begins.
English for Sex Work? In ‘‘English for Sex Workers’’, Robert Preece (1997: 10) describes how EMPOWER, a Thai non-government organisation working with female sex workers, has been criticised for offering English classes to women who sell sex: ‘‘If you’re teaching English, then you are encouraging them to do the work.’’ But representing sex workers as ‘‘victims’’ does little to serve their economic and personal concerns. It would be more useful to acknowledge
Working the Bars
371
the central role played by female and male sex workers in a complex pleasure economy, and that an extended workforce from ice vendors and waiters to pimps and accountants depend on this economy to make a living (Storer, 1998). In many cases, selling sex to men in a gay bar is not a last resort but a pragmatic economic choice, though it would be naive to suggest that these choices are always made in circumstances of the workers’ own choosing (Davies & Simpson, 1990). Most workers report entering the bars under their own volition because the work provides them with much more money that they can make in any other job. For Nikon (a 22-year-old worker from the Northeast) bar work is an opportunity to ‘‘wriggle out’’ of an otherwise difficult situation. Others see that the work provides them with a modicum of control over their lives: I have more freedom here in the bar. I used to work 12 hours or more a day as a security guard and was always on call. In the bar, we come into work about 8 or 8:30 p.m. If we off, we stay in the bar for a short while only. Otherwise, we finish at 1:00 a.m. As a guard, twelve hours is twelve hours. Pote, 20, northern Thailand
One would expect sex workers—being in the business of sex—to be well-informed about sexual health (Murray, 1991). But while the male bar workers’ knowledge levels are high and they express concern about their health and risk at work, confusion and mis-information about HIV remains, and no distinction is made between HIV and Aids. In general, I have found the sex workers from the suburban bars to be less sure of health issues and less adequately prepared to negotiate the off with their customers than those from the Patpong bars. One possible explanation is that many young men apprentice themselves in the suburban bars and are still relatively new to the game. Some workers say they prefer farang customers but only because the Thais know too much (McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996); gossip is pervasive and a predominant concern. With the farang, it is easier to maintain a distant relationship and to ‘‘pass’’ as ordinary guys (Goffman, 1963: 108). In this context, the farang are seen as easier to manage: With the Thai customers, it was easy in that we spoke the same language and so we could understand easily. But sometimes, even though we spoke the same, we did not understand each other. Sometimes the Thais would come in stressed and then make us feel bad. At least with the farang we get to practise our English. Sit, 26, central Thailand I prefer the farang. It’s not that I’m saying anything bad about the Thais but they expect you to do whatever they want. Pong, 19, eastern Thailand
But with both Thais and farang, the negotiation is limited and full of ambiguity and a worker’s ability to negotiate safe sex with a customer is influenced not only by his language skills but also by how confident he is.
372
G. Storer
Programs to ensure that male bar workers have the necessary skills and confidence to negotiate safe sex prior to the off should be included in regular training interventions. While ‘‘English for Sex Work’’ is important for those men who work in bars that cater to non-Thai customers, we should also challenge the assumption that the bar workers have the required language and negotiation skills to operate successfully in their first language. My research suggests that negotiation skills would be better polished in the first language before being rehearsed in English. Issues relating to selfesteem and life skills that would encourage the bar workers to see their occupation as a small business could also be included in bar-based interventions.
Final Comments Interventions which treat HIV primarily as a matter of sexual health, and which focus primarily on changing sexual behaviour by encouraging condom use without tackling the power relations condoning different standards of behaviour for sex workers, customers and management, do little to increase the workers’ ability to protect themselves (Storer, 1996). In addition to being placed in the context of sexual negotiation and unequal relationships, health messages should address the decision-making strategies used by the workers for personal risk assessment both inside and outside the workplace and be given in both Thai and English to strengthen the idea that the workers and customers (Thai and non-Thai) have a role in promoting safe sex. The bar workers informing this research were recruited from the inner city tourist bars as well as from ‘‘local’’ suburban bars. I have found the workers in the suburban bars less able to articulate negotiation strategies than those workers from the inner city bars. This suggests that more attention should be given to the suburban bars and to promoting negotiation skills in Thai. When they off, the workers are given a condom and a sachet of lube by the bar. There needs to be a stronger bar endorsement for safety that actively supports the workers. Giving condoms and lubes to the customers would help reinforce their role in promoting safe sex practice.
