Racy festival video prompts Thai uproar

THOMAS FULLER
International Herald Tribune
04-19-2011
Racy festival video prompts Thai uproar
Byline: THOMAS FULLER
Type: News

Three teenage girls who were filmed shirtless and gyrating to thumping music in the heart of Bangkok were apprehended by the police after a national uproar in a usually tolerant country.

To the millions of tourists who visit Bangkok each year, this is a city famous for its tolerance -- and notorious for its wild nightlife.
But a national uproar over several girls who danced topless in public during raucous celebrations at the recently concluded Thai water festival has underlined the limits of acceptable behavior in the country and the nuances of Thai public morality.

The three girls, who were filmed shirtless and gyrating to thumping music in the heart of Bangkok on Friday, were apprehended by the police on Monday. They are 13, 14 and 16 years old, the police said.

"We will take legal actions against them; the charge is doing a shameful act in public by indecently exposing oneself," Maj. Gen. Suwat Jangyodsuk of the police, who was leading the investigation, said. "This has damaged a traditional Thai ceremony."

The incident, which has remained one of the top stories on Thai news Web sites since Saturday, appears to have struck a nerve.

One video clip of the incident was viewed by nearly one million people. Ninety-four percent of 1,134 people polled in Bangkok and the surrounding area by Assumption University of Thailand said that they were aware of the controversy.

The Thai minister of culture, Nipit Intarasombut, was quoted in the Thai news media as saying that he hoped to enlist the teenage girls who danced topless in an educational program reading books about Thai traditional celebrations to nursery school children.

Thailand is one of Asia's most socially liberal societies. Homosexuality and transsexuals are widely accepted. A Thai maxim holds that a village is not civilized until transsexuals are found living there.

But the country also has a conservative streak. Abortion and pornography are banned. Alcohol sales are restricted to certain hours, and movies and television programs are censored for nudity. The government regularly blocks Web sites deemed to contravene Thai values.

Weak law enforcement and a general laissez-faire ethos in Thailand undermine rules against vice. Bangkok is home to hundreds of so-called saunas where male clients do more than just soak in hot tubs. Just minutes away from the spot where the three teenagers were filmed dancing, women and men perform in infamous sex shows, and sex workers lure their clientele in countless bars.

Chalidaporn Songsamphan, an associate professor at Thammasat University in Bangkok, said Thais were uncomfortable when sexuality was displayed in public, however. And the anger directed at the teenage girls is a way for Thais to channel their frustrations about wider social problems in Thailand, like alcoholism, low test scores among students and teenage delinquency, Ms. Chalidaporn said.

"Thais need someone to blame," Ms. Chalidaporn said. "It's easier than fixing problems in the country."

Ninety-one percent in the opinion poll over the weekend said they worried that Thai society had "deteriorated."

For the Ministry of Culture, which has led past morality campaigns, the topless controversy partly boomeranged. Users of an Internet discussion forum, Pantip.com, pointed out that the Ministry of Culture displayed an image of three fairy-like women wearing only sarongs on its Web site. The illustration was removed on Sunday afternoon.

Keywords: Bangkok (Thailand) (Geo); Thailand (Geo); Nudism and Nudity (Des)

Copyright International Herald Tribune Apr 19, 2011