Images of Thai Women: Presented Through Female Antagonist in a Thai TV Drama Series

Abstract

This is a study of images of Thai women presented in a Thai TV drama series shown in 2004 entitled “Saloeybaab”. Broadly, the study explores how the drama presents its female antagonist as well as the protagonist. Both characters fall into the binary opposition of the “bad” and the “good” woman stereotypes respectively. More specifically, the researcher discusses the purposes and the meanings of the presentations. Negative images of the female antagonist reflect that Thai society still values the notion of “kulasatri” or the “ideal” woman as can be seen from ideologies on women attached to the story. The attitudes towards Thai women reinforce the power structure of Thai patriarchal society where women have been controlled by social rules and norms through the process of socialization including the mass media.

Sutraphorn Tantiniranat earned an M.A. in English from Chiang Mai University, Thailand. She has been teaching English at Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai Thailand. Her areas of interest are Foreign Language Teaching and Women Studies. She is currently a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the Thai Language Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.