The archetypal 'Thai girl' is sweet-natured, even-tempered, passive and gentle, a petite, purring pussy cat whose only pleasure is in pleasing her man. True or false?





So who's kidding who? Like hell she is! All the most powerful and fiery qualities are focused in Thai womanhood for which I celebrate them. It’s they who’ll fight most furiously for their families and for this strength of character as well as for their feminine qualities I salute them. Who is it who sits around drinking all the lao khao then?





It sometimes happens that when I say "Thai girl”, people think I've said “tiger”. How apposite that is! Man eaters every one!





Had William Blake made it to Nana Plaza before London zoo, his famous couplets might possibly have run something like this.





"Thai girl, Thai girl, feisty, fit,In the sois of Sukhumvit.





What immoral hand or eye Can frame thy fearless symmetry."





‘Not serious’, seems to be a compliment in Thai, just like my recent flippant submission on this website, “The Lightness of Being Unbearable”, which takes a light-hearted look at the character of Thai women from the perspective of their farang partners.





It was the same when I was writing my novel, “Thai Girl”. Ben, Maca and Chuck sit on the beach at Koh Samet and Koh Chang, beer in hand, and sound off about all sorts of important things, including Thai women. I didn’t have to think too hard as I put words into their mouths, so long as it was vaguely interesting and the sort of stuff backpackers might ramble on about. Not serious at all!





At the end of my submission, however, Stickman added a dangerous challenge… that he’d never seen anything insightful written about the explosive nature of Thai women and would any reader like to have a go at writing about this crucial subject. Well, why not? My expertise is limited, but that’s never stopped me, so here goes. This time it’s serious though and now I’m going to have to lay it on the line and say what I actually think. <Thata boy, that's the style we like on Stickman – Stick>





A big question like this one always raises a host of subsidiary questions. Isn’t it the case that in all cultures and creatures, the female of the species is deadlier than the male, and who’s to say that Thai women are any more dangerous than the rest of them. Could it just be a coincidence that the Latin for wife is uxor, while in NGO-speak UXO means unexploded ordnance, a landmine that blows your foot off if you step on it! And in the animal kingdom, after mating the female praying mantis is said to kill and eat the male as he’s now of no further use to her, so it could be worse, guys.





Another question is whether the volatility of the puying Thai is regional… whether for example it’s more extreme in the case of women from Isaan who make up a good proportion of farang wives. Then are Chinese Thai women the same as other Thais? What are the differences between the rural and the urban, the educated and the poor farmer’s daughter? And how about women from neighbouring countries? Is not a Burmese, a Malay or a Lao likely to be similar to typical Thai women?





Is this alleged explosivity a general characteristic of all Thai women or is it a special quality of farang wives who are by their nature a self-selecting group. These particular women are not, one assumes, shrinking violets but powerful personalities with get up-and-go, who have the potential for self-assertion and fireworks.





If explosions are about conflict, is conflict the particular way in which Thai women handle difficulties in their relationships? Or could conflict with farang husbands be a consequence of the particular pressures of these cross-cultural relationships? The questions are endless.





Thailand draws some of its cultural influences from India and one thus thinks of a philosophy that accepts the hardships of life as they come and which cultivates an ascetic stoicism in the face of all adversity. Perhaps there’s an acceptance of hardship in Thailand too, until such time as it becomes intolerable. Then when there’s no place left to turn, the only option, like a Malay villager, is to run amok and to sink a parang, either of sharpened steel or hard words into the thick skull of an unfeeling husband.