REFERENCES Bloor, M. (1995). The sociology of HIV transmission. Sage Publications. Bourdieu, P. (1977). The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social Science Information, 16(6), 645–668. Davies, P., & Simpson, P. (1990). On male homosexual prostitution and HIV. In Peter Aggleton, Peter Davies and Graham Hart (Eds.), Aids: Individual, cultural and policy dimensions (pp. 103–19). Falmer Press.
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Eggins, S.. (1994). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics. London: Pinter Publishers. Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Jackson, P. A. (1995). Dear uncle go: Male homosexuality in Thailand. Thailand: Bua Luang Books. Kunawararak, P., Beyrer, C., Natpratan, C., Feng, W., Celentano, D. D., De Boer, M., Nelson, K. E., & Khamboonruang, C. (1995). The epidemiology of HIV and syphilis among male commercial sex workers in northern Thailand. AIDS, 9, 517–21. Lane-Mercier, G. (1991). Reported Discourse: Strategy of reproduction, construction, or deconstruction. Bulletin of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 21–34. de Lind van Wijngaarden, J. W. (1995). A social geography of male homosexual desire: an exploration of locations, individuals, groups and networks in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Northern Thailand. In Usa Duangsaa and Scott Bamber (Eds.), Thai-Australian Northern AIDS Prevention and Care Program Newsletter, 2(4), 9–12. McCamish, M. & Sittitrai, W. (1996). The context of safety: Life stories of male sex workers in Pattaya. Bangkok: Thai Red Cross Society, Program on AIDS, Research Report No. 19. McCamish, M., Storer, G., Carl, G., & Kengkanrua, K. (1997). Why should more attention be given to male-male sex encounters? Presented at the 4th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (25–29 October), Manila, Philippines. Martin, J. R. (1992). English text, systems and structure. Philadelphia/ Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Murray, A. (1991). No money, no honey. Singapore: Oxford University Press. Narvilai, A. (1994). Young men following in their sister’s footsteps. Bangkok Post: Outlook, 2 July, p. 25. Nopekesom, T., Sungkarom, S., & Somlum, R. (1991). HIV prevalence and sexual behaviours among Thai men aged 21 in northern thailand. Thai Red Cross Society, Bangkok: Program on AIDS, Report No. 3. Poshyachinda, V., & Danthamrongkul, V. (1996). Shifting Borders, Shifting Identities: New Perspective on Thai Homosexuality. Presented at the Sixth International Thai Studies Conference, 14–17 October, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Poynton, C. (1989). Language and gender: Making the difference. Oxford University Press. Preece, R. (1997). English for Sex Workers: The edge of ESP. TESOL Matters, 7(4), 10. Schriffen, D. (1994). Approaches to discourse. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell. Sittitrai, W., Phanuphak, P. & Roddy, R. (1994). Male bar workers in Bangkok: An intervention trial. Thai Red Cross Society: Program on AIDS. Research Report No. 10.
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Storer, G. (1996). Interactions: Thai male sex workers and their customers. Presented at Knowledge and Discourse: Changing relationships across academic disciplines and professional practices. (18–21 June) University of Hong Kong. Storer, G. (1998). Bar talk: Thai male sex workers and their customers. In Peter Aggleton et al., (Eds.), Men who sell sex: International perspectives on male sex work and HIV/AIDS. London: Taylor and Francis (in press).
