Day 1: Disappointment

Disappointment and dejection were the only words to describe to my feelings. Gone were the initial excitement and enthusiasm I first felt when we officially started on our research question. It was one chosen with much deliberation, and we finally agreed on one question that all of us were interested to find out more about – To what extent has foreign entertainment media influenced the attitudes and beliefs of Thai youth towards female empowerment? Imagine our shock and disappointment when Prof Chirada Na Suwan from the school of Social Innovation, Mae Fah Luang University, basically told us that gender inequality is not a big issue in Thailand.

Photo credit: Darren Leong

I vividly remember feeling dispirited and discouraged during the in-depth discussion with Prof Chirada, who specialises in Human Security and Public Policy. The thought of changing our entire research topic crossed my mind multiple times during the discussion. But we are already in Chiang Rai! Do we have time to completely change our research topic? However, my sub-group was quick to dismiss Prof Chirada’s comments as we reasoned that there was a mismatch between Prof Chirada’s area of expertise and our research question. Thus, we decided to trudge on and remained steadfast in our decision.

Photo credit: Natalia Chioang

Prof Chirada then introduced Dr Yuki Miyake to us. Dr Yuki specialises in Women’s Studies. Our hopes were quickly raised. We proposed an impromptu interview with her which she graciously accepted despite the lack of notice. But of course, when it rains, it pours. Dr Yuki is a native Japanese who could only offer her insights on the role of Japanese women in her society. At the end of a long day of interviews, we had no data that we could use for our research.

Photo credit: Natalia Chioang

Well, I guess I shouldn’t be too negative. After all, we just had the opportunity to visit Mae Fah Luang’s beautiful campus and we caught the sunset on our way back!

Back at the hotel, my sub-group held an emergency meeting and we realised that we were too quick to dismiss Prof Chirada’s comments. In a bid to make ourselves feel better about our research question, we mistakenly overlooked the valid points Prof Chirada brought up. Prof Chirada perceptively pointed out that there is weak causation between foreign entertainment media and female empowerment. The issue of gender inequality is multi-faceted and multi-layered. It was hasty of us to generalise the cause-and-effect relationship between foreign entertainment media and female empowerment. People receive information through media and may form certain impressions of females portrayed. However, the men may not treat females in a way that reflects their perception of women portrayed in the media. Many other factors come in to play, such as the level of education the men receive and the ability to differentiate between foreign entertainment media and reality.

After seeking advice from Prof Geraldine and Prof Patrick, we decided to tweak our research question to focus on the influence of foreign entertainment media on Thai youth’s perception of female empowerment. Instead of trying to draw causal connection, we learnt that showing a correlation would be more appropriate in our research.
This experience exposed me to the field of research, it made me realised the importance of the nuances of the words we used and it heightened my awareness of the underlying assumptions that we unconsciously make. Through our in-depth discussion with Prof Chirada, it revealed the complexities of social issues. Take gender inequality for example. There are many factors that contribute to this social phenomenon. These factors are often interconnected and it’s not possible to study the effects of a one factor.
It used to frustrate me whenever I couldn’t find a clear-cut solution to a problem. Due to the heavy emphasis on Mathematics and Science subjects throughout my education, I’ve been wired to approach problems in a structured, step-wise manner. Now, I’m learning to accept that I’ve been too rigid with my thinking.

Photo credit: Spoonflower

I’m finally able appreciate the greys that inevitably exists in our society.