Thai women use TikTok videos as a companion
Travelling at night might not be an issue for some, but that’s not the case for everyone. To feel safer and more comfortable, many women call their friends or partners, or even pretend to talk to someone on the phone, just to ward off seedy characters they may encounter after dark.
For singles who need a companion to be with you on your way home, this TikTok singer might be your perfect choice.
“Sweetie, where are you? Already got a taxi, right?”
Image credit: สดนำชัย อินธิวงศ์ แฟนคลับ
Namchai “Sod” Intiwong is Luk Thung or folk singer who has a lot of Thai fans, especially women, due to his good looks and tattoos.
He is quite active on his TikTok account @sodnamchai, sharing videos of himself singing and about his everyday life.
With his voice and looks, he’s since gotten a lot of requests from followers asking him to create fake “phone conversations” for them to use in order to pretend talking to someone on the phone when travelling late at night.
Images adapted from: @sod_namchai
Sod then created different “phone call” TikToks, from him being an angry man scolding his girlfriend to hurry home, a concerned brother, and even a fierce father.
One follower asked: “Please give me a conversation to use on a motorbike taxi”
Source
Some users even requested a phone call for specific situations, like when hopping on a motorbike taxi or when leaving from a bar to get a taxi back home.
He also included dialogue for viewers too. For example, in a video where he says“Sweetie, where are you? Already got a taxi, right?”, there would be a captions for you to respond accordingly like “Yes, babe”.
His videos have since gone viral, making him a stand-in husband, brother, and father for many Thai TikTok users.
Many netizens think it’s a good idea
Many users saw this as just a form of entertainment, but others thought that it was useful and might work for real situations where people felt unsafe.
Translation: The videos are both useful and entertaining. Thank you for creating all of the videos. Wishing you good luck on your work.
One commenter even mentioned that his videos should be circulated to a minimum, so that criminals wouldn’t know of the idea. Some expressed that women shouldn’t have this problem in the first place and that the laws regarding safety should be stronger.
Translation: There shouldn’t be this kind of problem in society. Women shouldn’t have to worry when taking a taxi. Everywhere should be safe. Anyway, we have to take care of ourselves when everything around us is violent and uncontrollable. There are tons of news about rape and legal punishments are too soft.
We agree with the comment above that women – and men, for that matter – should feel safe no matter where they are. However, we have to admit that there are many things beyond our control.
So, taking care of ourselves as much as possible is sometimes the only choice we can take.
Thank you, Sod, for being kind enough to respond to all requests and create various videos for people to use. We hope that women can feel safe without the need of such videos in the future.
Featured image adapted from: @sodnamchai
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