Pergamon
English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 367–374, 1999 © 1999 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0889-4906/99 $20.00+0.00
PII: S0889-4906(98)00009-X
Research Note: Working the Bars G. Storer Abstract—The research I describe here is part of an ongoing study that explores the discursive practices surrounding bar-based male sex work in Bangkok, Thailand. More specifically, I am interested in three related research questions. First, how do male bar workers and their customers negotiate the sex session (the off )?* Second, what are the critical moments in the interactions among the workers, customers and bar management and how are these discursively resolved? And third, what are the implications for promoting safe sex behaviours among homosexually active men? © 1999 The American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Key words: Male sex work, discursive and sexual practices
The Context In Thailand, the male sex industry is extensive in the four major cities of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket with a variety of formal (organised in commercial outlets) and informal (free-lance) sites. In Bangkok, as many as fifty commercial venues are located throughout the city (Jackson, 1995). These include go-go bars, saunas and gyms offering massage services, karaoke bars, male escort services, and clubs that offer a range of services, one of which may be commercial sex. In addition, free-lance workers are found walking the streets (Narvilai, 1994; Poshyachinda & Danthamrongkul, 1996) or cruising the discos, pubs and cinemas frequented by homosexually active men. Studies of Thai male commercial sex work have shown that the majority of the workers are behaviourally bisexual and compartmentalise their commercial and recreational encounters (Kunawararak et al., 1995; Nopekosom et al., 1991; Sittitrai et al., 1994). It seems that many of the customers are also bisexual and that some are married (Storer, 1998). Thus, the sexual and social networks for male bar workers are complex, with considerable overlap between the commercial and non-commercial sites (McCamish et al, 1997). — –––––––––––––––––––– Address correspondence to Dr G. Storer, 15/130 Brougham Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney 2011, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. * The term off is part of the vernacular of the bar and is used by the workers when they ‘‘go off’’ with a customer. It also describes the off fee paid to the bar by the customer when he takes a worker out.
367
368
G. Storer
Methodology The research draws on participant observation, in-depth interview, and focus group discussion techniques and was carried out from December 1994 to July 1997. Interviews with the bar workers were conducted in Thai at times convenient to the workers, usually late afternoons or early evenings. The interviews were typically one-on-one and were tape-recorded. I wrote up notes immediately after each interview and transcribed the tapes into English within twenty-four hours. I later confirmed the translations with English-speaking Thai men. The customers were both Thai and non-Thai (either resident in Thailand or visitors to Thailand). The interviews with customers were carried out at a place chosen by the research participants, either in the privacy of their homes or at some ‘‘neutral’’ venue. Interviews with non-Thai participants were carried out in English. Other participants have included self-identified gay men, lesbians, kathoey (transgenders), and community-based organisations working in the area of HIV/AIDS. All participants were able to contact me for a follow-up discussion if they so wished and I have met with some of the participants up to five times over the research period. The male sex workers informing this study were recruited from either the inner city bars in the Patpong area of Bangkok or from suburban bars. They ranged in age from nineteen to twenty-nine, with the majority between nineteen and twenty-two. Over thirty male bar workers have participated in the interviews. In addition, fifteen male customers and eight bar owners/managers also participated in the interviews. All names given in this report have been changed to maintain anonymity. The use of italics indicates either a transliteration of the Thai or words borrowed from English. While the findings presented in this report relate to a specific population, male bar workers in Bangkok, there is a high degree of concurrence between my own conclusions and those drawn by other researchers in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok (de Lind van Wijngaarden, 1995; McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996; McCamish et al., 1997; Sittitrai et al., 1994). In approaching the research, I have been guided by two concerns related to the interview process. First, the structure of any linguistic production depends on the symbolic power relations between speakers and on their ability to access and control the ‘‘language of authority’’ (Bourdieu, 1977: 648).Thus, the tenor† of my discussions with the research participants—as enacted through the dimensions of power and solidarity (Poynton, 1989)— is shaped by the dynamics of the interaction between myself as a middle class, non-Thai, gay researcher and young Thai male bar workers of quite different educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Though we share certain concerns relating to homosexuality, safe sex practices and health, I remain aware that the workers may engage in a process of ‘‘self-surveillance’’ — –––––––––––––––––––– † I use tenor here to refer to the negotiation of social relationships among participants and the projection of interpersonal meaning (Eggins, 1994: 63–55; Martin, 1992: 523–526).
