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| Working at the Bar: Sex Work and Health Communication in Thailand | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas M. Steinfatt
Publisher: Ablex Publishing
Category: Book
Buy New: $36.95
Buy New/Used from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (3 reviews)
Sales Rank: 376459
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 1567505678
Dewey Decimal Number: 331.25
EAN: 9781567505672
ASIN: 1567505678
Publication Date: January 30, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Commercial sex is the occupation of a significant portion of the women of the world, providing economic support for millions of people and their families. Working at the Bar is the first-ever, long-term, longitudinal, in-depth study of a large sex work industry--and Thailand, the most prominent nation in the rapidly growing sex tourism industry, makes for an excellent case study. While previous works have provided brief glimpses of one group of workers studied from a particular point of view, author Thomas Steinfatt examines considerations of health, behavior, economics, morality, religion, and worker safety. The result of data gathered from thousands of workers and customers in Thailand over a period of twelve years, Working at the Bar covers all aspects of an industry that, although it does not conform to various Western ideals, is nevertheless enormously significant. Among the most provocative of Steinfatt's arguments is that sex work is not itself immoral, and that far from being the exploitation industry we might imagine, sex work in Thailand is beneficial to everyone involved--especially given that education in this nation has proven not to be a viable alternative. Providing an opportunity for economic progress unavailable through other means, and providing working conditions far safer than those of the average Thai factory, sex work is ripe for a study that explores all aspects and perceptions associated with it. Working at the Bar is that long overdue study.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Informational August 6, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thought the information presented in the book was outstanding. I had no idea what these women endure everyday of their lives. Our society is getting worse then it has been or it has always been this way. Since we can get any kind of information in seconds, then this is an example of what our society really wants.
Excellent Coverage of Thai Sexwork with Many Interviews October 20, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Steinfatt's Working at the Bar. An impressive book. I've spent considerable time in Thailand and what he says rings true. What's impressive is both the breadth and depth of coverage. There are whole chapters on why men do, and do not, go to sex workers, and how pimps and management of these places function, how AIDS does and does not relate to sex work, and sections on why women get into the game, or choose not to, and how they talk to and size up customers. Even the error rates for HIV tests are covered, and I have never seen that in print anywhere. This book is not based on opinion. Several thousand interviews were conducted with prostitutes, pimps, customers of prostitutes, and the great landowners of the prostitution areas. The morality of sex work is covered from both Christian and Buddhist perspectives. The author is quite correct about the way Buddhism functions in sex work. Anyone who understands Buddhism knows that the precept against "sexual immorality" historically meant sex outside of marriage by a woman. This is an excellent book, but do not plan on reading it all at once. There is just too much there. If you want to really understand this topic (and not just read someone's opinions who has only read about Thailand but never been there, or someone's opinions who dumps on other people's books but has not studied enough to write about it on his own) this is the book. Steinfatt has obviously been there and done an amazing amount of scholarly work on the topic. The best I have ever seen on prostitution in Southeast Asia.
 many shortcomings, but better than other books on this topic June 16, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Steinfatt's book is one of several recent volumes on sex work in Thailand. The base for the book was a two-wave cross-sectional questionnaire study he did with sex workers in venues where the customers were foreigners (i.e., non-Thai). The findings are woven through topical chapters, rather than being presented in summary form. As a result, it's difficult to find "take home messages" here. Using this format, Steinfatt attempts to place sex work in Thailand into a broader cultural context. While he has done more homework than others on this topic, much of what he says comes up short. He confuses the lack of obvious sanctions for entering the sex trade with "acceptance". He ignores the fact that one can go a short distance from the villages that regularly send their daughters into the sex trade and find other villages where this practice rarely or never occurs (this phenomenon was the basis for work by the Thai Red Cross & the Population and Development Association). His understanding of Buddhism is similarly flawed and he fails to see how "merit making" has been perverted by local elites to foster sex work. Steinfatt begnis by clearly distinguishing his population from the much larger world of Thai sex workers whose clientele is Thai, however, this distinction blurs as the book proceeds. Unfortunately, the distinction is important because of the differences in how women enter sex work, their financial prospects, etc. Steinfatt also goes into a lengthy and not very useful aside regarding estimates of the sex work sector in Thailand---rehashing outdated data which have limited relevance to his population of interest. The book also relies too much on dated references and provides little consideration of how the HIV epidemic and Thailand's 100% condom campaign have effected sex work in the country. The effort to view sex work in Thailand as less "black & white" than in other countries misses the obvious presence of grey areas of sex work elsewhere (e.g., the phenomenon of "survival sex" among low income women in the US) and the tendency of sex workers in many cultures to decommercialize the description of clients to whom they are more affectively bonded. Erik Cohen's famous statements about open-ended prostitution are mentioned, but not Cohen's observation that this was becoming less common as long ago as the late 80s. There are more similarities with other countries than Steinfatt acknowledges, and the differences are more nuanced and require more depth in the culture.This book shows more scholarly activity than the many slapdash efforts on Thai sexwork that have been published in recent years. Still, it's clear that Steinfatt's actual understanding is rather superficial. The book also would have benefited from a stronger editorial hand, wherein more effort was taken to integrate findings and other text.
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