Dealing in Desire by Kimberly Kay Hoang

Author:Kimberly Kay Hoang [Hoang, Kimberly Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural, Gender Studies
ISBN: 9780520275577
Google: aQ_IoQEACAAJ
Amazon: 0520275578
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2015-01-14T18:30:00+00:00

Hanh will not force anyone to work. If you want to work, you have to come in every day at the right time. If you do not come on time and follow the rules at work, she will stop bringing you in to tables. But if you want to quit, she will let you go. . . . I met a man who wanted me to quit and live with him as a gai bao [paid girlfriend]. Hanh told me not to do it, because he would get bored and leave me with nothing after a few months. She warned that I would lose my customer base, and if I were to come back to work it would be hard to start over. . . . I was stubborn, so I quit, and she was right. After two months, he left me. I came crawling back here for work, and it is hard. I am lucky if I get in to one table per night. I used to chay show [run around] and sit at three or four tables per night.

When I asked the workers if they ever had a negative experience with Hanh, the only bad thing they had to say about her was that if she was upset with them, she would not work hard to bring them in to tables. If she was not on their side, they had to work harder to get clients to select them in a lineup. I also asked them if there were any consequences for quitting, and every worker told me that they were free to quit whenever they chose. When they were no longer able to attract clients or bring in men, most workers quit on their own. Those who were on Hanh’s bad side were sometimes forced out because she would not go out of her way to connect them with her clients.

Lilly and Tina, the owners of Secrets and Naughty Girls, respectively, went to great lengths to incorporate workers into their bars by occasionally treating the women to late-night food and drinks and by sponsoring group trips to visit a nearby temple or the women’s villages. I accompanied the women on these journeys and was amazed at how much they bonded on the bus ride and at the destination. I watched as the women prayed and lit incense at temples and paid their tributes to the monks. The trips to the villages put many of the workers’ families at ease because the parents could develop relationships with Lilly and Tina, which allayed their fears that their daughters were trapped or abused by their employers. This protective relationship established a bond of trust between the workers and the mommies that revolved around feelings of mutual respect and care.

Unlike the other mommies, Tho and Duyen did not cultivate close relationships with their workers outside the bars. The relationships between the mommies and women in Lavender were much less maternal because most of the workers in this bar had a community of family members and friends outside the bar scene.

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