{"id":808,"date":"2011-08-10T21:54:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T21:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=808"},"modified":"2014-08-27T14:19:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T14:19:09","slug":"the-stereotypical-thai-gender-roles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/the-stereotypical-thai-gender-roles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stereotypical Thai Gender Roles"},"content":{"rendered":"

In every culture there are stereotypes for guys (poo3 chai 1 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e22<\/strong>) and stereotypes for girls (poo3 ying5 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e34\u0e07<\/strong>). Boys like blue, girls like pink. Boys like action figures, girls like Barbies. It is of course only a stereotype, i.e. what the culture assumes and accepts as the truth \u2013 whether it is or not.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no different in Thailand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now before I start describing these Thai stereotypes of gender, keep in mind that culture changes over time. As such, stereotypes are different for different generations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stereotypes for Guys<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Most Thai guys drink a lot, and often. (deum1 lao3 boi2 \u0e14\u0e36\u0e21\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e25\u0e49\u0e32\u0e1a\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e22<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This stereotype is generally true for a good majority of Thai men. They like to drink when they go out to socialize. Heavy social drinkers, you can say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) Most Thai guys smoke. (suub2 bu2ree2 \u0e2a\u0e39\u0e1a\u0e1a\u0e38\u0e2b\u0e23\u0e35\u0e48<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This stereotype is definitely not as true as their drinking habits, but a decent amount do smoke. Based on the highly scientific study that I just made up today, I\u2019d say 30%+ smoke socially.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, if you tell Thais you don\u2019t smoke or drink, they\u2019ll be approving\/surprised\/impressed. They\u2019ll still smoke\/drink, but they\u2019ll consider you a good person that you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3) Most Thai guys cheat on their girls. (poo3 chai1 jao3 chuu4 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e22\u0e40\u0e08\u0e49\u0e32\u0e0a\u0e39\u0e49<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

To be honest, this stereotype is really hard to verify. But from my experience in Thailand, I often see evidence that reinforces this stereotype. It\u2019s not unusual that a Thai man would have a second or third wife (meya1 noi4 \u0e40\u0e21\u0e35\u0e22\u0e19\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22<\/strong>), if he could financially support them. What isn\u2019t so fair to Thai men is that Thai women want to be with men who are already married, meaning they are equally to blame. And from my experiences in Thailand, they also cheat just as much as men do. However, the stereotype for women is that they don\u2019t cheat \u2013 it rarely even crosses anyone\u2019s mind that it happens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stereotypes for Women<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Women like to dress up, be girly, have fancy clothes, and expensive purses. \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e34\u0e07\u0e0a\u0e2d\u0e1a\u0e41\u0e15\u0e48\u0e07\u0e2a\u0e27\u0e22\u0e46\u0e0a\u0e2d\u0e1a\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e41\u0e1e\u0e07\u0e46<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is no different from western culture, so no further explanation is required =P<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) There is no such thing as a woman who isn\u2019t \u2018Noi Jai\u2019 on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

There is no word for noi4 jai1 \u0e19\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e43\u0e08<\/strong> in English. It\u2019s when a girl is annoyed with her man, so she gets pouty, sarcastic, quite, or has an angry outburst because of some perceived problem she has with him. Have you ever had your girl act angry at you but you didn\u2019t know why? That\u2019s called \u2018noi jai\u2019, her state of mind in that situation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3) A good girl is never alone with a man. A bad girl has tattoos.<\/p>\n

This is one of the older stereotypes that\u2019s changing, so some strongly believe this and some don\u2019t. Some Thai women, if you ask them out on a date, they\u2019ll bring several friends with them on the date. From the western point of view this can be extremely confusing, no? It\u2019s considered inappropriate (mai3 maw1 som5 \u0e44\u0e21\u0e48\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e32\u0e30\u0e2a\u0e21<\/strong>) to be alone together. It\u2019s still common to look down on women who go to bars and have tattoos. Fortunately, although unlike in the past, it\u2019s no longer assumed that Thai women seen with foreign men are prostitutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In every culture there are stereotypes for guys and stereotypes for girls. Boys like blue, girls like pink. Boys like action figures, girls like Barbies. It is of course only a stereotype, i.e. what the culture assumes and accepts as the truth \u2013 whether it is or not. It\u2019s no different in Thailand.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[10208,3,10341],"tags":[94531,94532,94529,3422,10177],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-beginner","category-culture","category-intermediate","tag-boy","tag-girl","tag-noi-jai","tag-stereotypes","tag-thai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}