Performing masculinity on the Thai beach scene

This paper presents a new framework for researching the identities and power relationships between locals and tourists in developing countries. Moving away from conceptualizing identities as tied into binary frameworks, this paper conceptualizes identities as fluid, multiple and context-specific. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from 1999 to 2001, this research explores the everyday lived experiences of Thai men working in the bars and bungalows of Had Rin peninsula on Koh Phangan island in southern Thailand. In this paper I map the ways that the identities of these men shift and change as they move between the different social geographies that overlie their everyday lived spaces on Had Rin peninsula. In highlighting the ways that the men's identities shift as they move through space I argue for the importance of space and context in theorizing identities, demonstrating that dualistic representations of identity are inadequate attempts to capture identities which are actually very complex, multiple and subject to change.