Resumen de Desire and confusion: A sociolinguistic ethnography on affect in the ethnic economy of Thai massage
In my contribution, I will look at the interconnections between language, work, ethnicity and gender in the exemplary site of the Thai massage studio as part of a larger sociolinguistic ethnography in Vienna, Austria. I argue that Thai massage therapists are trying to establish an independent and professional self, while being continuously repositioned along gendered and racial stereotypes based on post-colonial ideas of the “exotic woman”. In other words, their work empowers them on the local labour market, but simultaneously threatens to reinstall clear social and ethnical hierarchies. In order to unpack this complex, I propose to discuss two theoretical concepts from a critical sociolinguistic perspective: the ethnic economy and the affect of desire, as they both inform an understanding of Thai massage as a particular localised global practice. I will first discuss ambivalent opportunities related to language competences in the ethnic economy, and then turn to examine how male clients come to ascribe “confused affect” to their experience with desire in the Thai massage. Finally, I will discuss the issue of researcher positionality in dealing with the potential reproduction of exoticisation through research.
