Sex Tourism in Thailand

Ronald Weitzer has done it again! Sex Tourism in Thailand is a fascinating, innovative study of the socioeconomic organization of the Thai sex industry that is sure to be of interest to scholars. This is by far the most detailed account on the market of the everyday realities that structure the Thai sex industry. * Susan Dewey, co-author of Women of the Street: How the Criminal Justice-Social Services Alliance Fails Women in Prostitution *
Weitzer presents an authentic account of Thailand’s contemporary sex industry, one that challenges prevailing stereotypes regarding the relationship between sex tourists and local sex workers. A fine example of field work that should inspire all who seek to advance social knowledge and to influence public policy. * Sheldon X. Zhang, author of Chinese Human Smuggling Organizations: Families, Social Networks, and Cultural Imperatives *
Sex Tourism in Thailand gives us a comprehensive, informative, lucid presentation of Thai sexual commerce that is unique in its style and solid in its interpretation. * William Jankowiak, editor of Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Fundamentalist Mormon Community *
Weitzer skillfully highlights the ‘polymorphous’ paradigm to identify the structural differences, general patterns, and significant departures in each of the main sectors of the tourist-oriented market in Thailand. Exposing the deleterious effect of criminalization, Sex Work in Thailand also calls for a decriminalization and legalization of prostitution in Thailand * Tiantian Zheng, author of Violent Intimacy: Family Harmony, State Stability, and Intimate Partner Violence in Post-Socialist China *
Weitzer turns his empirical gaze to Thailand's sex industry, diving deep into each sector to provide a comprehensive look at recent patterns, changes, and dynamics. His ethnographic research provides welcome attention to the wide diversity within the industry. * Barbara Brents, co-author of Paying for Sex in a Digital Age: US and UK Perspectives *
While book-length ethnographies of sex work in other settings usually focus on a single setting or business, this book explores multiple sectors, both separately and comparatively: street selling, massage parlors, brothels, escort agencies, and erotic bars. The author finds that each of these sectors has a distinctive impact on participants' work practices, interaction rituals, and the meanings they attach to their involvement and experiences—yielding sector-specific moral economies that may be mirrored in other countries as well. The book also provides a strong critique of conventional depictions of sex tourism, in Thailand and elsewhere in the world. -- American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Sexualities * Sexualities News *
Weitzman’s titillating subtitle, in combination with his soft vindication of Western male clientele and description of ins and outs of Thailand’s sex work locales, suggests this book may be of interest to potential sex tourists as well as serious scholars. * CHOICE *