Beauty as risk for Karen girls: Expulsion and early marriage at an upland Thai school
Female adolescent sexuality is highly policed at upland Thai schools, particularly for students who teachers identify as ‘beautiful’. While Northern Thai cultural ideals of masculinity glorify the ‘wandering’ of male youth, girls are told that it is especially important that they postpone sexual act...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
The Australian journal of anthropology
Year: 2021, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Pages: 102-115 |
| Further subjects: | B
EARLY MARRIAGE
B Karen B Gender B Thailand B school expulsion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Female adolescent sexuality is highly policed at upland Thai schools, particularly for students who teachers identify as ‘beautiful’. While Northern Thai cultural ideals of masculinity glorify the ‘wandering’ of male youth, girls are told that it is especially important that they postpone sexual activity until after completion of their schooling. For Karen students, this ideal may clash with personal and family decision making in a cultural context where early marriage has historically been relatively common. Using a case study of expulsion following suspected student sexual activity, this article argues that rather than teachers approaching certain students as at risk of early departure from schooling, their personhood comes to be seen as a risk to the disruption of other students’ progress and to the moral community of the school. |
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| ISSN: | 1757-6547 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Australian journal of anthropology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/taja.12400 |
