Being members of a Western culture, we find child prostitution an instant violation of human rights and detestable. Recently, I read an article detailing a particular case of child prostitution in Thailand that is accepted by the children's parents and the children themselves. Now, as most of you would probably guess, my first response to the first few paragraphs of the article were that of disgust toward the parents who allow this to happen. I thought to myself, "These people are terrible! How could someone allow their children to be paid for having sex with these old, rich men!" After clearly having this mindset of disgust toward the topic, I proceeded to read the article. As I read on, I was better able to understand why this culture permitted what we consider atrocious, to occur. In order to understand why parents allowed this, one must first understand that family, and therefore, parents are extremely important in this society. They place high value on the concepts of obedience and gratitude, especially toward their parents. Children are expected to "repay" their parents, and see this as an obligation. A child's main responsibility is that toward their parents. Therefore, children engage in prostitution because of the factors in their environment and their culture. Prostitution as a means to "repay" their parents becomes extremely appealing for various reasons. First, it is a fast way to get a lot of money, and is more appealing than begging or working in under sweatshop conditions in factories. Second, the children don't see it as prostitution or exploitation because they build relationships with the men that request their services. They typically keep in contact with the children, and therefore, the families see these men as friends. Despite these cultural facts, it became very difficult to understand the inner workings of how this prostitution continues to occur.
My Overall Reflections:
Primarily, I reflected on how much work it took my mind to think in terms of tolerance and respect for this culture that accepts child prostitution. Even though I feel that something needs to be done so that children can fulfill their perceived obligation toward their parents without needing to engage in prostitution, after pondering on the cultural values, it became apparent to me HOW this prostitution can be acceptable.
Secondly, this article made me think about issues closer to home, ever present in our Western culture. The child-prostitution that occurs in Thailand is rooted in the need for money in order to relieve poverty. In America, poverty is also very real and can lead people to doing some surreal things. From committing crimes to falling into a downward spiral of substance abuse or depression, our Western people suffer from not having enough to live off of. Pondering on this made me realize that we don't often think of what leads people to their actions...and we just judge them on what they do. Can we/should we judge someone for committing a crime when their environment has lead them to it without any other way out? when society itself doesn't lead them any other alternative? OR Are there alternatives other than breaking the law for people in these situations? ....Kind of reminds me of that movie "PRECIOUS" and the struggles the protagonist goes through. Keep in mind that movie's setting is in America.
