Le fantasme de la femme thaïlandaise et la crise occidentale de la masculinité

• Main Author: Marion Bottero
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2017-05-01
• Series: Moussons
• Subjects: gender; power; male domination; intersectionality; mixted couples; sexual tourism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/moussons/3794

The fantasized image of Thai woman is largely widespread in western countries. Many Westerners travelling or living in Thailand share this representation. In parallel to this valorisation, more or less fantasized, of Thai woman, many of these men mention and reject the “masculine” behaviour of their fellow country women. “Independent”, “not taking care of themselves”, “in a constant competition” or “in no need of men”, they are assimilated to mutantes (Dorlin 2009) because they are questioning gender borders. Constructed and fantasized in opposition to Western women, Thai women seem to allow Western men to counter this Western sexual identity crisis. The geographic and cultural displacement of these Westerners enable themselves to valorise their masculinity when they enter in contact with a local woman described as “feminine”, “docile”, “modest” and “traditional”. The expatriation in Thailand thus allows a valorisation of the masculinity, and widely a social valorisation as well as an identity re-invention. This process uses the local culture, even if distant and exotic, to return to more traditional values within the couple, family and social interactions. This desire of elsewhere, of exotic, of a far-off culture and country enable, in this way, a kind of resistance to change.