the third sex

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I was walking along Sukhumvit Road during the week, and I noticed that the big hotel that is being built on the site of the Clinton Plaza bar area is almost complete. I hadn’t been along this stretch of the road near Soi 13 for a while, and I racked my brains trying to remember when the plaza had been closed down. Must have been five years ago, at least, probably a bit longer.

Clinton Plaza hadn’t actually been around for long. It took its name from you-know-who, of course. It was a rather neat little cluster of bars, a nice mix of bar-beers and go-go bars, but the big attraction for me was the Crack House, an excellent ladyboy bar.

The frontage of the bar was painted with cracks, but inside the decor was conventional enough. There was a stage, big enough to hold a dozen ladyboys as long as they danced close together, and there was a raised seating area at the back, which was my preferred perch.

The bar had some beautiful girls, amongst them Yo, Tan, A, Anny, May and Janny, all names that will be familiar to the old-timers. The mamasan was a ladyboy in her thirties named Aun, and she had one of the biggest dicks I have ever seen. The first time I went into the Crack House, she came up to me and thrust herself against my thigh. I felt that huge thing stirring in her pants like a large snake. I took Aun out for a photo session, and her dick was even more impressive than I had thought it would be. Boy, could she cum!

There was a short-time hotel off to the side of the bar area, and one of the rooms had a whirlpool tub. I took A in there for a photoshoot, and got her into the tub. I had brought some bubble-bath soap with me, and I tipped it into the water rather too enthusiastically, because when I turned on the whirlpool the bubbles rose up so high that I can remember A’s cute little face being a picture of astonishment and fear, as they threatened to engulf her and overflow onto the floor.

Alas, Clinton Plaza was terminated in the time-honoured Thai way, with locked doors and angry tenants. I can remember going along on the evening the bar operators had arrived to find their businesses had been closed for them, and finding a crowd of bemused ladyboys outside the Crack House, their jobs and salaries gone without warning.

The hotel will be a nice one, but it will be only a hotel. If the guests should see the occasional scantily-clad ghost walking the corridors, I would not be surprised.

Schoolgirl O

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There was a rather pathetic story in the Pattaya Mail recently about a ladyboy arrested for stealing money so that she could pay for a boob job.

Personally, I can take or leave ladyboy boobs. Many is the time I have been photographing and the model has said to me apologetically, as she started to undress: “I no have breasts.” And I have always replied that I didn’t really care, and that a lot of people I know who love ladyboys also don’t care too much either.

Although of course the startling combination of breasts and penis is often what makes a really good ladyboy photograph, I just don’t find implants sexually exciting. To me, they are just….implants.

There are varying degrees of quality when it comes to breast implants. Ladyboys who are able to afford a Rolls-Royce job will end up with soft, rounded breasts that look and feel very much like the real thing. But these aren’t cheap, and I don’t see many of them.

Most will go for the medium-range job, which costs around 40,000 to 45,000 baht. The result here will often be pretty good, but it’s a bit hit and miss. I have known cases in which one of the sacs has leaked, which of course is very dangerous. I once had a ladyboy friend turn up with only one breast, explaining that there had been a leak and the doctor had removed the faulty sac for repair. The effect was so bizarre that I was rendered temporarily impotent.

With many of the medium-price jobs, the surgeon fails to align the nipples, so that they point in different directions. Sometimes you can feel the place where the sac rests against the breastbone, which always makes me feel queasy. And constant massage of the breasts is needed for a few weeks after the operation so that the implants settle in and soften up, friends often being seconded to help out, which is nowhere near as erotic as it sounds.

The cheaper range, costing about 20,000 to 25,000 baht can be distinctly iffy. Sometimes the breasts are as hard and round as watermelons, pointing at the ceiling like missiles when their owner lies down. Heaven knows what is inside the sacs, but industrial silicon cannot be discounted. I feel sorry for girls who have this type of boob job done, as the result is neither convincing nor sexy.

Natural breasts that are the result of taking female hormones over a period of time can be very attractive. Schoolgirl O had the most perfect example I have ever seen: perfectly shaped natural breasts that had not a hint of silicon. I have seen other pretty good examples, and I have even known several ladyboys who could lactate. One girl I remember could squeeze her breast and literally squirt a thin jet of milk.

But of course, the taking of hormones to form breasts has its corollary in the downstairs department. Inwardly I groan when a ladyboy removes her bra to proudly display neat hormonal breasts, because I know that when the panties come down there is not going to be anything correspondingly impressive there.

One thing that all ladyboys have in common is the urge to display their busts in public. Time after time after time, I have seen ladyboys walking down the street in broad daylight with their breasts hanging out of their blouses or T-shirts, and without a hint of embarrassment. That is what marks out a ladyboy who might otherwise pass as a genetic girl. But they never learn.

