Thai Behavior and Soap Operas

The ideal behavior of a society is very often controlled by an overlying and widespread power in people’s everyday life. A very prominent part of the Thailand society is the fame and power of Soap Operas. Soap operas in Thailand are very popular and have a massive impact on the ideals and everyday culture of the society – especially among women. These shows have a very consistent line-up; a plot including a love story between a man and woman, with the presence of an evil female antagonist and a comedic character, whom is usually a cross-dresser. The female lead is always very beautiful and put together, and has a kind and gentle demeanor. She has a very westernized look compared to traditional Thai facial features; most have large round eyes, a little nose, and big lips, with a narrow face and voluminous curled hair. They also tend to be in a higher-class economic standing, and therefore enjoy leisure of lack of everyday troubles and have the ability to dress very nicely. The character lives a sort of unachievable, utopic lifestyle. This character represents what women in Thai society see as an ideal woman, and these females in Thailand attempt to mirror her in every possible way. This influential behavior is not as prominent among men. In order to achieve an even more real-life enactment of the soap opera stars, Thai women not only act kind and gentle, but also lighten their skin and dress like these stars. The problem with Thai women trying to copy the behavior of the characters they watch everyday is that it sets a clearly skewed view of reality for these women. The characters in the show have no worries other than those concerning their love life, in order to keep the plot entertaining and simple. The presence of the evil character is further example for Thai women in the means of what behavior they strive to stay away from; manipulative and greedy selfishness. Because these shows are so religiously viewed by a large percentage of Thai women, whatever the show chooses to highlight will go noticed among the society. The influence that such a dramatic and unrealistic series of shows has on the Thai peoples is staggering, and shows how much the behaviors of the society can be manipulated through simple and widespread means.