PORNOGRAPHY, FOR BETTER OR WORSE, IS HERE TO STAY
STORY BY NAPAMON ROONGWITOO
Despite the fast growth in popularity of downloadable pornography, the existence of porn magazines still stands strong.
So do the debates on pornography among conservatives and liberals. On one hand, it is perceived as a sex education learning tool that exists for a good reason. On the other hand, it is pure obscenity that should be gotten rid of. Whatever the perception, porn magazines have been around ever since the print media was founded in Thailand, and they are still available today in a time when the Internet has taken a greater share of the global media.
"The idea that porn magazines have been replaced by electronic pornography is a middle-class perception," says Assoc Prof Chalidaporn Songsamphan, who has done extensive research on the topic of "Low-End Porn Magazines: Knowledge, Myths and Sexual Health". It is part of the research series "Building and Managing Knowledge on Sexuality, Gender and Health" supported by the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University and the Women's Health Advocacy Foundation.
A majority of the Thai population does, in fact, belong to the lower socio-economic class, which does not have easy access to VCD players or computers. With the minimum wage hovering around 144 baht a day, it comes as no surprise that as few as 20.5 per cent of Thais are Internet users, according to Internet World Stats. Although DVDs and downloadable clips are becoming more widespread, it is merely among those who can afford such devices, and the demand for porn magazines is still there for those who cannot.
"In order to watch pornography on VCD or DVD, you need electricity, a television and a VCD/DVD player. Not everyone in Thailand can afford to have them in their household. Porn magazines, on the other hand, cost as little as 30 baht, and do not require additional devices."
Chalidaporn defines porn magazines as magazines in which sex is explicitly mentioned and portrayed in both images and text. There is a broad range of porn magazines, from romance novels with sex scenes to hardcore porn, from heterosexual porn to homosexual porn. Her area of research is male-oriented heterosexual porn magazines for people in low-income brackets, which turn out to be read not only by the poor.
"There was something quite surprising when I researched pornography. In the US, low-end porn magazines actually do very well among middle- or upper-middle-class readers. It is a way of distancing themselves from the content and looking at the experience as an adventurous exploration into an unknown land different from their everyday life."
Pornography is illegal in Thailand, with stronger legal enforcement during the past few years. But instead of wiping out porn magazines, such enforcement only forces porn magazines to survive through more discreet distribution. "In a way, it is like the Twilight Zone. They are still available at many newsstands, but they are just not openly displayed."
The society at large condemns pornography whenever there is a rape case, making pornography an all-time culprit. It is often perceived that pornography stimulates sexual urges and the person who watches it will lose self-control and commit a crime. This is in sharp contrast to the reality in Japan, a country with an abundance of sexually explicit material and a low number of reported rape cases.
Nicholas Groth, a specialist in the treatment of sex offenders, has written that rape is sometimes attributed to the increasing availability of pornography and sexual explicitness in the public media. Although a rapist, like anyone else, might find some pornography stimulating, it is not sexual arousal but the arousal of anger or fear that leads to rape.
Nonetheless, dissemination of pornography is an offence subject to a range of other legal consequences, including three years' imprisonment, a 6,000 baht fine or both. For the sake of survival, porn magazines have been altered and camouflaged to protect the publishers, as well as distributors. The cover is made less obvious. There is no printing year or address, to prevent the publishers from being traced back through the magazines.
Chalidaporn looks at pornography as practice-based sex education. "Pornography exists because sex is condemned in society. Thai society has this notion that sex is something that must not be disclosed. There is no way of learning about sex, so most people learn through direct experience with pornography, which connects what they see with what they feel."
Pornography has existed ever since people started drawing but was not predominant until the print media was established. In Thailand, mainstream porn magazines were introduced around the time of World War Two, known as Nang Sue Pok Kao (White Cover Book), available at Sanam Luang. Some of the images were from Japanese or Western magazines, and a few were images of Thai ladies. Later in the '90s, many labels appeared on the newsstands and porn magazines were not unfamiliar any more.
Mainstream pornography is patriarchal, which means it sets out to please the male audience. Given that, often what appears in it is not necessarily accurate and can twist the perception of sex. The portrayal of sex shown in the images and "confessional writings" often treat women as submissive sex objects, implying violence towards women somehow does not hurt them or perhaps even pleases them.