Working the Bars
369
(Bourdieu, 1977: 658–62) in order to maintain face and satisfy their wish to be seen as regular guys (Goffman, 1963). My second concern rests with the nature of reported data which is often construed as ‘‘proof’’ even though it is secondary and mediated (Bloor, 1995: 92–93; Lane-Mercier, 1991). But reported speech is always shaped in the re-telling and while it may be close to the original, it can never be an exact correspondence to what happened. I have attempted to address these two concerns by drawing on a methodological framework in which a process of reflection is central to the data analysis. An assumption I make is that the stories related by the participants verbalize and situate their experiences as text (Schriffen, 1996) and thereby explicate the ‘‘bar talk’’ (what goes on in the bars). Engaging the research participants in a process of reflexivity provides the text analysis central to understanding how culture, power and discourse interact, reinforce and subvert one another. It also allows the workers to comment on each other’s talk, and on my reading of the text, and thereby to re-claim the talk as their own.
Negotiating the Off Male bar work, as it occurs in the four major cities of Thailand provides an interesting context for study if we distinguish the bars found in mainly tourist areas (such as the Patpong area of Bangkok) from ‘‘local’’ bars, generally located in suburban areas. Customers in the tourist areas are both Thai and non-Thai ( farang). This provides a complication for the workers who may be called on to interact in either their first language, Thai, or a second language, usually English. While non-Thais also frequent the local bars, they tend to be resident in Thailand and speakers of the language. Alex, a customer informant, suggested that different discursive conventions are at work in the local and tourist bars. I think the boys [in the local bars] are more used to a regular clientele. They don’t operate in a vacuum so to speak, as the boys in the tourist bars do, where a tourist may show up and they may never see him again. . . They are very aware of who the regular customers are. They are aware of the Thai social norms of behaviour. They know how they should treat a regular customer. Alex, 33, American business resident in Thailand
What my research has uncovered is how the local and tourist bars structure the interactions between the sex workers and their customers. Generally, the workers in the tourist bars can move about and cruise the customers, but in the local bars, they must sit to one side and wait for the kaptan (headwaiter) to intervene. In these bars, it is the kaptan who mediates and sells a particular service to the customer. For Alex, this protocol of service ensures ‘‘accountability:’’
370
G. Storer The kaptan knows it is in his best interests to please [the regular] customers. . .One of the moves is to make it clear to the kaptan what you want and how you want it.
In addition, in bars operating a call service, it is the manager or kaptan who takes the phone call and who is in a position to favour certain workers. It is important to be on good terms with the kaptan: [The manager] has 3 or 4 boys in the bar that he looks after. The rest he doesn’t care about. Even the bar staff are not with us. That’s how he controls us. San, 22, northeastern Thailand The kaptan wanted me to sleep with him. I didn’t agree. So, he wouldn’t cheer the customers for me. So, I left. Nikon, 22, northeastern Thailand
Unfortunately, these negotiations between the customer and management exclude the worker and he may find himself committed to a sexual performance which he is unprepared for or, perhaps, unwilling to carry out. This can lead to disagreement later on. Penetrative sex cannot be taken as the norm in male sex work encounters and for the worker there is a constant juggle to please the customer, negotiate sexual practice and ensure payment (Storer, 1998). [We] have been told [by the owner] not to talk to the customers about work or about how much we will charge. We can’t talk about these two things. ‘If I go with you, how much will you pay me? If I go with you, what do you want me to do?’ . . . We talk about ordinary things*the weather or something on the news. Pong, 19, eastern Thailand
Thus, on one hand, the bars provide the workers and customers with a measure of protection outside the law and beyond public gaze. On the other, they constrain the workers to act within a set of regulatory and discursive practices. A subtle hierarchy operates in the bars with uniformed doormen and waiters seeing themselves as superior to the male sex workers (McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996) and negotiation of the off may be hijacked before it even begins.
