the third sex

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A 21-year-old student named Nong Noeng won the Miss Tiffany Universe 2008 beauty contest on Friday night, emerging as an easy front-runner from a total of 30 finalists.

Nong Noeng, Kangsadarn Wongdusadeekul to give her her formal name, is a student at Dhurakij Pandit International College.

Pattaya was a particularly lively place during the four days leading up to the contest, because the finalists were trundled around the resort getting the maximum media coverage for the tourist attractions and the venues of the sponsors.

Everywhere the 30 girls went was followed by a media circus, and on the night itself, the show was broadcast live from Tiffany’s Theatre throughout the nation.

This annual event has become big business, and with the coverage extending far into other parts of Asia and in fact the world, the international interest in Thailand’s ladyboys just keeps on growing.

Nong Noeng won some glittering prizes. There was a cash prize of 100,000 baht plus a Honda Jazz car, along with numerous gifts from the sponsors. She now looks forward to a year of conventional beauty queen activities, opening events, modelling and so on.

Thailand’s ladyboy cabarets, of which Tiffany’s was the first and is the most famous, are one of the country’s main tourist attractions. Tourists are brought in by the busload to Tiffany’s and Alcazar, while in Bangkok places such as Calypso, Golden Dome and Rachada Cabaret are generally packed for their twice-nightly performances.

Whereas Miss Tiffany Universe is a pageant only for Thai ladyboys, Nong Noeng now goes forward to Miss International Queen 2008, which will be held at the end of the year.

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I’ve photographed Pattie before, and she is a genuine beauty. I look at her face, and see only female there. There is no trace of the masculine. And she has a very elegant manner about her, and a sparkly sense of humour. Take her to a social event, and she would be a terrific success, as a female, and not as a ladyboy.