‘What
do you think of the hostess bar scene in Phnom Penh?”
This is a typical opening question I’d ask
people while interviewing for my research on bar work and professional girlfriends
in Cambodia (professional girlfriends are women who date multiple western
boyfriends in exchange for gifts).
Most often, well-meaning folks offer bits of
sympathy, such as 20-year-old Dutch backpacker Annie: “I feel bad for the
girls. They work in these bars and look
for rich foreign guys because they have no other options. If they did, they
would never choose to be here.”
It’s true – there is a tension between “free
will” and the larger structural issues that make bar work a viable opportunity
for women.
But it is too simplistic to say that the women
wouldn’t be there if it were just a matter of other options.
With hostess bar work, there exists a number
of freedoms which make it more appealing than other types of work – like street
trading or garment factory work. But there are also lots of practical
constraints that have to be dealt with.
This article highlights the good bits, the bad
bits and the practicalities in between.
Let’s start with the negative.
Aside from the larger structural pressures
related to economics, gender roles and required family loyalty, bar work itself
comes with downsides. Most of these have to do with unwanted sexual advances,
touching, rudeness, lewdness, verbal abuse, racism and sexism from intoxicated
customers as well as management.
Chanthy, a 22-year-old bar worker on St 136,
explains: “If I like one guy, I play with him … flirt … give massage on his
back. But sometimes I don’t like men …
and they touch me anyway. I don’t like when they do this. I smile … then I
walking away.”
And as Dy, 24, points out: “Some barang men
drink a lot! They talk very nasty and talk bad about Khmer girl. I say I not
bad girl … but they shouting and spitting … very angry … but I not worry … just
ignore …and talking with Khmer girls [instead].’
Many bars also impose a strict system of
fines, which means a portion of the girls’ wages are deducted for certain
infractions. These fines vary and can be created and enforced by management on
a whim.
Sochua, 27, told me the story of how she was
once fined $1 for eating one peanut because the Australian manager didn’t like
her. Thinking he was joking, she ate another one, and he then charged her $2 –
which, out of a $60 per month salary, is the equivalent of an entire day’s
pay.
Many bars charge $5 fines for talking on
mobile phones, or eating “personal” food while on duty.
I heard stories of bars charging fines for
chewing gum, for mixing up drink orders or making drinks improperly, for not
wearing name badges, for not cleaning glasses properly, or reversely, for
cleaning glasses when they shouldn’t be.
The fine system is used as a form of control
over the women, and a way for management to exert authority by punishing them
financially.
But other downsides sometimes include
unreasonable expectations from managers (eg to live at the bar or come in
outside of scheduled hours), excessive alcohol and drug use, and probably the
most common workplace hazard – a broken heart – which leads to depression and
sometimes even self-harming (cutting arms with razors or “taking too much
medicine”).
These last hazards have less to do with the
bars themselves, than they do with Cambodia’s complete lack of mental health
resources and services.
During times of depression, the women,
instead, turn to their friends and co-workers for support and comfort, which
points to some of the highlights of working in a bar.
For many women, the bar is a place of freedom,
solidarity and support. As many women move on their own from the country to the
city, the bar, and their friends there, act as a type of family.
As Jorani, 19, explains: “When I sad about my
ex-boyfriend, I cry and cry. I go my bar and my sisters they help me. They make
me laughing and I forget boyfriend!”
While in the bars, the girls enjoy the
freedoms of movement, of being with their friends, of chatting with different
foreigners, of drinking, dancing, learning English and of hearing about the
world outside of Cambodia.
They have the freedom to play with their
identities, and as Sochua said: “I like my bar because I like to be myself” –
whoever that self might happen to be.
Bar life also allows much more freedom than
the loneliness and isolation of being confined to the house as a wife or
long-term girlfriend – which was a complaint of many women, and the reason many
continued working in the bars after promising they wouldn’t while their
partners were away.
The ability to work on again, off again in the
bars also allows the women great freedom.
Sochua has been working at the same bar for
nearly 10 years, and now has a good relationship with the European owner. Many
times, she’s taken long breaks from work – to have her children, or to go to
the countryside. Knowing that the bar will always be there and that her boss
will take her back is a great relief to her, and a form of stability in what is
sometimes quite an unstable life.
But there was also a certain network logic
which defies the common argument that if there were other options, the women
wouldn’t choose hostess bar work.
Tina, 25, was once offered a receptionist job
at a small western-run boutique hotel. The hotel promised to quadruple her $50
per month salary and put her through university after she completed her first
year at the hotel. The job was easy and the potential career opportunities
seemed tremendous.
But after the first night, she walked out, and
went back to work at her old bar. When asked why she would pass up what seemed
to be such an amazing opportunity, she explained: “[The hotel] was too quiet.
No customers ... bar is better ... learn more English ... meet more people.”
According to her logic, the potential for
long-term security – which was via meeting people who might “open doors” for
her – was greatly decreased at the hotel. The lower monthly salary at the
hostess bar was secondary to the opportunity to meet more customers, which
could potentially translate to increased economic, romantic, travel and
learning opportunities in the future.
Tina found more value in the ability to
network with a range of potentially useful people, than in pursuing a
potentially unuseful long-drawn-out academic path.
Aside from this network logic, she also
enjoyed the excitement, entertainment, social and educational aspects and freedoms
of bar life.
So while there are plenty of negative aspects
to working in hostess bars, the young women find them useful in different ways.
Bar work tends to be seen as a means to an end, and a place of opportunity.
For professional girlfriends, bars offer
unlimited networking possibilities which leads to potential future security.
Rather than being viewed as victims who are
trapped in oppressive jobs and have no control over their lives, the plethora
of young women I spoke to instead revealed they are hard-working mothers and
daughters, loyal employees, dedicated girlfriends and wives and creative young
women who are pulling up their bootstraps and taking on this world, despite all
those who doubt them or try to get in their way.
And the bar is often the first stop on their
journey.
Heidi Hoefinger
The Phnom Penh Post
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment