Thai girls and Farang men the edge of ambiguity

This paper examines the dynamics of the short-term and longer term relationship between prostitutes and tourists in Bangkok, Thailand. Based on fieldwork in one small area of Bangkok, it examines the expectations of the women and the foreign men who patronize their services. It concludes that for most of the women, prostitution offers a career marked by a pattern of upward and downward mobility, economic insecurity, often emotional instability, and no long-term solution to the economic conditions which made them join the profession in the first place.