chapter 6. other concepts relating to sex - Windward Community ...

By the final night, the audience appeared to number over 1,000. I ran into several SWU
students, though I do not know how many attended in all. The winner walked away with what
amounts to nearly four months of a teacher's salary. In beauty pageants, meanings relating to
beauty, sex, sex roles, modernity, tradition, education, wealth, and status are played with and
played out. Many students see beauty pageants such as this one as good fun. The aspect that
seemed to bother students most was the swimsuit requirement. A few students felt this was
inappropriate for a contest held during a traditional festival. To them, the swimsuit was a
violation in what they perceived of as a traditional context. The swimsuit itself did not offend
people so much as the context in which the swimsuit was displayed. Of course to others in the
audience, the swimsuit was very much appreciated and perfectly appropriate for a beauty contest
because most modern beauty contests require contestants to wear swimsuits. These ideas of
context and appropriateness will be discussed now in further detail as aspects of values.
Values
Values are reinforced in various contexts of everyday life. They transcend sex, but have
very obvious effects on it. The meaning of any sex-related situation cannot be understood
separately from cultural values. Modesty is one fairly obvious value related to sex in
Mahasarakham. All students are expected to be modest in appearance and behavior. Teachers and
students alike must wear sleeved shirts and closed shoes. Sleeveless shirts and open-toed shoes
are impolite, and therefore inappropriate, as are bright colors and loud patterns. At home, men
may expose all but their genitals and buttocks in appropriate situations such as bathing outside or
swimming. Women, however, usually stay well covered from knees to armpits. On a class
excursion to a lake, female students wore jeans and t-shirts or long shorts and t-shirts to swim
in. 39 Three less obvious values that are particularly relevant to understanding sexuality will be
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This may in part because few students own modern "swimsuits." Most, however, would be embarrassed
to wear one since it exposes so much of the body. However, at the pool at the Physical Education College
(the only pool I ever saw in Mahasarakham), both males and females wore swimsuits. These were largely
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