Kusaeni, Nadira 1 Explaining Thailand Sex Industry with Marx’s Economic Determinism Theory
The 1960s – 1980s period in the feminist timeline was called as the secondwave feminism. During that time, women were fighting for their equality in education, the workplace, and home. There was a confident understanding of feminists before the 1980s saying that prostitution was a sign and example of women’s subordination and would cease to exist when women gained equality (Jeffreys 2009, 1). Women have gained more equality from time to time, seeing the success of feminist struggles in history. Despite the more equality they have gained, contrary to the arguments of the second-wave feminists, the number of prostitution has increased. Prostitution activities have turned into a huge profitable global market sector, expending the life of women for economic gain. According to the ILO, the profit from forced commercial sexual exploitation is estimated to amount US$ 27,8 billion in 2005 (International Labor Office 2014, 11). An ILO report 7 years later estimated a profit of US$ 99 billion of commercial sexual exploitation in 2012 (International Labor Office 2014, 15), showing an increase in number. Some countries even earn a crucial amount of national income from developing prostitution, naming them as sex tourism. One of the countries that develop and earn profit from sex tourism is Thailand. According to an ILO report entitled The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, the revenues gained from sex sector in those four countries is estimated to account between 2 to 14 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The development of prostitution into a materialistic activity shows that the reason why prostitution occurs is not because of gender inequality, but because of the base and superstructure relations. Marx argued that the
2 mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life (Marx 1970, 20), where the mode of production can be considered as the base which determines or is the cause of the superstructure: social, political, and intellectual life. The practice of prostitution in Thailand can be considered as the superstructure, which is shaped by the mode of production. This theory is called as the “economic determinism” (Schmitt 1997, 65) and this paper will examine the collision of labor, violence, and technology in the Thailand sex industry using Marx’s economic determinism theory. This paper will start by explaining what Marx means by base and superstructure then analyzing the base and superstructure in the Thailand sex industry. Marx’s economic determinism theory argues that the mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life (Marx 1970, 20-21). The mode of production is the base, or the economic structure of society, which shapes human’s way of producing their existence, on which arises a legal and political superstructure. Human as a biological creature cannot be separated from the material world, for example human needs food for their subsistence. By producing their means of subsistence, human are producing their material life (Harman 1986, 9). This economic structure of society constitutes of forces of production and relations of production. The forces of production in factory production would be factories, machines, trucks, and railroads for transportation (Schmitt 1997, 54). From here we can infer that the forces of production are the material goods, or the commodities, that facilitates the production. Meanwhile the relations of production are the material interactions of human beings and the forces of production (Harman 1986, 17). Production relations are relations of effective power over forces of production and have a range of rights to the use those objects (Cohen 2000, 63).
Kusaeni, Nadira 3 These range or rights shows different relations between each person. The person who has rights over his labor power and the means of production he uses are called as the producer (Cohen 2000, 65). On the other hand, the people who do not have rights over their labor power or the means of production they use are called as slaves (65), and they became commodity themselves. The mode of production in the Thailand sex industry can be seen from the relations of pimps towards the production forces. As what have been stated before, every person involved in the production process has different rights over their labor power and the means of production. The pimps have the complete right over the means of production, while the prostitutes do not, and they became a commodity, and technology, such as the internet and plane rides facilitate the production process. Technology has a significant role in the Thailand sex industry. Research founds out that clients of the Thailand sex industry are not only locals, but also foreign tourists, coming from the Middle East, Europe, North America, or Asia. They come to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, to have sex (Shelley 2010, 161). The increase in foreign clients is believed to be caused by the lower airfare and the availability of sex tour packages, which provides a cheaper cost for airfare, accommodation, and sex at once. This argument can be supported by Truong’s found which says that air travel and tourism has experienced spectacular growth since the beginning of the 1950s (Truong 1990, 101). The cheaper airfare resulted from the advancement of technology makes new generations of aircrafts that increase carrying capacity and decreased operating costs (105). Travel agents and tour operators also create sales and promotions that make travel packages cheaper (105-107). Tour operators, the owner of the rights to control production forces, then added sex into their packages, naming them sex tour business. The internet is also a major force of
4 production since it has facilitated speedy, low-cost, and anonymous communications that are a boon to the activities of prostitute traffickers. It allows communications among buyers and sellers of trafficked people, chat rooms allow buyers to exchange information on sex tourism, and text messaging is used by traffickers to link with customers (Shelley 2010, 41). Once you try to search for “Thai prostitutes� in the internet, Google will show 869.000 results (Google Web Search 2015) where it gives access to websites giving comprehensive information about Thai prostitutes, including where to look, how to start, and the costs. One quotation taken from the first result of the Google search: Prostitutes can be had for "shorttime", which is typically for up to two hours plus round trip transit time to the local short time hotel. Alternatively, they can be taken for "longtime", to sleep with you in your home or hotel, for a domestic vacation to the beach or ancient ruins, to a movie and dinner, etc. Typical lady price is 1000 to 1500 baht for shorttime, more or less (Thailand Guru).
