This essay will explore sex tourism in Thailand. Thailand has an orphanage welcoming 300 children under 5 years old. Nearly 80% of children are HIV positive. Who are these children? Where did they come from? Where are their mothers? These children are the result of sex tourism in Thailand. While sex tourism exists throughout Thailand, I chose to look to Pattaya, Thailand for this project. Pattaya is a seaside resort famous for its sex tourism. Sex tourism affects men, women and children and can lead to human trafficking and sexual slavery. Human rights organizations attribute sex tourism to promoting illicit sexual exploitation of non-consenting adults and children. I want to focus on women in sex tourism in Pattaya. One issue is who has power in the global political economy when it comes to sex tourism. Chambers identifies that prostitution and modern tourism are closely integrated (2009: 64). This union is supported by legal organizations and the substructure of mass tourism through the media, the creation of brothels and tourist circuits reinforce the sexual exploitation of women and their lack of power. . Governments even support the existence of sex tourism on a macro level. The tourist, of course, is an active supporter of sex tourism. Prostitution is not something new in Thailand, but tourism has had a vital influence on this trade. Pattaya was a fishing village until it became a favored destination for the American military during the Vietnam War. Military forces have created a demand for sexual outlets for their soldiers. This led to a boom in prostitution which spread throughout the country as a profitable business. The Americans had encouraged Thailand to become known as ... middle of paper ... sex tourism is not. These women suffer from an inequality of opportunity and agency that leads to a series of complex consequences linked to their involvement in the sex trade: lifestyle dangers, STDs, HIV/AIDS and pregnancy, to name a few. just a few. Works cited Barthes, R. (1984; 1981). Camera Lucida: Reflections on photography [Chambre claire.English]. London: Flamingo. Chambers, E. (2010). Native Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Macleod, DVL, Carrier, JG and Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. (2010). Tourism, power and culture: anthropological insights. Bristol, UK: Channel View.Ortner, Sherry B. “Is Woman to Man as Nature is to Culture? Ed. Ellen Lewin. Feminist anthropology: a reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006. 72-86.Print