Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World

by Cleo Odzer

An insider's account based on three years of research discusses the near-epidemic proportions of prostitution in Asia, noting that eighty percent of Thailand's prostitutes are HIV positive and pinpointing its sources to political corruption and parental dysfunction. BOMC.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sex Work, Womens

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 1994

Reviews

[Suphatra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Right away you realize Odzer is an idiot. She uses no method for her research, is rejected by the non-profit group that is helping sex workers, and she writes about Thai culture the way a young girl at an overnight co-ed summer camp would. As a Thai-American, I was deeply offended and horrified how so many stereotypes of my culture were perpetuated by her shoddy research and ethnocentric rants. Even more disturbing was her intimate sexual relationship with a Thai pimp, of which she regards like a trophy she has won. If I could give this book zero or negative stars, I would.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, is this ever a bad book.

It's not just bad; it's aggressively bad. Not boring bad, or amateurishly-written bad. More like morally bad, thematically vacant bad, conceptually barren bad. It is a fundamentally dishonest & affirmatively stupid book. The author is perhaps the least self-critical and most self-absorbed writer I have ever read. A boring or poorly-written book I could cast aside with a sigh, but a book this bad demands denunciation.

One doesn't know quite where to begin. I do not say this lightly, but the author appears to be as close to a stereotypical blond dingbat as Suzanne Somers was on 'Three's Company'. Time & time again while trudging through this I found myself thinking, "come on, you didn't actually believe you were doing this out of altruism/friendship/academic curiosity/methodological fealty, did you?"

She admits that her thesis is intended to show that bargirls are in fact empowered women, not victims. OK, we all know that academics don't go into the field as tabulas rasa, but she was by her own admission hoping to find evidence to back her dippy and simple-minded political/ideological convictions; not quite the same as anthropological research, which at least gestures towards the notion of objectivity & observer bias.

When she runs into non-conforming data (e.g., bargirls who do not appear to feel notably empowered by their status as sex workers), she doesn't know quite what to make of it and delves into their personal histories (invariably cast as pathology) to explain away the anomalies. What's left behind? Any historical, political, economic, gender-theoretic, sociological, or otherwise substantive analysis.

At one point she accompanies a few prostitutes while they await the arrival of an American naval fleet. The reader perks up; perhaps she's on to something - surely an analysis of the history or mechanisms of rape & exploitation by colonialist military forces is just around the corner; maybe we're about to get some sober ethnographic description of the behavior of the men and women? Nope; she describes the noise made by the soon-to-be-rented women and the horny sailors. The prostitutes she accompanied are smiling at the sailors. And that's the end of the chapter.

So what *is* at the heart of this book? She can't decide whether to spend her time 'researching' bargirls (at one point she seems to completely abandon the scholarly pretense) or pursuing several jaw-droppingly naive and casual sexual encounters with cute and deliciously edgy Thai guys. And yet, in her unfathomable stupidity, she is repeatedly shocked and hurt when Thai guys turn out to be less than fully truthful & open with her. She also never wonders whether her eagerness to have sex with them might color the nature of the subsequent relationship.

And I know this will be hard to believe, but it's true: It seems never to occur to her that she is doing pretty much the same thing with Thai men that Western men do with Thai women - exploiting economic & racial inequities for the purposes of getting her rocks off. At one point she notes that her blond hair and skimpy swimsuit must make her a fascinating object of sexual attraction for the Thai men. One wonders if she perhaps carefully constructed a camel-toe in furtherance of her research.

Ultimately, I don't know which is more depressing: That a company actually decided to publish this garbage, or that a reputable university actually awarded the author a Ph.D. on the basis of this 'research'.

I can't say that you shouldn't buy this book because it is not without some merit -- it will set a new low against which you can compare all future bad books. Surely there must be *some* value in knowing just how bad a book can be.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've known workers in anti-sex trade organizations from several countries, and not one of them would be happy with this book.

What we have here is proof that money (in this case, a grant) allows people to be "experts" on things they know nothing about. As I once heard a woman from a war-torn African country say, people in poor countries get tired of being research projects for people from the rich global North, opening themselves up but get nothing in return after the book or report gets published.

Odzer seemed almost proud of how the local women's group working on sex trade issues didn't like her. She should have been working closely with them, following their guidance about how to handle her research, cultural sensitivity, and making her book helpful to the women of Patpong. (And boy, she did so little work half the time! Where do I get this kind of grant?) They saw her for what she was, a foreign opportunist engaging in poverty tourism.

Late in the book when she sees women protesting the sailors who come ashore looking for prostitutes, she seems shocked that the women would be so angry about the sex trade. It was only then, late in her three years there, that she realized that maybe women don't want to live this way. Wow.

Anyone who wants real information about the sex trade in Thailand should check out the following organizations (though there are plenty more):
Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities
http://www.depdc.org/
Foundation for Women http://www.womenthai.org/eng/index.php
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-International (CATW) http://www.catwinternational.org
UNIFEM.org

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the Worst book I've ever read.

The title of this book is utterly misleading. Ms. Odzer goes to Thailand to study women in the sex trade, but she quickly reveals that she is revolted by the work they do and that she is squeamish about stepping into the sex clubs in which they work. Instead, she spends the rest of the book going on about an affair she had with a married Thai man. How angry she is at his wife. How unfairly life is treating her. And on and on. It is boring, not even remotely informative. As a reader, I felt as used as the Thai people with whom Ms. Odzer interacted, and I felt no sympathy or empathy for the author or her actions

[Jaclynn (JackieReadsAlot) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author advertises this as her PhD dissertation, an in-depth look at the Bangkok sex trade industry. What a load of crap! Save yourself the time and don't bother reading this. I nearly threw the book down on several occasions, but I loath starting and not finishing a novel. Odzer is a total airhead, she's judgmental and she's reckless. The story honestly revolves around her pathetic, self-absorbed sex life with, first, a Thai pimp...whom she engages in unprotected sex with, even after finding out that he's married with a child and also frequents prostitutes himself. She makes note of Thai prostitutes, male and female, who don't used condoms with clients, but haphazardly has unprotected sex herself. Most of the book centers on her total obsession with this Thai man, her constant longing for him, how he mistreats her, how she deserves better. Hardly a feminist role model, ladies! And then, towards the end of the book, she "hooks up with" an alcoholic Thai beach bum, whom she "lovingly" jokes about in much the same patronizing way that the foreign men she criticizes do about their Thai girlfriends. She even neglects research because "my boyfriend wouldn't like it."
I did NOT learn anything new or eye opening about the sex industry in Thailand. Nothing that I, as a tourist, wasn't able to see for myself first hand the several times I vacationed in Thailand. This is a bullshit book. I want to know where she got her PhD, so that I can enroll and knock out similar bullshit for my doctorate.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very frustrating, but educational all the same. The cover declares that the book is based on the author's dissertation in anthropology, but it's really about her personal experiences interacting with the sex workers in the Patpong area of Bangkok. This includes her unplanned approach to the people, what I would call unethical behavior in some instances and just plain stupidity in others. Was it really necessary to fall for a pimp and not use protection? She was surprised he'd slept with "Patpong women"?!

She befriends and interviews random sex workers, customers, and bar owners. Sometimes she takes the workers upcountry to see their families and observe them away from Bangkok. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the shows in Patpong, but the book did humanize the workers there and explain their behavior. It took until page 193 for the author to figure out that people might not choose to prostitute themselves if they had any other option that would allow them to support their families. I didn't necessarily agree with her conclusions in the end.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a terrible book. Odzer has the sensibilities of a 14 year old, but does not write as well as one. This book is a) dated (late-1980s), b) transliteration of Thai words is inaccurate and inconsistent, c) there is no intelligent analysis of what her "research" has taught her.

I was so blown away by the gormlessness of this book that I tried to find her dissertation in Dissertation Abstracts to see how the New School could possibly award her a PhD at the conclusion of this "field study". (No success).

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a women's studies class in college. A little sad and icky, but the parts about Thai cultural differences were fascinating (e.g., a Thai prostitute is treated with reverence because she can support her whole family with her earnings).

