Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys

by Gerard Sullivan, Peter A. Jackson (Editor)

Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Male and Female Homosexualities in Contemporary Thailand offers methods that will help social workers, researchers, and students create HIV/AIDS intervention services for gay men, lesbians, and transgender individuals in or from Thailand. Many of these methods can also be used by practitioners or HIV/AIDS educators in North America and developing countries to address issues of culturally diverse clientele. In response to Western and Thai sexuality studies that fail to accurately represent the diverse sexualities of Thailand, this book discusses and describes certain factors that need to be taken into consideration when developing intervention programs. Demonstrating how cultural and social factors influence services, Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys will help you provide clients with effective and relevant services. Drawing attention to Eurocentric ideology that may hinder cross-cultural collaboration for Thai-Western service provisions, this book offers you information that will help you understand how cultural, political, and economic systems shape sexuality and gender roles in Thai society. Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys provides you with the necessary knowledge for providing successful services, One of the only books to address HIV/AIDS issues of gay and transgender individuals in Thailand, Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys will help you increase awareness about HIV/AIDS and create successful intervention programs for clients.

Genres: Queer, Asia

237 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1999

Reviews

[Jakub Štefan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book presents a series of case studies concentrated on the three most visible, and most stigmatized homosexual identities: kathoey "ladyboys" (transgender and transsexual males), tomboys ("butch" lesbians), and male sex workers "boy" who service male clients. Jackson reports that while Western discourses of sexuality have had an increasing impact on both popular and academic accounts of eroticism in Thailand, indigenous discourses have resisted the formation of a domain of sexuality distinct from gender. All Thai discourses continue to be framed in terms of the indigenous category of sex, a notion that incorporates sexual difference (male vs. female), gender difference (masculine vs. feminine), and sexuality (heterosexual vs. homosexual) within a single discursive regime.

Although there are no legal sanctions against homosexual or transgender behaviors or lifestyles in Thailand, sexual minorities nevertheless exist in a legal limbo. Sexual minorities are not mentioned in the new pro-democratic constitution, let alone their rights. Under current Thai law, same-sex marriage is not recognized, and same-sex couples are denied access to spousal benefits such as tax benefits, social welfare, and insurance benefits. Furthermore, sex change is not officially recognized, which means that post-operative transsexuals cannot change their sex on ID cards. For example, there have been several reports of male-to-female transsexuals arrested on criminal charges being incarcerated in men's prisons, and being subjected to rape and persistent sexual harassment.

Kathoey
The term kathoey itself is ambiguous, even when used by kathoey themselves. In translation it is often rendered as "transvestite," "transgender" or "transsexual" In recent years there has been attention to kathoey in the popular Thai press and media and kathoey has also entered scholarly literature on sexuality. It was used for any kind of man who has some feminine characteristics. But with the coming into existence of a masculine gay identity in Thailand, the term is more and more used exclusively for male cross-dressers. However, in this circle, it is not a particularly well-liked term. As such transgender males, called kathoey in Thai, are an ancient and widespread phenomenon in Asia and especially Southeast Asia. The study is based on in-depth interviews conducted in Thailand and the Netherlands. It discusses the inadequacy of conceptualizing Kathoey as a category of homosexuals, arguing that kathoey first and foremost has to be seen as a women. It is the author's conviction that the conceptualization of kathoey as a specific type of homosexual is misleading. Such a conceptualization is highly influenced by the Western supposition of a dichotomy of two genders, and the assumption that a feminine role or the role of kathoey is preferred by homosexual men in societies that do not accept homosexuality. In other words, in this view, the feminine role helps to make the sexual preference for men socially acceptable. Roles like kathoey are then seen as a modification of the homosexual role in a society that has difficulties with "straight homosexuality."
Some kathoey only likes to be embraced and be close to a partner and do not particularly like more specific sexual acts, only tolerating being penetrated and often seeing their penis as a source of embarrassment. Others insist on retaining the pleasure derived from their penis and sometimes like to penetrate their partners, as well as being penetrated. This seems to suggest further individual differences.
Most kathoeys interviewed estimated that about twenty-five percent of their partners are not aware they are transgender males. Some of these men accommodate themselves during the experience when they find out during sex that their beautiful partner is not a woman, others become shocked. Then there is a group who are attracted to some of the kathoey's physical attributes. Their more refined physical features (and perhaps some psychological qualities) help many Thai or Asian males to assume this female gestalt in the eyes of Western heterosexual men and so to play the
female role in the heterosexual game convincingly.
Taking Amsterdam as an example, it is clear that Thai kathoey has managed to acquire a segment of the heterosexual prostitution scene. One of the results of this development is the creation of what I would provisionally like to call a global Kathoey "career." Switching to the female sex offers opportunities to Thai village youths that are not available to them in other ways. In particular, it creates opportunities to leave a poor and boring countryside, to acquire some wealth, and even to migrate to another country.
Many kathoey reacted outspokenly to the possibility of having a "gay" partner, "Oh no, no gay, certainly not." Several of them indicated that their fantasy is to get a man who is married in order to prove that they are better than his wife. The actual threat to most long-term relationships for kathoey indeed seems to be women.
Most of the kathoey in Amsterdam underwent a full operation, inclusive of genitalia change. However, I have rarely met a complete male-to-female transsexual in Thailand. Obviously, in the first place, there is a financial consideration involved. On the other hand, the author has come across kathoey who claimed that they had full hormonal treatment but would like to keep their penis since their partner liked it that way. Having or not having a penis is not the most crucial issue to kathoey themselves. Also author have come across persons who manage to alternate between a male and female role, between day and night; or who tried the kathoey role for a period and then moved back into a homosexual role.

[Mhairi Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a few chapters from this book for an essay, and while it is a bit dated (1999) I appreciated the ground work it did. The authors acknowledge the limited western lens they write from while stressing the importance of extending understanding in gender/sexuality discourses etc