Bodies at Work: Gendered Performance and Migrant Beer Sellers in Southeast Asia

Migrant beer sellers in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Vientiane engage in multiple contestations over bodily inscriptions, mobilizations, subjectivities, boundaries, and agency. Their bodies are subject to and shaped by the male gaze of recruitment agents, employers, and customers who can influence beer sellers' incomes through the power they have to hire and place migrant workers in more or less popular venues, to control their movements and interactions with clients, and, to offer the prospects of patronage. Male customers often challenge bodily boundaries and integrity through unwanted touching, coercive sexual encounters, and encouraged co-drinking while, outside work, their social presentation is often judged as scandalous. These interactions work to shape and to reinforce the hegemonic gendered, racialized, and classed social order.