Maybe the story hasn’t completely taken over the news but in today’s The Nation there were two articles plus the Opinion page cartoon about it. That’s the cartoon above with the title “Thailand Got Hypocrisy”.
You can see the cartoonist depicting people in massage parlors and karaoke bars outraged over the “obscene” breast painting shown on Thai TV. There was also an opinion story titled “Breast Painting on the Tube: Is This Much Ado About Nothing?”. And there was the news story that BEC (Bangkok Entertainment Company), producer of the show, was fined 500,000 baht for airing this during prime time on national television.
Wow, it sure got a lot of coverage. I wonder if it was worth it for BEC. Maybe with all the coverage that the show is getting. They couldn’t buy the much advertising for any price.
I don’t know if the cartoonist is a Thai person or understands Thai culture well, because the point is not really made. In Thailand, what people choose to do in private is usually left up to the individuals even if it is considered offensive by traditional standards. It’s when they do something offensive in public that there is an outcry. The cartoon is a perfect example. All that sleazy stuff at massage parlors and karaoke bars is in private between consenting adults. A topless girl on national TV during primetime, although not nearly as sleazy (or sleazy at all in many people’s opinions), is as far from private as you can get. Many parents are very offended as they don’t like the example it sets for their kids.
It’s not hard to see it at all. Would anyone consider it offensive for a man and woman to have sex? On prime time TV many would. A husband and wife in the privacy of their bedroom, no. Where to draw the line? Seems easy – between public and private. If that’s where you draw the line then there is little if any hypocrisy involved.
Tags: Thai TV
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June 22nd, 2012 at 7:41 am
I understand the cartoonist’s viewpoint, though. Agreed there is a difference between private behavior and public behavior, but at least some of what goes on in, e.g., a massage parlor, is illegal – not just against conventional tastes. And if Thailand is like the US, it wouldn’t be beyond belief to learn that many of those who dictate the standards for television also partake of these same activities.
I can’t say with accuracy – since the footage is blurred – but seems to me that they’re making mountains out of molehills.
June 22nd, 2012 at 8:59 am
I see what you did there!
June 23rd, 2012 at 9:42 am
amazing hypocrit country
June 23rd, 2012 at 10:24 am
I guess you don’t understand the word.
June 23rd, 2012 at 12:16 pm
hypocrite – a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
June 23rd, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Then you don’t realize that you are applying it wrong. There is a difference between private and public behavior (obvious). This cartoon compares public and private behavior. In my post I gave an example of a man and woman having sex – big difference if it is in the privacy of their bedroom or if it is on national TV (obvious again).
Hypocrite in current case is someone who goes topless in public but criticizes this girl for doing it. In another case hypocrite is someone who goes to massage parlors but criticizes someone else who does it. Is it not obvious yet?
June 28th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Massage parlours in Thailand can be seen in public, everywhere: pictures and photos of girls are plastered all over the outside of these gargantuan buildings which clearly can’t offer normal massage services.
In tourist areas, sex shows are advertised, in public.
On YouTube, searching beautiful Thai resort areas produces results such as “go go bars”
Attacking the cartoonist as perhaps not being Thai or being unThai is just a xenophobic reaction to a problem that goes beyond public and private distinctions.
Thai women deserve better than being dliberately or inadvertently depicted as available. Thailand deserves better than being famous for karaoke, naughty massage parlours and other similar past times. Clearly the issue “went public” a long time ago, even if you say the activities take place in private.
These parts of Thailand could be cleaned up, if Thai people choose and the Thai governent carries out their wishes. Ask most Thai people if they think these naughty places are ok or not, and although a Thai would generally not condemn, they would voice disapproval I believe.
June 28th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
This debate is good example of the very different experience of foreigners and average Thai person. Your “everywhere” is very different than mine. I have seen all that stuff before but it has been at least a couple of years since I have seen any of what you are talking about, except on the internet. That’s the same for most Thai people. I go on tour but I don’t go to places like Patpong or Pattaya. I agree what you said that most Thai people disapprove these places. I hate them. I feel like the tsunami should have hit Pattaya instead of Khao Lak.
So that stuff is public, in a some areas, but it is a very different public than a topless girl on prime time TV with parents shocked that they have to explain to their kids what happened.
August 20th, 2012 at 8:18 pm
I have to agree with you, because after spending time with regular common Thai folk, I have realized that most of them don’t really know that their country is infamous around the world for these sort of things. As you have said, their living space is a totally different one from the one tourists spend time in, and most locals are totally conservative about the things the tourists are so exposed to. I think the analogy you made about the couple making love in public is a perfect example. I, for one, definitely love to see naked ladies, but that doesn’t mean I would take my daughter to a strip club, right? Who would?