English for Sex Work? In ‘‘English for Sex Workers’’, Robert Preece (1997: 10) describes how EMPOWER, a Thai non-government organisation working with female sex workers, has been criticised for offering English classes to women who sell sex: ‘‘If you’re teaching English, then you are encouraging them to do the work.’’ But representing sex workers as ‘‘victims’’ does little to serve their economic and personal concerns. It would be more useful to acknowledge
Working the Bars
371
the central role played by female and male sex workers in a complex pleasure economy, and that an extended workforce from ice vendors and waiters to pimps and accountants depend on this economy to make a living (Storer, 1998). In many cases, selling sex to men in a gay bar is not a last resort but a pragmatic economic choice, though it would be naive to suggest that these choices are always made in circumstances of the workers’ own choosing (Davies & Simpson, 1990). Most workers report entering the bars under their own volition because the work provides them with much more money that they can make in any other job. For Nikon (a 22-year-old worker from the Northeast) bar work is an opportunity to ‘‘wriggle out’’ of an otherwise difficult situation. Others see that the work provides them with a modicum of control over their lives: I have more freedom here in the bar. I used to work 12 hours or more a day as a security guard and was always on call. In the bar, we come into work about 8 or 8:30 p.m. If we off, we stay in the bar for a short while only. Otherwise, we finish at 1:00 a.m. As a guard, twelve hours is twelve hours. Pote, 20, northern Thailand
One would expect sex workers—being in the business of sex—to be well-informed about sexual health (Murray, 1991). But while the male bar workers’ knowledge levels are high and they express concern about their health and risk at work, confusion and mis-information about HIV remains, and no distinction is made between HIV and Aids. In general, I have found the sex workers from the suburban bars to be less sure of health issues and less adequately prepared to negotiate the off with their customers than those from the Patpong bars. One possible explanation is that many young men apprentice themselves in the suburban bars and are still relatively new to the game. Some workers say they prefer farang customers but only because the Thais know too much (McCamish & Sittitrai, 1996); gossip is pervasive and a predominant concern. With the farang, it is easier to maintain a distant relationship and to ‘‘pass’’ as ordinary guys (Goffman, 1963: 108). In this context, the farang are seen as easier to manage: With the Thai customers, it was easy in that we spoke the same language and so we could understand easily. But sometimes, even though we spoke the same, we did not understand each other. Sometimes the Thais would come in stressed and then make us feel bad. At least with the farang we get to practise our English. Sit, 26, central Thailand I prefer the farang. It’s not that I’m saying anything bad about the Thais but they expect you to do whatever they want. Pong, 19, eastern Thailand
But with both Thais and farang, the negotiation is limited and full of ambiguity and a worker’s ability to negotiate safe sex with a customer is influenced not only by his language skills but also by how confident he is.
372
G. Storer
Programs to ensure that male bar workers have the necessary skills and confidence to negotiate safe sex prior to the off should be included in regular training interventions. While ‘‘English for Sex Work’’ is important for those men who work in bars that cater to non-Thai customers, we should also challenge the assumption that the bar workers have the required language and negotiation skills to operate successfully in their first language. My research suggests that negotiation skills would be better polished in the first language before being rehearsed in English. Issues relating to selfesteem and life skills that would encourage the bar workers to see their occupation as a small business could also be included in bar-based interventions.
Final Comments Interventions which treat HIV primarily as a matter of sexual health, and which focus primarily on changing sexual behaviour by encouraging condom use without tackling the power relations condoning different standards of behaviour for sex workers, customers and management, do little to increase the workers’ ability to protect themselves (Storer, 1996). In addition to being placed in the context of sexual negotiation and unequal relationships, health messages should address the decision-making strategies used by the workers for personal risk assessment both inside and outside the workplace and be given in both Thai and English to strengthen the idea that the workers and customers (Thai and non-Thai) have a role in promoting safe sex. The bar workers informing this research were recruited from the inner city tourist bars as well as from ‘‘local’’ suburban bars. I have found the workers in the suburban bars less able to articulate negotiation strategies than those workers from the inner city bars. This suggests that more attention should be given to the suburban bars and to promoting negotiation skills in Thai. When they off, the workers are given a condom and a sachet of lube by the bar. There needs to be a stronger bar endorsement for safety that actively supports the workers. Giving condoms and lubes to the customers would help reinforce their role in promoting safe sex practice.
REFERENCES Bloor, M. (1995). The sociology of HIV transmission. Sage Publications. Bourdieu, P. (1977). The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social Science Information, 16(6), 645–668. Davies, P., & Simpson, P. (1990). On male homosexual prostitution and HIV. In Peter Aggleton, Peter Davies and Graham Hart (Eds.), Aids: Individual, cultural and policy dimensions (pp. 103–19). Falmer Press.
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