The Betel Nut Girls Can No Longer Be Themselves

Note: Due to fierce competition, many betel-nut-stand operators have employed young women to sell the products in bikinis or thongs. In response, the Taoyuan County Government announced on September 17, 2002 a "three nos" policy which prohibits the exposure of betel-nut beauties' breasts, bellies and buttocks. This piece was written to protest the class-based prejudice against lower-class young women's efforts to improve their financial status through working as sales person for betel nuts.

Regardless of what happens these days, be it natural or manmade disaster or major political or economic happenings, most any TV news section on most any day is likely to end with the same images: a tall, thin, internationally famous model leisurely gliding down the catwalk, showing breasts, belly and legs, and sometimes even other unmentionable parts of her body. These images have become so familiar and so natural that if we don't see them for a while, we start worrying that we are not keeping up with international fashion. Not even feminists normally complaining about the commodification of the body seem to be overly concerned about this phenomenon.

For any country doing its utmost to step onto the international stage, or for any society doing its utmost to extract itself from a slumping economic situation, the never ending sequence of trade shows really are very important. No trade show, from computers and furniture trade shows to wedding gown trade shows, food trade shows, car, motorcycle, hygiene and bathroom equipment and building materials trade shows, can afford not hiring a line-up of young girls showing breasts, belly and legs, working hard wriggling their bodies dressed in various theme uniforms, raising their volume so as to help sustain the Taiwan economic miracle through stirring up waves of purchasing.

At a time when political pawns hold fewer and fewer cards, these vital and vibrant beauties can still cause the waning fortunes of politicians to rise from the ashes. In the elections a few years back, dancing and singing sexy girls had helped an average, street-wise political party successfully transform its image. When Taiwanese politicians were unable to open up new channels of negotiation with China, famous pop singer A-Mei's motor-powered hips wrapped in minimal stage attire were able to shake up hundreds of millions of Chinese. When will people accept the fact that the country has been saved by sexy girls?

A new generation of physically confident young girls is constantly looking for new ways to display their charm and attractiveness. Dance uniforms at the opening and closing ceremonies of athletic games and other big events used to trace the curves of the teenage girls in a straight forward manner, the short skirts and tall boots of the honor guards or marching bands gesture toward the forbidden paradise at the end of those long slender legs, and the g-strings or small tattoos hanging over low-cut jeans or skirts is a declaration of the surging desire of youths. Walking through a night market or a clothes wholesaler, one sees that the dress of young girls have already been telling for a long time very different stories about these youthful bodies.

Jealous adults have not completely given up hope on themselves. The year-end dinner parties of large and small companies, community activities to save corporate images, school festivals held at the beginning of terms and school anniversaries, the electioneering media shows of politicians during a dull legislative session - throughout the year, from company presidents to school teachers and principals, adults will always find various legitimate, broad-minded-sounding reasons to compete against young girls on the spiciness of outfits and costumes, some adults even sing loud praises of the future of cultural diplomacy and the aesthetics and art of betel-nut beauties.

Over night, these local betel-nut beauties, the pioneers of bodily beauty and autonomy, have been stripped of their confidence and right to develop their self-image. Have they now served their historical mission and are to be dismissed from public view?

It is not only the right to dress freely, not only the room for women to affirm the attractiveness of their own bodies, that is been frustrated here. What really suffers is women's chance to actively strive for economic gain, the opportunity for low-class young women to make an honest and hard-earned living.