For a country whic does not approve of starlets wearing revealing evening wear it seems Thailand has a slightly schizophrenic attitude towards sex.
As do most societies!
A 21-year-old student and aspiring social worker was named Thailand’s most beautiful transsexual late on Friday (local time), in a pageant bursting with glitter and sequins th
at has become a national spectacle.
In a nation obsessed with beauty pageants and renowned for its sexual tolerance, the Miss Tiffany Universe competition is taken every bit as seriously as more traditional pageants.
Wearing a white beaded evening gown, Thanyarasmi Siraphatphakorn won the crown in the early hours of Saturday after a glittering competition that was broadcast on national television.
Known locally as “kathoey,” or the third gender, Thai transsexuals have slowly been leaving cabarets for mainstream success in music or other pursuits, helped in part by the popularity of the Miss Tiffany contest.
“I am so happy to win the title. This is the biggest dream of every kathoey,” Ms Siraphatphakorn told reporters after winning the tiara, a 100,000 baht ($AU3,612) cash prize and a new Mercedes Benz.
The winners of the Miss Tiffany pageant, now in its 10th year, are often showered with entertainment deals, but Ms Siraphatphakorn said she wanted to return to the impoverished Issan region where she grew up to become a social worker.
“I want to become a social worker,” she said.
“Many people, particularly in Issan, do not have many opportunities, so they need help from teachers and social workers to improve their lives.”
The contestants compete in evening gowns and cocktail dresses, while other kathoey performers danced in garters, fishnets and feathered head-dresses.
Judges also made a nod to Thailand’s political turmoil, using the question and answer segment to quiz the contestants about their hopes for the constitution currently being drafted by a military-appointed panel.
Many contestants said they hoped the new charter would for the first time guarantee legal protections for gays, or that a kathoey politician would emerge to join in the process.
Seri Wongmonta, a prominent academic and an organiser of the event, says the judges asked political questions to show that the contestants are more than just pretty faces.
“Over the next five or 10 years, Thai kathoeys will become more and more famous for their beauty and their brains,” he said.
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 
What do you mean by a “schizophrenic attitude”?
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WC, sex happens, in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.
Each society approves some and disapproves others. From the media impressions I have received (and they may have no relation to the truth) East Coast Americans are very heterosexual while West Coast Americans are quite comfortable with homosexuality. France and Italy have a very relaxed attitude to sexual infidelity, Brits have no sex and we Aussies only enjoy sport and consider foreplay to be buying a girl a beer (Forsters).
The Dwarfs on Discworld tend to dress totally alike and it is impossible to tell the difference between the sexes. Procreation seems to be a very hit and miss situation with them.
Thailand has its disapproval of female flesh yet transvestisism is lauded as a highlight of their culture.
Sex takes many forms yet each culture only approves some and demonises all others. Each culture ignores the reality that all those other forms of sex occur but they are never talked about or approved of. As I said, we are all schizophrenic about sex and sexual mores.
I doubt any of this reply makes any more sense than some of those attitudes I am writing about.
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OK – I get it. I just had a bit of confusion with your use of the word “schizophrenic” because I know what schizophrenia is and have seen a lot of people with it. It involves hallucinations and hearing voices and certain kinds of cognitive impairment. What you described above is seems to me to be just plain ambivalence.
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Hearing voices, hallucinations, cognitive impairment – – –
No, I think I used the correct word to describe the Mother Grundys of this world 🙂
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I’d like to see Mrs Blunt in that line-up. She has strong political views, so it’s definitely a case of brains over beauty where she is concerned. But at least she’s a ‘real’ woman.
Those Thai TS’s certainly know how to look after themselves, even if their taste in ear-rings is a tad chandeliery.
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‘Tis true, WA, that people often use the term ‘schizophrenic’ in a glib manner, though it is clearly not a laughing matter for those who either suffer from this illness nor for the family & friends that help care for them.
I would say that ‘contrary’ or ‘hypocritical’ are more appropriate adjectives in this case.
Meanwhile, I don’t seem to suffer from the apparently widespread social illness of thinking a person’s sexuality has anything to do with me (unless I am sexually involved with them) and take the Dickensian stance with those who do – ‘Pity their ignorance and despise them’.
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That’s not fair, this "girl"
was rejected, there is something wrong with her they said. I can’t spot anything wrong.
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I think she’s Italian, that’s all.
But what about the poor Thai drag kings? EH? Why should “transsexual” of all things be gender-specific?
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Bill, I have this feeling that you should enroll in a DIY course and build a kennel – QUICKLY!
az, I admit to using the “S” word in it popularist meaning rather than its clinical meaning. Yet words change in their meanings and perhaps I am suffering from a refusal to change. Such is the life of a curmudgeon.
