Bloggang.com : ibafay - What will You Define a Thai Woman?

Group Blog

All Blog

What will You Define a Thai Woman?

Thailand in the eyes of the outsiders is the country where there are rich of beautiful beaches and historical places, and its cuisines are delicious and very spicy. Moreover, it is a paradise for shopaholics. However, if you have seen some Hollywood movies, Thailand is always described not only in what I have mentioned above but also in the unpleasant way for at least me as a Thai woman. An example of such movies is ‘Bridget Jones' Diary II’. One of the images of Thailand is introduced as if it is a paradise for a tourist guy whose one of his travel plans is to go wenching.

The notion of a Thai woman, unfairly, has been meant this way through several media and movies. Even some of Thai travel agencies, sadly, also promote this image in order just to get attention from tourists.

I had never realized that a Thai woman was symbolized in this way until I had a chance to talk with non-Thai people. My realization happened first when I was starting on-line chatting with the outsiders. A common manner for everyone when entering a chat room is to introduce his or her specific personal information which are ‘a/s/c’-- age, sex and country. Most of the time when people whom I chatted with saw the words ‘female’ and ‘Thailand’ on a computer screen, they would start the conversations without respect. After a while there was no surprise at all whenever people I talked with asking some dirty questions. But yet it was so annoying and irritating so that I stopped chatting for months.

After that I would always choose a chat room where it was specified for some groups such as ‘Muslims Room’ since I believed that the words ‘female’ and ‘Thailand’ meant nothing or did not mean that way for the people in this chat room. Unlike the open chat rooms, I never felt irritated with the dirty questions or got bad feedback in Muslims chat rooms.

The irritating feelings never happened again after I changed the on-line chat rooms until I came to Malaysia. This time made me more upset since I never prepared myself nor expected to have this feeling in the country where its majority is Muslims.

I can accept if some Malaysians do not respect a Thai woman and think that a Thai woman is ‘cheap’ for there are so many Thai women come to Malaysia and Singapore and work as a prostitute. Unfortunately, the image of a Muslim female could not much help erasing the image of a Thai woman towards some Malaysians.

The most offended and hurting part is when I am looked like a ‘cheap’ Thai woman by the eyes of a Muslim. This happens several times when I take a cap. Nothing will happen in the beginning since the Malay taxi drivers will think that I am Malay for I have a Malay look. But when some of them find out that I am not Malay and know I am from Thailand, they will start asking questions such as if I am married or I have a boyfriend. I even have been asked with a very weird question I have never heard from a Muslim like ‘You are wearing Hijab. Are you Muslim?’. It seems they do not believe I am a Muslim since I am from Thailand. If I put it in a positive side, I think they might have met some Thai girls who are pretending to be a Muslim by just wearing a scarf. Another question which makes me very sure that these some Malay taxi drivers do not see me differently from some of the girls who are considered ‘cheap’ is ‘Will you marry me?’. I was asked this question by three Malay taxi drivers after they were sure that I was a Muslim. I see this question as an offensive question. What if I were Malay, will they ask this question?

I was sad and shocked that there are some Muslims discriminating other Muslims by their races or countries they are from. Personally, Muslims should not have this kind of perception.

Create Date : 17 กันยายน 2550
Last Update : 19 เมษายน 2553 10:37:58 น.
Counter : 319 Pageviews.

2 comments