This headline is nonsense of course. Or not? Because we quickly think in stereotypes and we all generalize sometimes. I catch myself doing that regularly as well.
Why is that anyway? How does that mechanism work that keeps popping up in discussions, also here on Thailandblog?
To answer that question you first have to define what prejudices and stereotypes are. Well, prejudices are negative attitudes towards a distinct group of people. The attitude is based only on the fact that these people are part of this specific group. With stereotypes we have a generalizing opinion about a group of people, in which all individuals seem to have the same (character) characteristics. Stereotypes are like schematics, so they are useful for organizing and structuring our thoughts and knowledge.
Everybody does it
Not only we Westerners generalize, but also ภาษาไทย have a hand in it. In fact, everyone, anywhere in the world, is doing it. Just look at Americans who often think: “Amsterdam and the Netherlands, that is tulips, cheese, red light district and especially soft drugs”.
It remains strange that usually the majority thinks this way. And that while there are also very different views about the Dutch in different countries. To Belgians we are stiff, frugal, northern rakes. The Germans, on the other hand, find us easy and approachable. It will all be true to some extent, but it cannot all be true at the same time.
Entrenched thought patterns
Often the prejudices are simply platitudes, ingrained thought patterns and attitudes that circulate in our culture and that we unleash on reality. Things you've heard told about others.
You could say that everyone can determine for themselves that those prejudices and stereotypes are not correct. If you really think about it, you realize that they are just very rough simplifications that cannot apply to every individual. Yet we like to use it because it simplifies everything, it is magnified. It is precisely with discussions and emotion that you get that first, because it is very deeply ingrained.
For example, think of a man/woman relationship: you can understand each other very well as individuals, but if there is a moment of resentment on a Monday morning, you are soon tempted to say: “that is typical woman again!” or “that's typical again man!”.
These prejudices are usually activated when things don't go well and you no longer see people as individuals but as a collective. But why do we do that? Why do we keep going back to those clichés?
Poured in with the papal spoon
Well, those prejudices are things that we learn almost first in our lives, already at toddler age we are presented with role models in fairy tales and comic strips. We exchange Belgian jokes and we hear from our parents or others: “that's how the world works”. It is the Lego blocks that we first learn to play with. It is also something we can always fall back on. Because where you can use clichés, you don't have to come up with complicated arguments.
Think again about the above when you talk about thé Thai, thé Thai woman, thé foreigner or thé farang. Because they don't exist.
Of course, prejudices are not always negative, there are also positive prejudices…
Furthermore, I think it is complete nonsense that Western men are all rich, and Thai women are all money wolves.
It is almost the opposite, and I also think very often in clichés and prejudices, but very few farangs are rich and very few Thai women are money wolves.
Russian women are very often money grabbers, and Japanese (who rarely go for a Thai woman) are usually rich.
Of course this statement is not 100%, but it is very common.
Seriously, I've rarely met Thai women who were just out for my money!
I have been living in Th for 15 years now.
But I have had many bad experiences in the meantime.
On the other hand, there are also some “good ones”.
You say something there, had a 'long distance' relationship with a Thai, according to her say I was the only one in her life. When I found out she had been married for two years to a wealthy Swiss who built her a house. She told a friend on Facebook that the decoration of her house was the most beautiful and expensive thing she could find. She still tries to contact me you know "I miss you so much and can't stop thinking about you" When you see that Swiss in the picture you think: "how can a woman fall in love with someone like that" But there is no love here at all, only his money is important, he is 28 years older than her. Has she thought it out well? I am fifty and a widow and I inherit everything he owns. Typical of women, crafty as a snake and as innocent as a dove. And I'm not far off the mark in saying they're all like that. I don't need it anymore, I've had enough of it. I hereby want to warn every man, never ever show what you own or you're screwed.
Fortunately, in Europe 'love' is the only reason people get married there.
As a well-educated but old man of 68 with an average pension, I am fed up with women in Europe who fall for me and want to live with me… 555
Certainly those from 36 to 49 offer themselves to me in droves…
I don't know which one to choose.
Lucky I don't have to go to Thailand for some female attention...
You and I know that certainly not all farang are rich, but quite a few farang do their very best to give that impression. And from my own observation I will not describe Thai ladies as being all money wolves, but that there are quite a few who can be classified in the category 'a bottomless pit', I really cannot deny. But of course you have to consider each one individually.
Yes, but the latter never allows you to pour something into great theoretical truths, something that can sometimes be rightly done…
So either you agree that very many (nothing is 100%) Thai women are money wolves, at least I don't at all, or you say they are rather exceptions.
We already agree about those often not so rich farangs.
It is, so to speak, a hole that cannot be closed.
Everything becomes a lot clearer and explicable if you do not think in terms of total populations, but in sub-populations, with which you come into contact the most. (see Venn diagrams). In fact, “farangs” means thinking; the somewhat less youthful, somewhat more lonely white foreigner, who comes to Thailand with savings, often on holiday for the first time, and spends 3 years of savings in 3 weeks. At that time he gets the idea that youth is sexually transmitted, given the high interest of quite youthful ladies, often from somewhat less wealthy backgrounds, especially from a certain part of Thailand. (in other words: I work for 2000THB for a month in the sun on the field or 2 × 24 h very strenuous for such a lonely white person.
That "farang" and not even the Uni-educated expat really doesn't come into contact with the ladies from the hiso circles, where pôh & mèh expect a simsod of .. 200 MILLION baht (yes, the son of a business relation. Explanation: see it as buying into the inheritance of that family: money is spent on a new factory, where they will jointly hold sway, in other words: a mutual investment. But: no 200 million = no marriage to daughter).
The somewhat higher educated Thai ladies: I will give two examples:
– my 13 years younger Thai female business partner never wanted to walk next to me in 'casual outfit', because… I'm not a lady beer bar.
– a Thai relationship once had to go to the bank. My comment: “you look like a Christmas tree”. Her answer: “then everyone will see that I am no less well-off, and it will be much easier to arrange my financing.
Stereotypes and generalizations are necessary. And are more or less ingrained in us by our upbringing and our culture (values and norms, country where you grew up, etc). Stereotypes are necessary because we have to take for granted some part of the world around us. If we really had to investigate, problematize, judge everything we see and experience on its own merits, we would all go mad. So everyone, whether he/she wants to or not, consciously or not, works with stereotypes.
Those stereotypes are based on appearance, education, type of work. Of course we should be aware that we are working with stereotypes. You notice that the moment you meet someone who does not fit the stereotype image (that we had). Eg.. you meet a nice Thai woman of around 35 who speaks fluent Thai, English, Chinese and French. Stereotypes are also quite persistent. If you meet such a Thai language prodigy, you are even more sure that the vast majority of Thai women only speak their mother tongue. Instead of thinking that a growing number of Thai women speak more than 1 language. For that you have to meet several language prodigies….