A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a British criminal lawyer defending a Thai massage practitioner who’s charged of “sexual touching a client without their consent.”
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By chance, the Thai massage session was recorded on video (CCTV) and hence the case was brought up with this video as evidence. However, the massage therapist claims that the stretches and massage manipulations carried out were rather “normal” in a Thai yoga massage session.
Now, the lawyer approached me because he’s seeking a Thai massage expert to watch the video and provide a written statement giving a judgment whether the acts performed in the massage session could be considered “normal and acceptable practices” of Thai Yoga Massage.
I thought it is an interesting case, one that now and again comes up with regard to Thai massage sessions, and I’ll give you my answer to the lawyer here below:
First of all, I’m not a British citizen or otherwise fully acquainted with British customs, and — I find this important to note — I think I’m therefore hardly able to give a sound judgment on what is considered appropriate or inappropriate touch in Britain. Perhaps, this seems irrelevant to the case, but I feel it does matter, which I will explain.
As for Thai Massage aka Thai Yoga Massage, it’s important to recognize that it’s NOT a set/given system of strictly defined bodywork practices. There are many different styles of Thai Massage, and within those styles, many different ways of HOW to perform Thai Massage and with what aims.
In fact, in Thailand — the birthplace of Thai Massage — there are Thai massage sessions with and without sexual touch. It depends on what the client (receiver) needs in order to heal, relax, or have health issues alleviated and to what the client consents to. In addition, it depends on what the practitioner/therapist thinks the receiver needs and on the Thai massage style the practitioner/therapist applies (or has learned to apply).
In a general sense, the Northern style of giving Thai Massage is relatively free in the way it’s performed and may easily involve more or less loosely working on/with the erogenous and/or genital zones of the receiver. The Southern style of giving Thai Massage is much more constrained, sometimes even to the point that a simple stretch of the legs is already considered “impolite” and “inappropriate”.
Of course, one should always ask consent of the receiver if one wants to work with an erogenous or genital/sexual zone of the receiver’s body, but I want to stress that “where the border is”, that is, “at what point one needs to ask consent” when touching (what’s in the West considered) an erogenous zone is rather a cultural and local ethical issue.
For instance, in the Thai massage style of Northern Thailand it’s pretty normal to stretch and massage the abdominal region, groin region/inner thighs, or the buttocks of the receiver without asking for permission to do so, but in many other countries that would be inappropriate behavior and considered “unwanted sexual touch” probably even resulting in an indictment that charges the masseur with a sexual crime.
To give you an other example, some Thai massage therapists in Thailand don’t hesitate to — without a blink of the eyes — manually “move away” the female breasts or male penis of the receiver if they’re “in the way,” for instance to massage the chest region or alternatively the groin region. I guess that doing so would be quite inappropriate in the United Kingdom.
At any rate — as for the situation you talk about — I assume that there was no written consent form signed by both parties before the massage session, because then it would have been much easier to discern from the CCTV video footage if the masseur acted in accordance or not with what was agreed upon. Oral consent may neither have been the case, and even if so that again would have been a “my word against your word” situation, etc.
In addition, another important issue here is if the receiver of the massage was knowledgeable of what could be involved in a Thai massage session. That would give her/him a more or less accurate perception in judging what actually happened and if it was appropriate or not.
Anyway, the questions here are manifold: what is ethically appropriate and normal in the United Kingdom and what not (in an implicit consensual way), what is/are the part/parts of the body the masseur touched, stretched, or massaged, and for how long and in what way, was it functional in the Thai massage routine that was carried out, and was the receiver knowledgeable of what body parts could be manipulated and of the Thai massage techniques that could be utilized.
Hence, apart from having a good understanding of the receiver’s proficiency in judging the Thai massage session that took place, I would say that in this particular case, it’s better to ask several British Thai massage practitioners and/or instructors (who practice different Thai massage styles) to give an “expert opinion” by watching the video recording and then state if they think that in a British ethical context and in the context of performing Thai Massage the acts of the masseur could be considered appropriate or not, or perhaps somewhere in-between.
I hope this helps.
Kind greetings,
Marce Ferreira.