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Following on from the previous couple of entries, and mulling over as to what it really is that makes a young Thai boy decide to become a ladyboy, I decided to ask the opinion of my maid. Not only is she a fount of information on all things that relate to the Thai working class – which forms the vast majority of the population – but as regular readers of this site will know, she has a son who is a ladyboy. Consequently, she has a huge number of ladyboy acquaintances, and knows a large number of families with ladyboy members.

She confirmed what I had long suspected, that many young Thais become ladyboys as a way of attempting to escape from poverty. Although for us from the Western cultures it is hard to understand how changing one’s sex is a route out of an impoverished life, we do not really understand just how hopeless life can be for a young Thai man from a poor background and with limited education.

My maid told me about the large number of young men, many of them from the rural northeast of the country, where she herself comes from, who go to work in the gay bars of Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and other tourist destinations. She said they are usually not gay, but that by working in a bar and going with a foreign visitor they are able to earn as much in one or two nights as they would in a month working in the rice fields or the factories.

Ladyboys, she said, are really only carrying this idea a step further. Many of them are gay, but some are not. What they really want is a life of glamour and money. Their biggest ambition is to find a wealthy man, usually a foreigner, who will take care of them and their families. They see how girls from poor families use their beauty to make money, and bearing in mind the enormous and increasing demand for ladyboys, feel they can do the same.

As a lot of youngsters are making this decision at a very early age, usually the onset of adolescence, it is not necessarily a rational one. Little thought is given to what might happen later in life. But the attractions of working in cabaret, in one of the big red-light areas, or even mainstream in beauty salons or the media far outweigh the alternatives.

My maid added that such is the vast number of young Thai males who are now opting for work in the gay sector, or becoming ladyboys, there is actually now a shortage of eligible young men in Thailand. I hadn’t known that. But apparently it is a well-known fact amongst the Thais, and when you realise just how big this sector is, it becomes understandable.

Given the current political situation in Thailand things are not going to become any easier in the near or medium future. But one rather frightening aspect is that tourism has plunged in the wake of the political turbulence, and the international meltdown. This is also not going to improve very quickly. Which means there are a lot of young guys and ladyboys chasing a diminishing dollar.

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I had a very interesting email following on from the previous entry, the reader wondering if there is any environmental factor that can be triggering genetic changes amongst young Thai males, changes that in particular affect the genitals. Over the past couple of generations, he says, during which there has been an incredible surge in the number of Thai ladyboys, there has been an enormous increase in the use of chemicals for food production.

There is also the fact, he adds, that the American government used chemicals to clear jungle during the Vietnam War. These chemicals were dropped from aircraft and could have floated for hundreds of miles in the air. The compounds could have been ingested by the Thai population, which went on to produce children who developed a genetic defect.

The reader adds that he is only speculating, but this is the kind of thought-provoking email that I enjoy reading.

My immediate reaction is that I travel regularly to Vietnam, but I know almost nothing about Vietnamese penises. I am not gay and so I do not follow the gay scene there. My interest is in ladyboys and the amount of ladyboy action in Vietnam is almost negligible. This is not to say it doesn’t exist. But Vietnamese society is more conservative than that of Thailand, and of course you have a communist government that is not dreadfully amused by what they would no doubt describe as depravity and decadence.

So, I’m not in a position to comment on the sexual proclivities and problems of young Vietnamese males.

There is no doubt that what appears to be a large number of teenage Thai boys are being served very poorly in the downstairs department. Time after time after time – and don’t forget I see an awesome number of ladyboy penises – I see a pair of panties come down to reveal a little bud of a dick, or one that clearly was never going to do what it was supposed to do ie propagate the human race.

Female hormones are sometimes to blame, and eventually of course taking hormones will remove the maleness from a penis. But this takes time, and a good strong cock will fight hard and long against the feminine tissues that start to swirl around the bloodstream of a normal teenage boy.

I really don’t have an answer. Very little real research has been carried out on the Thai ladyboy phenomenon. I think I will stick with my original premise that the majority of ladyboys are ladyboys for an economic reason, followed by teenage rebellion against society, followed by malfunctioning of the naughty bits, followed lastly by genuine transsexualism.

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There is an interesting story currently on the BBC website, reporting that Australian researchers have identified a significant link between a gene involved in testosterone action and male-to-female transsexualism.

DNA analysis from 112 male-to-female transsexual volunteers showed they were more likely to have a longer version of the androgen receptor gene.

The genetic difference may cause weaker testosterone signals, the researchers say.

One of the team, Professor Vincent Harley, is quoted as saying that transsexualism is still widely viewed as simply a lifestyle choice, and consequently carries a social stigma, but that the research findings support a biological basis of how gender identity develops.

One study has shown that certain brain structures in male-to-female transsexual people are more “female like”.

It is encouraging to see serious research being carried out on this subject, about which little is known. However, as I have said here before, as far as Thailand is concerned I am convinced that relatively few ladyboys are genuine cases of transsexualism. If they were, there would be something genetically askew for a disproportionately large number of people from one nation. (more…)