User:Asiabarhop

The Philippines gained its independence from America on July 4 1946 but through the “Treaty of General Relations” America has always maintained a neo colonialism relationship with the Philippines. The “Treaty of general Relations” signified the Americans withdrawal and surrender of possession, control and sovereignty over the Philippines, except the use of the American bases.

In March 14, 1947 the Philippines and America signed the American Military bases Agreement allowing the US to maintain territorial integrity and sovereignty over Clark Air base and Subic Naval Base. From 1947 through to 1991 the American influence was all pervasive and part of that influence was the development of Angeles City bars and the Angeles City bar girls who worked in them.

The so called Red Light District or Entertainment District was spread all over Angeles City but the main concentration of bars and bar girls was to be found in the Balibago area along Fields Avenue. With the demise of Manila as a destination for adult entertainment, Angeles came into its own and the Angeles City bar scene has just gone from strength to strength.

In the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s girls would flock from all over the Philippines to work in the Angeles City bars. For the Filipina this was a way to escape the grinding poverty of provincial life in the Philippines and nearly all of them harbored a dream of finding a foreigner husband and immigrating to a better life overseas. I think the expectations of the girls is important to mention because it was a primary difference between the Angeles City bar girls and their counterparts in Thailand or even Manila. For the girls in Manila and certainly in Thailand, working the bars was simply a matter of economic survival but for the Angeles City bar girls there was in most cases the dream of finding a foreign husband and marrying into a better life overseas.

Because of the bases in Angeles and Subic the Americans ruled the day and normally the girls coming to work the Angeles City bars would harbor dreams of living in America. The Filipina had natural advantages over the Thai ladies because she could communicate in English and this was particularly the case with girls coming to work the Angeles City bars simply because of their constant contact with American servicemen.

The proliferation of bars in Angeles City over the last fifty years has led to a somewhat unique phenomena of the Angeles City bar girl. Although the Angeles City bars were primarily based around Americans the Angeles City bar scene has developed significantly since the sixties, seventies and eighties and now the Angeles City bar girls cater towards a multinational clientele ranging from Australians Americans and English through to Scandinavians, Japanese, Germans and in later years a huge influx of Koreans.

The Angeles city bar girl is somewhat of a unique phenomena in that she is on one level a working girl or a prostitute offering sex for money and on another level the Angeles City bar girl is a hostess or simply a girl using the bar to meet a foreign partner. For the Angeles City bar girl the bar is mostly a means to an end whether that end be simple economic survival, money for her family or finding a foreign husband and immigrating to a better life overseas. Good working girl but does it through the sweet approach.

Another type of Angeles City bar girl that has developed over the last five years is what I refer to as the expensive glamour bar girl. These Angeles City bar girls will often be presented as being better than the average Angeles City bar girl. She will be presented as a glamorous and more expensive lady and this Angeles City bar girls bar fine will often be more expensive than normal dancers and the Angeles City bar owners will give her a special title such as show girl or spotlight dancer. Often the Angeles City bars will present the glamour girls as something special and the bar girl will in turn come to believe the hype herself.

Another unique development in the Angeles City bar scene is what I call the fringe dwellers or part time bar girls or Western Union whores. The fringe dwellers are generally ex Angeles City bar girls who have stopped working in the bar full time but still exist on the fringes of the Angeles City bar scene. The fringe dwellers have normally worked in the bar previously and survive through either working part time in an Angeles City bar or through finding Western Union sponsors.

As the Angeles City bar scene has expanded over recent years and the clientele have become truly multi cultural the girls have to some extent hardened and there is now definitely such a creature as the professional Angeles City bar girl. These girls are the opposite from the girls who work the Angeles city bars in the hope of finding a future love, husband and a better life. The professional Angeles City bar girl works the Angeles City bar purely for money. She regards herself as a “puta” or a prostitute and has sex with foreigners simply for financial gain. Generally speaking these Angeles City bar girls are harder and have learnt to detach themselves from the job.

With the Korean invasion the Angeles City bar girl has gotten professional detachment down to a fine art. In many Angeles City bars the girls will specifically target Koreans because they know he is a smaller build, represents less wear and tear and they do not have to become emotionally involved. For the Angeles City bar girls the Korean customers are seen as “easy money”. For the Angeles City bar girl the Koreans represent simply sex for money, they relate to them purely as prostitutes offering sexual services for money without emotional attachment.

On a recent trip to Thailand a group of expats who reside in Angeles found the bars in Pattaya hard going. Being used to the Angeles City bar girls they were used to younger women who could converse in English and offered more of a girlfriend experience. The Angeles City bar girl is even different from the Manila bar girls in that they tend to be more simplistic and more interested in the girl friend experience as opposed to just sex for money.

Having said all this lets not be fooled by what the Angeles City bar girl really is. The bottom line here is that she is a Filipina who is working the bar in Angeles City which means she is totally used to having sex as a means to make money. While working in the Angeles City bar, hers is a job of prostitution even though she may be supported, married, in love or whatever. The bottom line for the Angeles City bar girls and the customers who come to partake in the bar scene, is prostitution. The Angeles City bar girls have always been about sex for money. I admit it can often develop into something way beyond prostitution and the Angeles City bar girls are capable of giving the foreign man a true romantic experience but the realism of the Angeles City bar scene is that the girls primary job whilst working as an Angeles City bar girl is to offer sex for money.

The Angeles City bar scene has grown phenomenally over the last ten years and with it have grown the pressures from Manila and other countries. The modern day Angeles City bar girl has to not only worry about her safety with her customers but also with the Filipino authorities. As the Angeles City bar scene grows so to does the pressure and the money grabbing tactics from various authorities. The Angeles City bar scene now represent big money and not just for the bar girls family stuck in the province. Nowadays extortion of millions of piso through raids and “rescuing” of Angeles City bar girls is a common occurrence and as the Angeles City bar scene grows so to do the demands of the various authorities.

The future of the Angeles City bar scene and the Angeles City bar girls is of course unknown but if history is anything to go by I look forward to a continual influx of new girls coming from the provinces and working the Angeles City bars. As the head of the local police once told me “politicians come and they go but there will always be the AngelesCity bars”. What format the Angeles City bars will take in the future is unknown but it is my fervent hope that there will always be Angeles City bars and the Angeles City bar girls.