You Take the Good and Leave the Rest Behind: Northern Thai Adolescent Girls and Their Narratives of Future Possibilities
Fadzillah, Ida
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/85252
Description
Title
You Take the Good and Leave the Rest Behind: Northern Thai Adolescent Girls and Their Narratives of Future Possibilities
Author(s)
Fadzillah, Ida
Issue Date
2003
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Abelmann, Nancy A.
Department of Study
Anthropology
Discipline
Anthropology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Women's Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
"This study seeks to articulate the forces influencing the lived experiences of adolescent girls in rural Northern Thailand. By focusing on how local notions of female identity, sexuality, family, education and the sex trade are negotiated by the younger generation on a daily basis I found that the future possibilities perceived by these girls are in constant dialogue with global flows of labor, images, and ideas into the village borders. These flows have reshaped the structure of, and relations within, families and have introduced to Northern Thailand more ""modern"" notions of being female often at odds with longstanding models of female identity. Global influences are reflected in the girls' desire to buy their family international brand name goods, to travel abroad and live outside the confines of the ""backwards"" North, and to display other modern markers of high social status: Western style clothes, modern haircuts and perms, makeup, and foreign boyfriends. These desires, combined with newly acquired abilities and confidence, steer girls towards certain life choices and away from others. In addition, girls' narratives of ""responsibility"" are in a perpetual state of negotiation with narratives of ""freedom"" which are largely defined by transnational influences. What comes from this negotiation is a search for lifestyles that can reconcile both narratives. Definitions of female ""success"" and ""duty"" are being re-cast to focus on financial obligations, both by family members and by the girls themselves. Thus girls are asking for---and receiving---more freedom (issara) geographically and socially, in exchange for providing their family with regular financial remittances and goods. While the girls are still constrained to a certain extent by traditional expectations of their geographic, social, and sexual limits, the girls are changing these limits to include their own desires for freedom."
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
