This massage parlor near my house doubles as a brothel.
I never expected to be educated on local brothels by a Thai man, but that is exactly what happened a couple days ago. While areas such as Nana and Soi Cowboy are world renowned for the buying and selling of sex, there are other areas of town that are just as active, yet relatively unnoticed by foreigners. These are the places where local men frequent. I actually read somewhere that contrary to popular belief, Asian men are the greatest consumers of the sex trade in Southeast Asia (I always thought that it was Westerners).
It is completely normal for Thai men to have a main wife, minor wives and still go to karaoke clubs and massage parlors to sleep with prostitutes.
The whole conversation with this man was really weird and uncomfortable. He told me where these red light districts are located, what you can do to the women if you buy them a drink ("you can touch them as much as you want!"), how much it costs to "use their services" there, and how much it costs to take them away for a couple hours.
He also told me about all the girls that they bring from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. What he began to describe was human trafficking. Not willful prostitution. He explained that their handlers take poor girls from their home country and move them into different bars and brothels all around Thailand.
"It's illegal," he stated, "but the police don't do anything."
In many ways it feels like a completely different world out here. I remember the community outrage in Minnesota when it was discovered that a strip club was prostituting underage girls. Now I walk by 2 brothels every day to get home. Only a couple streets over are more brothels; many of which contain teenage girls. And nobody says anything. Nobody raises their voice. It is approved, accepted, and considered normal. If that's not messed up, I don't know what is. If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will.
As much as I have "adjusted" to these things, there are still so many moments when I am thrown off guard and overwhelmed by it all; overwhelmed by the height, the depth, and the pain. It is like walking into a strange new house. Just when I think that the tour is complete, I stumble across another hallway which leads to another wing or level of the house. I often wonder when the tour will be finished and I will have a better understanding of just how big it is. But I'm not sure when that day will come. Until then I move forward step by step, learning, processing and praying.
{If this blog impacted you in any way, please share, like, and re-tweet it to help raise awareness of this social injustice}
It is completely normal for Thai men to have a main wife, minor wives and still go to karaoke clubs and massage parlors to sleep with prostitutes.
The whole conversation with this man was really weird and uncomfortable. He told me where these red light districts are located, what you can do to the women if you buy them a drink ("you can touch them as much as you want!"), how much it costs to "use their services" there, and how much it costs to take them away for a couple hours.
He also told me about all the girls that they bring from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. What he began to describe was human trafficking. Not willful prostitution. He explained that their handlers take poor girls from their home country and move them into different bars and brothels all around Thailand.
"It's illegal," he stated, "but the police don't do anything."
In many ways it feels like a completely different world out here. I remember the community outrage in Minnesota when it was discovered that a strip club was prostituting underage girls. Now I walk by 2 brothels every day to get home. Only a couple streets over are more brothels; many of which contain teenage girls. And nobody says anything. Nobody raises their voice. It is approved, accepted, and considered normal. If that's not messed up, I don't know what is. If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will.
As much as I have "adjusted" to these things, there are still so many moments when I am thrown off guard and overwhelmed by it all; overwhelmed by the height, the depth, and the pain. It is like walking into a strange new house. Just when I think that the tour is complete, I stumble across another hallway which leads to another wing or level of the house. I often wonder when the tour will be finished and I will have a better understanding of just how big it is. But I'm not sure when that day will come. Until then I move forward step by step, learning, processing and praying.
{If this blog impacted you in any way, please share, like, and re-tweet it to help raise awareness of this social injustice}
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