In the mirror of the “Other” Young Thai women´s reflection of Self in relation to gender roles and perceptions of the “Other”

Abstract

While Thailand has never been formally colonized, its society continues to be impacted by the nation’s identity construction of “Thainess” as a response to the spread of “Westernization” in Asia. This thesis explores how colonial ideas of the Other, the “farang”, impact ideas of Self among four young Thai women living in Bangkok. Ethnographic fieldwork, in the form of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, was conducted. Using a post-colonial and intersectional lens, this paper asks how young Thai women see themselves reflected in their female Other, the expatriate, and in what spaces these feelings of Otherness manifest itself in their daily lives. Discussions revealed emotions of envy and admiration for the “Western” expatriate lifestyle and freedom that interlocutors saw themselves denied. As a patriarchal society, traditional gender roles in Thailand continue to influence young Thai women´s experiences of Otherness. The initial physical or racial differences Thai interlocutors saw, directly translated into broader social, cultural, and economic differences and a perceived “white privilege”, resulting in a mixture of emotions, such as envy, admiration, or sadness, discontent. To cope with these feelings of Otherness, interlocutors created symbolic boundaries between themselves and the Other, reproducing socially constructed binaries of “Thai” versus “Farang” that inform the racial divide in Thai society. The thesis underlines the importance of being sensitive to the historical, socio-cultural contexts in which processes of othering, boundary creation or differentiation occur and how race and gender intersect with other factors to shape ideas of Otherness.