Episode 108 — Running Through Marriages In Thailand

[admin 330]

Everyone needs love right? Andrew Ti and this week’s guest Jane Marie come to a disagreement as to whether or not old wealthy white men running through marriages in Thailand is racist or not. As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

[klemjohansen 748]

I'm a dude, and I'm pretty gross. I know of some gross ladies, too, but they all seem to have their own reality shows now.

[AndyPacheco-Fores 437]

The racism about white guys moving to poor Asian countries for sex/marriage tourism is on the big level of inequality between Europe/America and the rest of the world. A middle class white dude in Asia has a much easier time romantically (and in general) than a middle class Asian dude in America, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that white people basically colonized the rest of the world on that British empire shit, and still sort of do with economic power (all the Made in Thailand/China/Taiwan/etc labels you see on manufactured goods here). Whether the guys moving to Asia to get married are doing it for personal racist reasons is one thing, but they're still benefitting pretty much directly from historical systemic racism.

[meshair 3]

pfchangs nailed it; fetishizing other races is certainly a form of racism, but I think Andrew dropped the ball when he tried to frame this debate in those terms.

[action52 554]

pfchangs nailed it; fetishizing other races is certainly a form of racism, but I think Andrew dropped the ball when he tried to frame this debate in those terms.

 

Yeah, I agree. It's not that there aren't guys marrying women in Thailand or the Philippines or wherever who do this sort of thing. It's just that the discussion becomes less interesting when you focus on the cases that are clearly racist.

[DanielSwinney 130]

pfchangs nailed it; fetishizing other races is certainly a form of racism, but I think Andrew dropped the ball when he tried to frame this debate in those terms.

 

I don't think it's necessarily about fetishizing the race as much as it is, "I have a bunch of money, am white and older and have no game and there is a part of the world where I don't need game and by being white and having money I can be with attractive, younger women." That's not fetishizing a race, that's just sizing up an opportunity.

 

edit: In other words, it's not necessarily that they are fetishizers in this scenario, but taking advantage of a part of the world in which they are the fetishizees.

[Lurdiak 1]

Andrew, you gotta quit folding so hard when your guests disagree with you. I think you definitely had it right saying the fucked up power dynamic makes this gross and probably racist as hell, you shoulda stuck to it.

[ashsultana 0]

Hey Andrew,

 

I think you were right in responding to the power dynamic and obviously there is fetishisation of Oriental woman in the mind of white man. I couldnt make it through the whole podcast cos I didn't like your guest at all and her reasoning

[meshair 3]

Andrew, you gotta quit folding so hard when your guests disagree with you. I think you definitely had it right saying the fucked up power dynamic makes this gross and probably racist as hell, you shoulda stuck to it.

 

Agree. In particular, her accusation of sexism really ought to have been addressed. Pretty much everyone in the world has some amount of agency, but that doesn't mean that people can't be exploited due to one-sided power dynamics. I wonder if she'd be willing to make the same argument where the dynamics are more explicit; e.g. would she defend a teacher hitting on his student because the student has agency?

[therealMATTLOXLEY 135]

great ep

[jessay 0]

This is both sexist and racist. Visit any MRA forum and you'll see the gross misogyny and racist generalizations that lead men to do this. They go because they stereotype American women in negative ways and fetishize women from certain countries who have the stereotype of being submissive and "knowing their place," who also tend to be impoverished and see these men as their only escape from that, and travel to these countries in order to basically own the women. While there are obviously people who just happen to fall in love while in a foreign country, there are absolutely predatory men who are doing this out of a deep seeded hatred of women with agency and an idealization of women who they think they can control and manipulate.