THE WORD “Thailand” conjures up a million images: spicy cuisine, world-class white-sand beaches, and legendary hospitality.

Oh yeah, and one more thing: hookers. Lots of hookers.

Bar girls, bar boys, bar boys who look like bar girls (sort of), erotic Ping Pong players, massage artists and seedy go-go clubs figure just as prominently in the collective impression of Thailand as pad thai, Phuket, and gracious wais. And for good reason.

The country’s sex industry is estimated to account for up to $4.3 billion per year—a staggering 3 percent of GNP. The kingdom is a popular destination for sex tourists worldwide; Patpong and Nana, two of Bangkok’s well-known red light districts, seem to draw just as many tourists as the reclining Buddha and the grand palace. And in many of the expat bars and nightclubs, girlfriends-for-hire flit about, shameless members of the world’s oldest profession.

Every possible sexual preference—and I mean every—is catered to in the Land of Smiles, and people pursue their various proclivities largely devoid of self-consciousness.

Which is why the case of Chotiros “Amy” Suriyawong is so perplexing. Here’s what happened: The 22-year-old actress and college student appeared at the Thai equivalent of the Oscars wearing a form-fitting black gown with a three-inch-wide strip cut from hip to bust. It exposed a lot of skin, but nowhere near what’d you spot on an average Sunday afternoon on Soi Cowboy.

Suriyawong’s university officials, however, were incensed. The dress was deemed obscene, and the school ordered her to do 15 days of community service—by reading books to the blind (the only people who haven’t ogled all those photos). The university even forced her to submit the dress for inspection to verify that it had been fortified with special sewn-in underwear. Then the Culture Ministry weighed in, condemning Suriyawong and saying the dress was “very inappropriate.”

Worse, the actress’s production house edited her out of an upcoming film. “I don’t want my actresses to dress that way,” the company president told the Thai-language Khao Sod newspaper. “We are not a porn production house and it goes against Thai culture.”

Wait a second. It “goes against Thai culture”? Seriously?

Tradition vs. Permission

To understand the firestorm surrounding Suriyawong and her gown, it’s worth considering a few factors that lurk below the surface. First of all, while the sex trade flourishes in Thailand, most Thai people are actually quite traditional.

“Even though Thailand has its red light districts, [it] is still a conservative society,” Bangkok Pundit, who blogs anonymously in English and has an intimate knowledge of Thai society, told me. “Such public displays of revealing clothing by young university girls is still frowned upon by the public.”

And Suriyawong doesn’t attend just any college—she’s enrolled at the prestigious Thammasat University, regarded as one of Thailand’s two best institutions of higher education. Some feel that she should have understood her role as ambassador for her school, and that her skimpy clothing reflected poorly on Thammasat. (Thailand is one of the world’s few nations where students wear uniforms through the university level.)

“Many Thai families consider their daughters … ‘children’ until they leave university,” says Bangkok Pundit. “So the outrage is … from middle-class families worried that their university daughters will end up like Amy.”

Thailand’s political climate may also help explain the firestorm. The junta that wrested control of the government from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the September 19 military coup has taken a hard line against Western influences. While Thaksin, a lover of globalization, pushed for free trade and development, the military government has proposed changing the laws governing foreign-owned businesses and investment—and has gone so far as to tighten the rules regarding tourist visas. The Culture Ministry’s objections to Suriyawong’s attire might be related to the feeling, in some camps, that traditional Thai values are losing out to the depravity of Hollywood (as opposed to the home-grown variety).

Valentine’s Day is ground zero for this burgeoning culture war. The ministry said police would be on the lookout for children under 18 kissing in public on Valentine’s Day. Then it published what it referred to as the “10 Commandments of Love,” the first of which was to “Love with patience, so as not to become a young parent.”

Respect for authority, rigid social structure, and traditional gender roles also come into play. The Thai language has 11 words for “you,” based on the status of the speaker and the addressee. The king is considered semi-divine, and the royal family and monks are all revered. In Thai society, gender equality is still a long way off. Thai women, when viewed through Western eyes, often seem demure and submissive.

Indeed, “A Maxim for Ladies,” written in 1844 by Thai poet Sunthorn Phu, contained this “advice for women”: “Walk slowly. While walking, do not swing your arms too much…. Do not sway your breasts, do not run fingers through your hair, and don’t talk.” Sunthorn Phu is part of some schools’ curricula even to this day.

It’s Hip to Be Critical

In covering the Suriyawong affair, Bangkok’s English-language newspapers—read by foreigners and the Thai elite—offered little commentary on the larger issues of social structure and gender roles. The Nation, however, argued that the uproar was hypocritical, plain and simple: “We have [never] heard of universities firing male students for visiting prostitutes, or companies demoting male executives for fathering illegitimate children.”

(Further afield, The Independent noted that Thailand has a peculiar double standard: It’s acceptable to wear a revealing dress—as long as you’re not a woman.)

What do women in Thailand think about the kerfuffle? My Thai teacher, who’s a few years older than Suriyawong, told me she felt the dress was inappropriate—given the circumstances. The awards ceremony was held in the northeastern town of Khorat, home to a popular statue honoring a woman who, in 1827, helped save the city from a rebel army.

“The dress would have been okay in Bangkok,” my teacher said, “but not in Khorat. In Bangkok people wouldn’t mind as much. Khorat has a sacred statue. That’s why it’s such a big story.”

I asked my girlfriend, an American who’s lived in Thailand for nearly two years, what she thought. “It’s completely hypocritical,” she said. “In a place where a lot of women make a lot of money undertaking risky sexual behavior, I can’t believe that people would get so upset over this. It’s incompatible thinking. It’s irritating.”

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Newley Purnell is a freelance journalist. His blog is at newley.com.