Conclusion: Love and Intimacy in Online Cross-Cultural Relationships

Abstract

The chapter places Thai women’s stories within debates about intimate transnational relationships, gender studies, and online interactions. More than any other types of relationship, love and intimacy in online cross-cultural relationships enable women to imagine the fantasy of lasting togetherness, which is based on “traditional gender roles”. Moreover, the technologies of the Internet allow women to create more abstractly imagined forms of love and emotional care as well as enabling imaginary co-presence when physical co-presence is absent or non-existent. Thus, rather than assuming that power is something that Western man have and Thai women do not, the study shows how women’s imagination is central to women’s actions in initiating, developing, and sustaining relationships across distance and time.