It’s hard to believe, but Thai university students actually wear uniforms in college?! Worse still, an older generation believes the uniforms serve a purpose. This has to be the most jarring moral juxtaposition of conservatism and raw commercial exploitation of sex in any country on the planet. Asia Sentinel has a rare moment of clarity.

The perennial issue of sexy schoolgirls in Thailand seems rarely to occasion thoughts of simply scrapping the uniforms and treating students like the young adults they actually are and allowing them to dress themselves. Thai students have for years said they dress the way they do precisely because they see the uniform as a rule from an earlier time and they just want to appear stylish and young.

In reacting to news of the Japanese uniform poll, a columnist for Naew Na spun the usual line in calling for greater moral teaching to stem the tide of eroticism on campus.

“At least, the existence of uniforms will help teach our children about discipline and courtesy. Uniforms will remind them of their status as students whose role is to study and seek knowledge. Students in uniforms should be mindful in whatever they do or don’t do,” wrote the author of the Kuan Nam Hai Sai column.

“The most practical solution could be to educate and make students appreciate the value of wisdom and good deeds, instead of external beauty, stardom and fame.”

Lecturing uniform-clad girls about morals is a surprisingly hypocritical art for a culture I thought was quite libertine.

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Filed under: Politics, Southeast Asia Tagged: thailand, uniforms