This shows how technology facilitates the production of prostitution. If these forces of production did not exist, the producers such as tour operators and pimps would not create this form of production and prostitution would not be as common. These producers have a complete right over the production factors. The brothel takes up all the money earned by the prostitutes and controls the price for their own benefit. The expense of buying a girl from her family is so low that the profit gained by the brothel is 856 per cent higher than their expenses (Bales 1999, 58). Bales showed the expenses needed to pay by one brothel a month compared to their income if a brothel has 20 prostitutes averaging 14 clients per day. Brothels need to pay 257.000 baht per month to pay their monthly expenditure such as rent, bills, beer, or the pimp’s salary. With the fee for a client is 125 baht, a brothel can earn 2.457.000 baht in a month, meaning that their monthly profit is 2.200.000 bath or 856 times higher than their
Kusaeni, Nadira 5 expenditure. Besides having rights over their labor force, they also have complete rights over the commodity. They treat them inhumanely by using violence during the working process. They keep the girls in tiny cubicles where they also work, with only scraps of wood and cardboard separating one room from the next, that every sound can be heard no matter if the doors are open or not (Bales 1999, 35). They are not allowed to leave the brothel, pimps threaten them by saying that they will be beaten or abused in the police station when they are caught (59), the girls obtained from trafficking cannot escape since their passports and other travel documents are confiscated. The girls that are caught trying to escape will also receive violence from the pimps, either being beaten up in front of the girls in the brothel, or being stripped naked and whipped with steel coat hangers (58-59). During their work, they also cannot escape from violent attacks. The pimp or his assistant will attend the working process (56), ready to beat up the girl if they refuse or resist, sometimes forced into submission at a gunpoint (58). While the pimps have complete control over the prostitutes, the prostitutes have no rights over themselves. They became a commodity since they do not have rights over their labor force or the mode of production. They became a product that can be sold and bought. The pimps obtained the prostitutes by buying them from their poor family in the northern Thailand area. The girls are usually sold with a price of 50.000 baht (or $2.000) and they are kept in brothels as debt bondage (Bales 1999, 41). They also do not have the right over their labor force. The money they gain is needed to repay their debt. One prostitute will gain 400 baht each month but 300 of it will be given to the pimp and the brothel. If she resists to work, she will be beaten and the debt she must repay escalated to 200.000 baht. To repay her debt, it means that she needs to have sex with 300 men a month (41). Besides not having rights over their
6 labor force, they also do not have rights over the mode of production. If they were possible to use the internet, maybe they would have increased the price so they would be able to repay their debt quickly. That was the base of the economy which shapes the production process in the society. Marx also believes that there are non-economic institutions whose character is explained by the nature of the economic structure (Cohen 1997, 216). The changes in the economic foundation lead to the transformation of the whole immense legal and political superstructure, which correspond definite forms of social consciousness, such as social, political, and intellectual life (Marx 1970, 20-21). These forms of social consciousness are the superstructures which maintains the base to continue their production process. Sex industry in Thailand is supported by the social consciousness of religion and politics. Thailand’s major religion, Buddhism, regards that women are distinctly inferior to men. A woman cannot attain enlightenment, which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. Buddha also warns his disciples about the danger of women that they are impure, carnal, and corrupting (Bales 1999, 38). Because of this belief, the families are willing to sell their daughters to the brothels, thinking that women are inferior that they can be violated. Besides the inferiority of women, Thai Buddhism also carries a central message of acceptance and resignation in the face of life’s pain and suffering. Whatever happens is a person’s fixed destiny, or karma (39). This belief makes the prostitutes submissive and willing to do their work even under violence and threat since they believe that it was their fate and karma. In addition to the religion superstructure that maintains the prostitution production to keep on going, there are also political aspects that do so. The Thai government views sex tourism as important sources of income so they legitimated
Kusaeni, Nadira 7 “entertainment” as an industry that women in entertainment were expected to provide “special services”, which is sex. Because of this law, brothel owners were considered as “entertainment providers” which make them operate legally (Bales 1999, 75). Since political power is a supporting power for the base to run, prostitution activities are very widespread and still continuing to practice. In conclusion, even though women have gained more equality, prostitution did not cease to exist, but instead it has increased and became a global market. The reason behind this increase is the base and superstructure relation that keeps the process of violence in prostitution going. The producers have complete control over the production factors, and the superstructure maintains this relation to continue. Since the prostitutes became commodities and have no right over the production factors, this collision of violence and labor cannot be stopped.
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Kusaeni, Nadira 9 Thailand Guru. “Short Time Prostitutes.� Last modified May 12, 2015. http://www.thailandguru.com/thai-bargirls-prostitutes.html. Truong, Thanh-Dan. Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia (New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd, 1990).