Spaces of Male Prostitution Bangkok Thailand

Found a fascinating and extremely long thesis done of the subject by a Thai student studying in London for his degree of PHD in Architecture.

Spaces of male prostitution

Tactics, Performativity and Gay Identities in Streets, Go Go bars and Magazines in Contemporary Bangkok, Thailand.2006

Anyway he explores Bangkok thoroughly in places I certainly have never been or thought to look,also shedding interesting light on male on male sex by straights, gays, bi- falang etc etc well beyond, tens and tens of pages beyond mere Architecture.

This document in the hands of a homophobic city planner could be a dangerous thing.

Worth a read. thought I would try and post all 400 closely worded pages in instalments? Or the whole PDF file? Yea sure, I'll try and find the link meantime. LMLU's post made me remember it stored in my files, the army is mentioned quite a few times. :salute:

[Brad the Impala]

The wonder that is GOOGLE!

URL Text (http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/10720/)

He's no longer a student, but holds an academic post and has apparently extended his research into "more concrete" spaces.

[pong]

hmm, the 3 places mentioned in the abstract are well-known-and also often named in this forum-and the other well-known english language ones. In Cr.f.s you can find an awful long list of other tried out spaces. Just wished those academics could use a little more normal language-it now nearly needs a translator. Nor do I quite grasp what the relation to architecture is or should be. Fears about BMA urban planners should be superfluous-I guess well over 90% of all adult male BKK-Thai would know about this.

Oops I failed to mention his name, Sant Suwatcharapinum, can't imagine he would be offended especialy if 555 is correct.

Arguably I think he was successful at achieving his goal behind the thesis as a whole, even if he battled a bit to tie it all in. Most of the many tangents he did go off on are very interesting subjects in themselves, quite difficult to put onto paper, as they are almost instinct to men who love men and not that easy to explain. Joining the dots to relate it all to architecture for academics is made a lot easier at any rate. A rather important work into a rather sorely neglected subject. Admirable.

[PeterUK]

Just wished those academics could use a little more normal language-it now nearly needs a translator.

I didn't get beyond 'performativity' in the title.

Just wished those academics could use a little more normal language-it now nearly needs a translator.

I didn't get beyond 'performativity' in the title.

You know, Peter, I've been wondering for several days whether I should say this. Sant's thesis makes a lot more sense to me than your stories of encounters with doe eyed paragons of poverty. I find your characters lack authenticity in an Heideggerian sense*.

Performativity is quite a simple concept really. It postulates that certain entities or realities cannot exist without being performed. A market is a prime example. A market will not exist without the performances of a buyer and a seller. The existence lies in the performance, hence the need for language that emphasises the importance of performance.

I am not an architect, but I do suspect that it is helpful to architects if they deeply understand the use to which the spaces they create are put. Performance of a market is what the thesis, from one of England's best Universities btw, is about. Your attempt to rubbish the language used by a deep thinker on his subject says more about you than him. IMNSHO
(In my not so humble opinion).

And I daren't state my reaction to your attempt at a completely undeserved campy put-down.

As for Pong. The thesis wasn't written for you to understand. It was written so that his examiners would recognise that the fellow could hold an informed conversation with them explaining his research, and recognise his deserving of the title "Dr.", so your wish that he should use language that you understand is completely misplaced. Perhaps he'll re-write it as a chapter of "Architecture for Dummies". Till then it is perfectly reasonable for him to use the jargon of his research community.

*see thrownness

[pong]

hmm again-I did academic studies back home in a non-english speaking country. and of course had to do some final thesis too-and we were always by professors, lectors etc instructed that it should be readable for the highest number of people-not just for other insiders. Any word that could be subsituted with another more common was marked in red-no personal computers at that time yet. But I grasp that many studies were not made/written for me in the first place-glad to realise that anyway-relieves me of an awful load of books I never have to read.

[PeterUK]

You know, Peter, I've been wondering for several days whether I should say this.

But in the end the desire to be pompous and waspish was just too overpowering. I understand. I congratulate you on holding out for so long. Since the word 'performativity' is not listed in my Concise Oxford English Dictionary, I thought my mildly censorious little comment ('campy put-down'???) to be justified. I should have realised that one can't even make an innocuous remark about the weather on this board without drawing the bile of some deeply unhappy soul somewhere. I hope you feel restored to a sense of equanimity soon.