Got a Gig?

The world of dating in Thailand is endlessly complicated. The temperamentally calm Thais are excused from all moderation and rationality when it comes to jealousy. Stories circulate about acid attacks by jealous women against their husband’s or boyfriend’s lover and it’s widely, if apocryphally, attested the penis reattachment surgery is most ably practiced by Thai doctors because of the frequent necessity for it.

One of the most interesting adaptations of Thai culture is the acceptance of what is called a “gig”. I have always assumed, although have never been able to verify, that this comes from the musicians concept of a “gig”, which Wikipedia wonderfully defines as: “A term commonly applied to a musical engagement of one night’s duration only; to undertake such an engagement." A gig in the Thai sense of the word is basically a girlfriend on the side. You take her out to nice places, buy her a few things, and just have fun together with no other obligations. Indeed, it’s assumed that if you have one “gig” you have many “gigs”.

In the West, of course, this would just be called dating, but the women’s liberation movement hasn’t made it quite so far East yet. Indeed, the underlying concept in Thailand is that a women who has sex has lost something while the man has gained something. A proper, or indeed any women who’s not a fool, needs to demand something in return for sex. Hence the concept of a gig, which allows the man to avoid all monogamous requirements and the women to get something back for her time as it were.