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight not only into Patpong women but also the culture towards women and life in rural thailand

[Shelley Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very superficial and adds nothing to the debate on the sex trade.

[Michael Palkowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main problem with this book is the lack of analysis regarding the observations that are being made. Something occasionally is mentioned through the heaps of narrative fat which if focused on could provide a pertinent or culturally significant aspect of the sex industry in Thailand but instead as a reader, we merely get hints at what could become something interesting or relevant if backed up by the right methodological and theoretical analysis and of course a competent researcher.

The book is a long field diary that is infinitely boring and shows incompetence at basic ethnography. Her attempts at securing key informants is laughable in the sense that she is aware that she is being used (extorted for money) and gets no significant information from them. She laments endlessly about this and despite this self awareness, continues to pay money for nothing. I need to mention in passing the reason that she is paying a woman for money is because she had the utopian idea that one of the impoverished prostitutes that she doesn't even know could go and interview all her friends and then she would type the transcripts up! Great research plan. It's such a great plan that her participant observation could feasibly if this worked, end right there. Furthermore she mentions in great detail how women engaging in sex work often lied to her and said fabricated, untruthful things that were extremely blatant. Wouldn't this be a problem in the interviewing stage specifically when you don't conduct your own interviews and you don't ask any of the questions?

I also deplored the sheer narcissism in the book which mainly was expressed in the unending and tedious depiction of her own unethical sexual tension and affair with a Thai pimp but in many other domains as well. I hated how she seemed gleeful about the fact that one of the only organizations working in Patpong to help the 'bar girls' she was studying, effectively ditched her. What does this book contribute to the debate or to the field of sex work, where is the anthropological analysis, where is anything that illuminates the topic? How can she possibly write such a boring book on such a fascinating subject? The impotence of the book is stunning in the sense that it took three years to produce this and she still got awarded a PhD! Where is her thesis?!

[doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to live in Thailand, so I was interested in seeing Cleo Odzer's point of view and work with the sex workers of Thailand. I found the book's perspective fairly agreeable, however I was a little more annoyed with the author's frequent segues into her love life with one of the hustlers of the Bangkok underworld.

This is a good book if you want to read about sex work and a particular part of Thai culture (which is by no means indicative of its wonderful whole), provided that you make allowances in Odzer's crushing-out over some young door-guy and the borderline ranting at the end when she tries to make you see her point of view in that these workers are not exploited, which I thought was really odd, considering what she takes the reader through in profiling various contacts. Granted, some sex workers, male and female, don't feel and are hardly exploited, but that's not always the case, especially since most of the contacts Odzer met were workers in the well-moneyed sex trade geared towards foreigners, not the younger girls brought into the country from Laos or Cambodia to work at the karaoke bars lucky to get an extra 20 baht (about sixty cents) from their Thai clientele.

I met one such girl, who was from Laos, who went to high school during the days and worked the karaoke bar at night. She was dressed in jeans and a Mashimaro shirt, and wasn't a day over fifteen. Even if she didn't exchange in sexual acts, the long nights of pouring Samsong whisky and Singha beer for her patrons surely took its toll on her grades the next morning. How is that not exploitation?

One thing I did like about Odzer's work is her notation of how many of her contacts came from the Isaan region of Thailand, which a very impoverished region in comparison to the rest of Thailand. It would be interesting to explore the economics of how this region became impoverished, and what solutions could be made to provide a financial uplift in the area, aside from sending their girls and women to the cities.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago during my poli sci school days. I was very interested in the world of female sex trade in Thailand. The author went to Thailand and actually did the research I always wanted to do, which was interview the women who were prostitutes and those who met foreign men and maintained correspondence. The lives of these women, who are often from the poor, rural areas are often sent to a larger city to work. Most cannot afford to live and send large sums of money without becoming a sex worker and that is what many of the girls do. It was a fascinating tale and the author herself became too close to her subject, taking a Thai bar boy as her (paid) lover for a time. Fascinating look into the sex worker's world and their johns.

[Saya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty readable non-fiction based on an American woman's PhD thesis for anthro. Helped me put my finger on my moral objection to going to a pingpong show, something I was having trouble clarifying.