"Unconventional sex seems to excite the readers more, but at the same time it sends out the wrong message. Women are not happy when they are raped, but in porn magazines, it is portrayed otherwise. Those confessional writings often say women try to fight when they are molested but will later surrender to men because they cannot resist the temptation. Actual rape is nothing like that." She also warns that readers should understand that many stories are fictional.
Mainstream pornography depicts "sexiness" as something stereotypical. Most women in pornography are light-skinned with long hair and big breasts. The men, however, do not have to possess great looks as long as they can romantically satisfy women.
She also comments that sex education in Thailand still needs improving since it focuses more on textbook knowledge rather than practical knowledge. Children and sex seem to be on different planets and many parents choose to forbid their children from having sex instead of teaching them about protection. Children should be prepared for adolescence and the changes that will follow puberty, sexual desire being one of them.
"Most of us have been raised with the idea that sex is linked with, and confined within, marriage. However, just because our body is ready for reproduction doesn't mean we are ready for commitment. A rape case can be settled out of court or closed if the two get married. I do not think that is the right solution. While marriage, love and sex are deeply intertwined, they are completely different in their own nature."
Many parents feel their children should be punished if they are caught watching porn movies or reading porn magazines, their reason being that porn is "not suitable" or "dirty" for the children.
By making sex and pornography taboo, Chalidaporn says we only make it more appealing.
"The truth is sooner or later, it is bound to happen. It is human to have sexual needs and we cannot fight something as natural as that. As humans, we can suppress our sexual needs but we cannot deny them, and too much suppression only leads to anxiety. Safe sex is more possible than abstinence, naturally speaking. Isn't it ridiculous that in an age of such advanced medicine and effective birth control methods, there are still so many unwanted pregnancies and abortions?"
It is a fact of life that pornography has existed for centuries and it is unlikely that it will ever be stamped out. "Pornography will never disappear as long as humans have sexual desire. One day print media might be replaced with electronic media, but pornography is irreplaceable."
ROMANCE SELLS,
SEX SELLS MORE
Alarge number of romance novels can be found on the shelves of any bookshop, and if one flips through them, sexual intercourse appears in many of them. If anything, those scenes are selling points that make or break a novel. The level of explicitness varies from synecdochical descriptions to full-blown hardcore sex scenes.
"Whistle"* is an author of romance novels popular among female readers today. She tells us that the best-selling plot of all time is something similar to Jamloey Rak (Love Defendant), a Thai novel in which a man kidnaps a woman for revenge, rapes her, but eventually wins her heart. The rape scene, she says, is one of the main highlights of this novel.
"The main scene that will please most readers is when the leading man and woman end up together, and more often than not, it happens on the bed," says Whistle. She explains that such scenes satisfy the readers' curiosity as most of her readers are single women and young girls. "It is like learning through pornography, only less explicit and more romantic."
Whistle says many authors try to make their sex scenes their selling points because, as she puts it, "The readers' curiosity is insatiable and they tend to look for such scenes first when purchasing a novel."
Personally, she finds that sex scenes are not as big a concern as the underlying message. "There are good authors who try to instil sex education in sex scenes, such as having safe sex, but there are bad authors, too. You name it, I've seen it: Cheating, sleeping around, using sex as a tool to get what you want, that kind of thing. It is sex without morality that worries me, not just the presence of sex scenes themselves."
"Merci"* is an avid fan of romance novels, and she admits that she looks for sex scenes. "To me, it is quality over quantity. The whole book can have just a one-page sex scene as long as it's well written." She explains that X-rated romance novels are like a classroom for schoolgirls who want to know more about sex but do not know where to turn.
"The great thing about romance novels is that they are not expensive and they are readily available anywhere. By looking at the cover, nobody knows what's inside the book that you're reading. They would just assume it's more chic lit.
"I admit that I like romance novels, but that doesn't mean I am a bad person or that I am obsessed with sex. I think it is a preferable learning method to seeking first-hand experience. Sex is still deemed an untouchable issue in Thailand and there aren't that many channels for learning about sex. This is why sex scenes in romance novels are so popular today," says the teenage reader.
* Names have been changed.
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