Revisiting the Prostitution Debate in the Technology Age: Women Who Use the Internet for Sex Work in Bangkok

Abstract

The debate around prostitution has existed for as long as sex work has. With each new era comes a new sensibility adding more complexity to the debate. In this age of information technology the worlds oldest profession has also found new spaces and new media for itself. This exploratory study seeks to examine womens engagement with technology in the area of sex work. The first section summarizes the most prevalent views on prostitution which range from bad women to poor victims to agents. The second section recapitulates the context of sex work in Thailand especially its historical socio-economic and cultural complexity. Literature on sex work in Thailand is plentiful; however there is little on freelance sex workers who are a critical part of the sex work scene. The third section presents field data on the use of technology to seek sex work in Bangkok arguing that women choose to use technology to offer sexual services for a variety of economic and social reasons; and that within the situation of gendered inequities that places them in vulnerable situations they have empowered themselves through the use of technology. (excerpt)