BANGKOK – The country may officially be in recession, but one industry appears to be thriving from a politics-related boom in business: color-coded fetish sex. According to reports from all parts of the domestic sex industry, a color-divided country has proven to be a windfall for girls willing to get screwed while wearing the yellow garb of the PAD or the red of the UDD.
“It’s our number one request, by far,” said Bee (last name not given), an “executive secretary” at the La Defense hostess bar on Rama IX road. “Every man’s fantasy now is to fuck the opposition.”
According to Bee, “no one wants me to dress as a schoolgirl or a swimsuit model anymore. They want me to wear a short-cropped t-shirt, yellow or red, that either says ‘Save the king’ or ‘Thaksin my hero.’
“And a headband, always a headband,” she added.
Praew, a senior manager at The Pent on Chidlom Road, says she actually had to attend the PAD and UDD rallies just to source the clothing for her employees.
“All my usual suppliers couldn’t help me,” she said. “I told them I needed a hundred ass–I mean hand-clappers and they thought I was crazy. I had to go to Government House in November and buy them direct from those crazies.”
She insists the investment paid off, however, as the club saw a surge of frustrated businessmen who were losing money from the airport seizure. “These guys would pay anything to bang a girl in yellow,” she said. “We were charging double. They didn’t care.”
The lower end of the market appears to have also benefited from the new trend. Lek, a street walker who works the south side of Lumpini Park after 10:00 pm, claims that in the last year at least a dozen men have asked her to actually wear a Sondhi Limthongkul mask while she fellated them.
“It was tricky at first, because I had to enlarge the mouth hole,” she explained. “But it actually turned out to be convenient because the mask caught all the ejaculation.”
With the Red Shirt protests recently subsided, Lek has already stocked up on Thaksin masks. “I call it Square Face Round Hole,” she said.
Even the part of the sex trade that caters to foreigners appears to be jumping on board. Numerous prostitutes in Pattaya and Bangkok’s go-go bars told NTN that while most tourists seem to be ignorant about local politics, the expatriate crowd including teachers and journalists seem to be very interested in making a political statement during paid sex.
“Farang journalist want me to wear red, farang teacher want me to wear yellow,” said Mint, a bargirl from Buri Ram who works in Pattaya. “Both want to fuck me up the ass. I say okay but you pay for shirt.”
The textile industry is beginning to respond as well, with red UDD- and yellow PAD-themed brassieres, panties, hot pants, crop tops, high-heeled boots, and nipple covers now appearing in a few street stalls on Bangkok’s Patpong Road and in the Nana Entertainment Plaza area.
“Number one seller,” indicated Por, a deaf stall owner on Sukhumvit. “Everybody wants.” He proudly pointed out a new series of women’s colored thong underwear bearing the faces of Thaksin, Samak, or Chalerm (red); Abhisit (blue); Chamlong, Suyarud, Prem (yellow); and Jakrapob (multi-colored).
Academics see the colored sex as a natural response to times of uncertainty.
“Sexual frustration and political frustration are very similar in the human brain,” said Dr. Suthepon Prapeewinthanong, a clinical and behavioral psychologist at Chulalongkorn Medical Center. “We tend to fetishize the impossible fantasy, and for a Thai nowadays the idea of decisive political victory is more elusive than, say, shagging a blonde 17-year old Japanese pop star.”
Dr. Suthepon also believes that the trend is not only here to stay, but will expand in coming years. “I could see people wanting to have sex with girls dressed as army generals, Channel 7 reporters, khunyings, monks – anything that represents what they think is the real problem.”
“After all,” he added, “at some point you just have to say ‘Fuck this country’ – and that’s all they’re really doing.”
