Fighter for rights: Chantawipa Apisuk, director of the Empower Foundation. Her T-shirt says, ‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere’. (Photo by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin)
It’s the oldest profession in the world and one that still carries a stigma in Thailand. But for a local non-profit organisation that opened a museum earlier this month in Nonthaburi, prostitution is a job like any other, and with its exhibition hopes to dismantle the negative stereotypes surrounding sex work.
Complete with an installation of an actual-size go-go bar, similar to those that can be found in Bangkok’s red light districts, but with no live shows, the “This is Us” Museum on Tiwanon Road aims to draw a distinction between the performance and eroticism of sex work, and the rights to which it says that employees should be entitled to.
Chantawipa Apisuk, the director of the Empower Foundation, a local non-profit organisation that supports sex workers and aims to decriminalise prostitution, said she wants people to see prostitution as a job like any other, where workers are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
“Many prostitutes want equal legal treatment and advancement in their jobs, just like anyone else. They also have a desire to escape from poverty and dream of a better life,” she said.
The museum, on the third floor of the Empower Foundation building, features stories from sex workers which the founders hope will educate people on the difficulties they face, while attempting to lend some humanity to an industry rife with misogyny and exploitation.
The sex workers’ plight is symbolised by a boxing ring at the museum featuring a painting of a female fighter hitting out at threats and injustices, Ms Chantawipa said. She said the ring is her favourite part of the museum.
The foundation has acted on behalf of prostitutes and other sex workers for years, calling for better legal treatment and protection of their rights.
Recalling her first days going to the Patpong red right district to educate sex workers about their rights, Ms Chantawipa said many of the girls were naive and not used to life in the city.
She has spent years making them aware of issues surrounding health, education and employment rights.
Now the time has come to educate the public, she said.
At the museum, one corner is dedicated to Thailand’s history of prostitution dating back centuries to the ancient Ayutthaya kingdom.
The section explores the economic and legal evolution of the sex business, from the Ayutthaya to Rattanakosin periods, through to the bustling, digital age and trade in places such as Pattaya.
In the late 17th century, prostitution was legal, with state officials allowed to run brothels provided they were licenced. Customers were charged standard rates of half a baht to four baht depending on what services they wanted.
Back then, four baht would buy one sack of rice, Ms Chantawipa said, adding the equivalent amount of rice today is priced at between 3,600 and 4,000 baht.
The business became more organised in the early Rattanakosin era as the state imposed a ban on girls aged 15 or younger from selling sex. Flouting the ban would lead to a fine or jail time.
Fast forwarding to modern times, Pattaya has since 1959 been the playground for mainly foreign tourists and American marines on shore leave, as well as American soldiers who went from their military base in Nakhon Ratchasima to Pattaya for the nightlife, entertainment and women.
Ms Chantawipa says the sex industry, which employs a vast number of women, has co-existed in Thai culture for a long time, yet is outlawed and denied the legal framework to protect “workers”.
Speaking in defence of her campaign of giving sex workers their rights and legalising their service, Ms Chantawipa said: “We’re not defying morality or some [conservative] laws, but these alone can’t solve prostitution issues.”
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.