[Fifi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to Patpong because of this book.

[cypher · Rating 3 out of 5]

not very structured, but with some interesting details. a tragic reality, extreme poverty and high demand for sex work.
probably one of the most disturbing parts: Thailand (like others probably) has kept their real stats on AIDS secret in order to have tourists go there in search of sex work, knowingly exposing tourists to HIV when more than "eighty percent of Thailand's prostitutes are HIV positive" (this, in 1994). i feel this warrants some form of international reprimand and punishment...but at least a travel ban.
when more than 80% of the sex workers are HIV positive and there is a strong culture promoting visiting sex workers amongst the local population, what is really to be expected of the real numbers on HIV in the general population? husband uses sex workers regularly, chances are he gets infected, then goes home to infect his wife, then without medication during pregnancy there is nothing stopping the children from being born with it as well...a very serious problem that the government did not appear to take seriously, from the book, the main concern around AIDS for the government being tourists not visiting enough, not the serious health concern to their people and other people's people...just money in someone's pocket.

[Linda G. Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Study or an R rated vacation paid for by US

I'm sorry I can't react to the story because not only is she getting paid royalties for the book her whole round the world education was past d for with student loans, scholarships, & grants. What social redeeming value can we get from payment by a woman for 2 years to have a vacation. And had a sexual relationship with 2 Thai men during her research so basically she paid, or we paid to get her laid. She had an apartment rented plus spent months at a beach resort bungaloo so she could Wind Surf, Write, & sleep with a waiter boyfriend.


Its sad because I enjoyed the story line. But throughout the book she's traveling, drinking alcohol, beaches, water sports & waiting for her grant checks & loan checks.

[eisha sarkar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kudos to Cleo Odzer for writing a book that pulls you into the world of bars, clubs and sex workers in Thailand. My first visit to the country wasn't a happy one and I couldn't put a finger on what ticked me off in spite of the very visible hospitality right from the time I stepped out of the airport. After reading Patpong Sisters, I know why. The ever-changing narratives of the people, the inability to accept that that they don't know (especially of the men) and women being looked upon as inferior or as sex goddesses. Odzer shines a light on these sex goddesses who use manipulation, charm, entrepreneurial skills and intelligence to pull their families out of poverty and deprivation. A great insight into human nature.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook FREE at audible.com
Glad it was free. A woman goes to Bangkok, Patpong, Pattaya and up to some Northern Vietnamese village. The initial intention was to study the bar girl/prostitution scene but it devolves into a juvenile romance story. The little amount of actual investigation is interesting. I don't think I would have liked the author Cleo Odzer. She does seem a bit slow on the uptake in her dealings with the Thai people. I felt like quitting the book several times as she just whinged on and on about how she lusted after her pimp fah, or boyfriend. Stupidity and yet she got it published.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm headed to Thailand next month and a travel guide recommended this book. It's simultaneously devastating and salacious, very readable while also intensely distressing. The author is... questionable at best? Her actions are hard to understand, but her honesty and willingness to engage with her research subjects (unbeknownst to them) and friends (?) makes it feel like you are getting, at a minimum, a very true telling of her experiences with the Patpong neighborhood. Only recommend to readers willing to read quite graphic and distressing depictions of sex work, slavery, and rape. It's worth the read, but the content is occasionally outright horrifying, so trigger warnings abound.

[Lang · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little bit too much drama about the writer herself... I would expect more neutrality.

[dolly · Rating 1 out of 5]

cleo odzer you really live like this?

[Manatee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not read all of this book because our library copy had been damaged on very strategic pages.

Interesting but sometimes superficial look at Thai sex industry from the woman's point of view. Fascinating.

[Saira · Rating 3 out of 5]

some feel her research methods were a bit unprofessional. still a good eye into the exploitation of SE Asian sex industry.

[Jade17 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would really like to read her dissertation on this subject instead of just relying on the book. The book mostly details her sexual Thai exploits and personal encounters in Thailand.

[Kathy Chung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda interesting reads but not sure about this being a well researched book. It's more like its all about her experience living there.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing read- good story, even if the ethics of the study she is describing are questionable...