The Ideology Behind Thai Proverb “Chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan”
‘ชายข้าวเปลือก หญิงข้าวสาร’ (chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan) is a popular Thai proverb recitation that the elderly in society use to teach girls and women how to behave. This proverb is also taught in school. The Ministry of Education assigns this knowledge into grade 9 students’ curriculum, making them learn it in Thai class as a required subject. It is believed that institutions put many recitations in the curriculum in order to propagate certain ideas to make children believe it blindly because the authorities believe this will make Thai society harmonize. Repetition is one of the methods that was designed to be used as a tactic that shapes the ideology of people. In this article, we are going to talk about the ideology behind the text ‘chaai khao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan’ and how it is related to the ideology of gender that the Ministry of Education or the authority in Thailand put in the curriculum for children, especially a girl to learn.
“Chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan”
‘Chaai kâao bplèuak’ describes men as paddy and ‘yĭng kâao săan’ describes women as polished rice. The meaning of it does not directly talk about the paddy and polished rice. The connotation within this text compares the value of two genders, between women and men, by using a type of rice as a symbol. The aim of this comparison is to teach women to be respectable and reserved themselves according to the concept of Thai traditions. In this proverb, the paddy describes men like that because men are just like paddy that are able to sow or plant as it can regenerate again anywhere. Meanwhile, women were seen as the polished rice that was ready to be cooked as it cannot grow again. This proverb speaks directly to women in Thai society. It also shows the mindset of people in the society back then on how women should behave, e.g. women should reserve themselves until marriage, women need to be careful with their actions, girls should not act impulsive or aggressive, or women should not go out late at night like men, etc. People in society seem to perceive these ideas as a common thing without questioning or acting against them, as they believe men’s reputations are not easily ruined like women’s reputations. So it is a woman’s task to live carefully not to ruin their own reputations.
This text indicates the dominant ideology in the past, during King Rama IV’s reign. Many dominant ideologies were created by the male elite. ‘Chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan’ was also invented by male, Prince Isarayan Mahakul, who was a dominant group in Thai society at that time as he was a royal male relative. It is interesting that his proverb helps us see through the lens of how people in the past see women. We can see that these ideologies continue to have an impact on the belief that people perceive these days. People in Thai society generally hold the concept of this proverb, the ideology of gender behind the text was used widely in practice as it has become a common value that everyone thinks it is acceptable for women to act accordingly.
What is interesting is that the lesson that women were taught came from men telling what women should be and limiting behavior of women. So it comes to the question of why men tell women what to do to be worthy? Why does it seem like the value of women is defined by men? The answer of it could be the way of life that people in Thai society have shaped, created by the dominant ideology that comes from male authority, elite groups, or typically institutions that have a lot of power to specify the role of gender and make these roles a common sense in society. It is not surprising to the fact that most dominant groups are male as Thai society has had a deep root relationship with the patriarchal system for so long.
Cultural hegemony
It is the way that the dominant group in society is doing in order to make sense of something as to create certain beliefs in order to maintain their power. In this scenario, they use the repetition of proverb “chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan” to make women believe that they are vulnerable to benefit males who are the dominant group in a patriarchal society.
I think the authorities have achieved their purpose by creating male-dominated culture society in which men are praised and seen as more important than women. Cultural hegemony can also be seen in what the Ministry of Education is trying to do. They put the gender ideology in the grade 9 curriculum in order to maintain a male-dominated culture by making students remember the role of gender in this proverb and apply its practices.
In today’s society, the old generation still continues using the same concept from the proverb that I mentioned to teach women to act accordingly. The concept of how women should act remains the same but not as much as in the past because the new generation is aware of it as a concept that people in the old generation received from the patriarchal society. Moreover, the connotative within this text devalues the female gender, which is a social construction in which we can describe it in terms of femininity. Women are shown as feminine. The gender ideology of this popular proverb describes polished rice as feminine to show women’s values. It is the idea that society needs women to be flawless as the gender roles of women is to be good daughters to their parents, great mother of their children, wonderful wife for their husband, etc. But no one said the ‘flawless’ they should be is good for themselves or good for men and other people in society. If women are not allowed to be flawed then why men are allowed to do everything women should not do? Why are men creating practices for women but not for themselves? Does the proverb “chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan” give more advantage to men to act freely? Why does society not apply the same practice to men the same way they did to women when men are also someone’s son and they will also become a father of children and husband of women?
All in all “chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan” contains a set of beliefs that tell us the differences between women and men. It seems the ideology toward women is exploited by a patriarchal system that shapes a deep root mindset of people in society. The aim of the text is to pass down the idea of gender generation by generation. The ideology of the dominant group in that society is trying to make the new generation believe it in the same way as the main purpose of it, to create unity. People who think differently can be seen as a person who misses the basic concept and is not accepted. Different ideologies lead to different practices. And if women think such a practice is ridiculous and resist it, they might be judged by society as the gender ideology of Thai society towards women has been put in this way to gain acceptance. Anyway, there is a gap in the gender ideology of this proverb that I mentioned. If a person denies their innate gender and chooses not to define themselves as women, will the concept of “chaai kâao bplèuak yĭng kâao săan” necessary be applied to them?
