My space, my body, my sexual subjectivity: social media, sexual practice and parental control among teenage girls in urban Chiang Mai

This ethnographic study conducted among young women aged 18-21 years in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, explored the parental control mechanisms imposed by Thai middle-class families on the sexuality of their daughters. It addressed the ways in which young women tactically use the social media in ord...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Culture, health & sexuality health & sexuality, 2016-05, Vol.18 (5), p.597-607
Main Authors: Fongkaew, Warunee, Fongkaew, Kangwan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Anthropology, Cultural
Communication
Female
Humans
Parenting
Parents & parenting
Parents - psychology
Sexual behavior
Sexual Behavior - psychology
Social Media
Social networks
Teenagers
Thailand
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This ethnographic study conducted among young women aged 18-21 years in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, explored the parental control mechanisms imposed by Thai middle-class families on the sexuality of their daughters. It addressed the ways in which young women tactically use the social media in order to negotiate the sexual controls they encountered in everyday life. Taking the teenage girls' point of view, this paper argues that, as active agents, young women achieve a certain level of sexual autonomy and construct their own sexual selves in modern northern Thai society, despite their parents' attempts to prevent this. The paper highlights the ways in which social media are used by Thai girls in order to achieve such a goal. Research findings should inform the development of future programmes on sexual health promotion, parental skills and sexual communication between Thai parents and their children.
ISSN:1369-1058
1464-5351
DOI:10.1080/13691058.2015.1091948