The Adulterer: Censorship, Morality, and Foreign Films in Thailand.

The Thai state dramatically increased the censorship of cinema during the period of authoritarian military rule and American military and economic intervention from 1958 to 1973. Enforced through the Board of Film Censorship, censorship evidenced official concerns about the impact of commercial cinema on Thai audiences. Given the political context, one might expect intense censorship of political expression. The censors, however, focused on sexual morality and depictions of adultery in foreign films, thereby asserting urban bureaucratic norms of specifically "Thai" social appropriateness. This regulation occurred in tandem with scandals involving extramarital affairs of government officials. As adultery came to be seen as an issue simultaneously regulated and committed by the bureaucracy, it became a critical issue on which middle-class and elite concerns regarding social status and women's rights centered. The censors' actions underscore the significance of cinema as a site of transnational social and political expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]