John, I see nothing wrong with her, either!
raincoaster, You raise a point I have never dared voice in public! I fear open sex and sexuality is a male thing. It isw the female of the species who brings sanity into an insane part of the human experience. St Joan was burnt at the stake for wearing mens clothing!
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raincoaster asks:
But what about the poor Thai drag kings? EH? Why should “transsexual” of all things be gender-specific?
Easily answered. It’s because medical science can ‘take away’ successfully but have yet to be able to ‘add to’ with any visually satisfying way.
Cybe
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Cybe, Drag Kings have always been with us, ever since Joan of Arc as burned at the stake for dressing as a man.
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Yes, but doesn’t transsexuality only work the one way so far? I don’t think they can yet build an acceptable penis.
(well, /I/ won’t accept even the natural ones.)
Cybe
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Cybe, I’m still trying hard not to wince!
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Do we know how “kathoey ” is pronounced? I tend to sublingually read it like a spitting sound. I hope it’s something better than that.
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Doug, nope, no idea – to me it feels like a sneeze.
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Transsexuality is not gender specific – there are many Female to Male transsexuals, but society is less curious and less prurient about them so most can slip gently into stealth. My transdar is reasonably good, and even knowing that some of the guys I’ve met were FtM, I still struggled to recognise it. Some visible and active FtMs are Buck Angel and Loren Cameron (both American) and Stephen Whittle (an English academic).
Many choose to have double mastectomys and take testosterone and leave it at that. It is marginally healthier to also have a full hysterectomy for reasons to do with oestrogen and osteoporosis. Some go on to have phalloplasties and others don’t.
As you say, surgery does not entirely replicate the penis, the clitoris is usually retained, either just above or just below the constructed penis; a scrotal sac containing prosthetic testicles is made out of labia. Many choose not to have this surgery, not least because testosterone enlarges the clitoris and – well – would you run the risk of losing the ability to have multiple orgasms?
Incidentally there is a difference between being transsexual and being transgender. Transsexuality is about having the wrong body-type as much as it is about anything. Being transgender is much more about the way society treats you. As a result perfect surgery is more important to someone who is transsexual and passing well and going stealth is more important to someone who is transgendered. There is a very interesting question of when and whether an individual stops identifying themselves as “trans” and starts to identify as “male” or as “female” whichever it may be. One important problem with going stealth in the West is leaving the LGBT community which is for the main part understanding and accepting of trans people.
The difference in society’s prurient reaction to MtFs and its ignorance and lack of interest in FtMs shows just how sexist and phallocentric we still are. The extensive and equally irreversible mutilations that an FtM must undergo are not viewed with the horrified shock that a man should choose to cut off his penis.
Sorry to drop quite such a large comment onto your post here, but there is a lot of ignorance about FtMs in the world and not just in the comments on this thread. Mind you, that probably makes it easier for trans-men. Most people are not as quick to pick up on small hands and feet and a slightly snub nose as they are to pick up on large hands and adams apple and facial hair.
If you want to see some stunning photographs of FtMs go to Loren Cameron’s website. Buck Angel also provides powerful images but he makes no bones about the fact he’s a pornographer. The Original T-Men Photographs shows mainly face-shots of Trans men in the public gallery and is a support site.
All the best
Aphra Behn
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Aphra, thank you for an erudite explanation. Interesting light thrown on a rather obscure subject.
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i wish i could meet a ladyboy and live with her & she do to me what i could do to her.
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westmoorlandconstruction @y ahoo.co.uk write me a nice ladyboy
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@ day, oh dear, this isn’t an intro service – – –
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You’re not a real woman unless you have a falopian tube and a uterus. You’re an imitation of a woman. Some may look better than the real women, but that’s because it’s thanks to plastic surgery. These transsexual people have been waiting and wanting to be female for so long, that when they are given a chance, they reach for the “perfect form” of being female. Do I have to prove myself more to the men that find me beautiful that I’m a born female? I feel threaten by these fake women.
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Wonderfu and well writed!
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No difference to a gay man with wigs. Boob implants, meh.
I’m a real woman, and I just laugh at the desperation of man to imitate woman.
Men are jealous of women’s natural superiority. Men want women’s body. Men wants to become woman.
Men want women to pretend sodomy is better, because men wants to believe their feces outlet is as good as vagina.
HAHAHAHAHA……..
Sorry, honey, I have both. And no matter what you do, even with fake pussy surgery, you ain’t gonna have the EXPERIENCE of a real pussy.
Give up and worship real females. We are the gods of this world.
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You already know thus considerably with regards to this subject, produced me for my part believe it from numerous numerous angles. Its like women and men aren’t involved unless it’s something to do with Girl gaga! Your personal stuffs outstanding. All the time handle it up!
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Spot on with this write-up, I actually suppose this website wants much more consideration. Ill probably be again to read rather more, thanks for that info.
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