A Crackdown On Teenage Showgirls?

My own translation from the ‘Scoop Section’ of the Thai language ‘Daily News’ newspaper 4 Nov 2006.

(The following article was written about the proposed age restriction crackdown on Thailand’s ‘naughty’ who include ‘Promo Girls’ and especially the latest fad….. ‘Coyoty Girls’)

Concerning the scantily-dressed girls who promote whiskey, beers, shows, merchandise and dance to the beat of ‘Coyoty’ – should an age restriction of 20 become law?

Well, according to the Min. of Education – they don’t agree, and as for the Min. of Culture – they are tight-lipped.

But really, ought there to be an age restriction?

We wanted to look into the possible consequences of such a law being enforced and so asked a few people for their thoughts on the matter. Miss Julalak, a third year student at Bangkok University had this to say “I agree and definitely in regards to ‘Coyoty Dancing Girls’. I can’t see any reason why girls should take up such an awful profession when there are plenty of other jobs they can do”. After we interviewed Miss Patchaphan, a forth year student at Thammasat University, well….. she just said more-or-less the same thing.

Miss Thawaphorn, another student from Thammasat went on to say “I too agree, students could take up other jobs instead of having to ‘work the night’. A crackdown on Coyoty dancing where girls have to dress up in revealing knick-knack to eager-eyed customers – would be very much appreciated”

Miss Utsa and Miss Phamonthip agreed that such jobs are unsuitable to students and lead to problems within society. Miss Phamonthip even dared to say that some girls who perform such work at night also work as prostitutes on the side. “Such girls just follow their friends and enjoy earning lots of easy money in order to simply buy all the latest ‘brand-name’ goods”

Miss Jitwaradee, from Ratchabhat University had this to say “There really ought to be a crackdown, such employment leads to students losing out at university and even losing their virginity. Some girls earn a staggering 30-50,000 baht a month. They buy all the latest gear, even drive cars and finally have to do their studies all over again!”

In the eyes of ‘proper’ university students, Coyoty Girls were seen in similar light to cocktail lounge hostesses who just bum drinks off of customers.

Miss Thicha another student we interviewed replied “Saucy employment like this should be for over 20s only as girls under that age have no mind of their own. Sometimes they have to show off too much, and as they have little life experience, they get deceived by people. Working such a job, they have to encounter not just nice people but also a lot of bad ones. Cracking down on the age should really help towards solving the problem”

Besides having a lot of people favouring the proposed new law, there are others who – disagree.

Miss Waranya, a first year student at Bangkok University went on “I disagree, work such as Coyoty dancing is just a normal honest profession. Some girls have to undertake such labour as a means of making money, paying for the college fees and helping out their families financially. Dressing up ‘sexy’, dancing away or promoting products – I don’t see any darned problem with that!”

So, what do you think? Should there be such an age restriction or not?