absolutelyBangkok archive · Being farang
Originally published April 28, 2009
Most expat publications and websites covering Bangkok and Thailand are focused on men — even though that’s not an explicitly stated policy. There’s a ton of purely male-oriented sites out here. As a woman, looking for like-minded information, you quickly find yourself in the desert.
Local women’s magazines are with practically no exception published in Thai. But this very exception proves the rule. As now there’s Acclimate, a women’s magazine published in English that addresses the “complex life of expatriate women in Bangkok.”
The magazine’s mission statement sums it up: “While she enjoys comforts and luxuries that she might never have experienced in her home country, she also faces issues and challenges that she never would have encountered (…) Acclimate makes it a little easier for expatriate women to find their best life in Bangkok.”
By Tracey Starr, Editor-in-Chief, Acclimate Magazine
When I first moved overseas, I was miserable. Back in the U.S., I was someone. I worked hard and established a career. I managed a team, and the company looked to me as the expert in my field. My partner and I were equals, both successful in our own rights, and happy as a couple.
But when we first moved to Asia for his career, suddenly I was nearly invisible. I didn’t have a job and wasn’t sure what opportunities would be available. Everyone in our lives looked to my partner for answers to any questions about our lives, and I was merely an appendage. Well, that’s how it felt anyway.
Without my job, without my friends and colleagues, without the world I’d established, what was left? Who wasI? That was six years ago. Today, several countries later, I’ve managed to find my way and truly enjoy this unpredictable, peripatetic life.
But one of the things that surprised me (and comforted me!) the most along this journey was finding out that nearly every other “trailing spouse” I met was struggling with exactly the same issues. While most of us were enjoying luxuries beyond what we could reasonably expect back home, we’d all lost ourselves a bit in the relocation. We were all starting from scratch with each move, forced to reinvent ourselves again and again.
And that’s where Acclimate tries to help. We talk directly to expat women in Bangkok — trailing spouses especially — in an honest, respectful, non-judgmental way, to help them make a great life in this fantastic city. We’re lucky to have talented women in our community who volunteer their expertise to write about, edit, and photograph stories that matter to us. It’s a small community, a niche market for sure, but one that I’m passionate about and proud to be part of.
With so much journalism going online, many people have wondered why we chose print. There are two reasons. In order to get your new life in Bangkok started, you need to leave the house. Even if you don’t know another soul in town, you can take your copy of Acclimate along with you to read at a coffee shop and not feel quite so isolated.
The other reason is a bit selfish: I love magazines. I love to read them, flip through them, rip pages out of stuff I really like. Starting one was my childhood dream, and that’s probably the best part about being a trailing spouse: the need to start over and reinvent yourself sometimes results in reinventing yourself in a way you always dreamed of.
Thanks for reading. –
Tracey
(The latest edition of Acclimate focused on Moving & Repatriation hits the street on May 6. Pick up your copy at Dasa used bookstore, Villa Markets, Kinokuniya, Books@53, The American Women’s Club of Thailand, The Pilates Studio, OffWorld and The Place — near the back gate of Nichada Thani.)
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