the third sex

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I was in a taxi heading for home at about 6pm on Friday evening. Friday is the worst day in Bangkok for traffic, and in addition it had been raining. Sukhumvit Road was locked solid in both directions.

The taxi inched forward, and as we approached Nana Plaza a vision came up behind us on the pavement, heading on foot in the same direction, and easily overtaking us.

It was a girl wearing a backless dress, the backlessness so extreme that you could see the top half of her bare bottom.

“Look at that!” I gasped at the taxi driver, who had been peering moodily through his rain-spattered windscreen. Indeed, the entire traffic queue was looking at that, because I saw heads craning in the cars in front and to the side of us.

The driver gave a short laugh. “Kathoey!” he said.

And of course, yes, it was. Only a ladyboy would venture out in public like that. A genetic girl, not even the most shameless of Nana Plaza’s floozies, would ever walk along Bangkok’s main thoroughfare with her bare bum hanging out of her dress.

I have spoken on this site before about ladyboy dress sense, and it is something that never ceases to leave me astounded.

Time and time again I get ladyboys turning up for a photoshoot in outfits that would have them arrested anywhere else. Bra-less, with breasts poking out of skimpy t-shirts or see-through blouses; tiny little shorts with bottom cheeks hanging out underneath; skirts so short that you can see bulging knickers beneath the hem; and costumes so breathtakingly theatrical they would make anything from the Crazy Horse look tame.

Given that this is a residential complex, with families and kids around, I tell my scouts time and time again to warn the models not to turn up in something provocative, but to bring some sexy clothing with them. But of course, I might as well be talking to myself.

The thing with a ladyboy is, that she is essentially signalling she is instantly available. This is why she lets everything hang out. Instant availability is what gives sex with a ladyboy such an explosive quality, and as so many of us like our girls (GGs or ladyboys) to act slutty, the provocative clothing can be a real turn-on.

But only indoors. Not out in the street. Boy oh boy, can it get embarrassing sometimes.

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A member who has had experience of ladyboys in Bangkok says that to his surprise, one of the most compelling attractions for him was their vulnerability. He said he wasn’t talking about the big tall ones, or the over-the-top kind that you so frequently find freelancing along Sukhumvit Road. It was the quieter, more feminine kind.

This is the type of ladyboy that can often pass for a genetic girl; the kind you can take home to Mum. The kind you can easily fall head over heels for.

I also find this vulnerability attractive. I am drawn towards vulnerable people anyway, and have all too often paid the price for being a big softie. But the feminine ladyboy, in her teens, unsure of herself, her sexuality, and her place in the world is something with which I can sympathise.

As you may imagine, I meet and photograph ladyboys of every kind. I have long been able to look at someone who arrives for a shoot, and to sum up pretty accurately how she will behave when it is just me, her and the camera.

All too frequently, the brassy, confident kind who fusses unduly with her hair and makeup tends to be insecure. In front of her friends she is the extravert, but faced with me, the confidence fast subsides. So I do my best to put her at ease. I never talk too much during a shoot, as I prefer in a way for the model to forget I am there. But I do make the occasional encouraging remark, I show them the LCD screen so they can see their best close-ups, and I joke along with them to keep them smiling.

That is one kind of ladyboy with vulnerability. The other type that I feel particularly protective towards is the young, boyish kind: the Suzis, Honeys, Nickies and Nans of this world. In their late teens, they still have a child-like quality and represent perhaps more than any other members of the third sex a blending of the boy and girl. In some instances, they could probably switch back to the masculine without too much dislocation. But in others, you wonder quite what will have become of them within five years’ time.

As the ladyboy population of Thailand becomes younger and younger, this category has been increasing. Youngsters make the decision to become ladyboys, often under peer pressure, as they are entering puberty. No one knows themselves at that stage of life. By the time they reach their mid teens, they may well be wondering what they have let themselves in for. Yet in terms of their friends and their sexual experiences, they now find it difficult to break out.

I try and talk to ladyboys like this, asking about their general aims and their ideas for the future, but I have never yet received a convincing reply.

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There are several students on this site who have been photographed in their own college uniforms, because they have cut classes to come along for the photoshoot. Whenever this happens, and a young ladyboy turns up wearing female school uniform, I think to myself, where else in the world does this happen other than Thailand?

Most of the colleges now allow ladyboy students to dress as girls. In truth, I think the education authorities have had little choice in the matter. The enormous volume of teenage ladyboys means that every educational establishment has a significant number of ladyboy students, and to allow them to dress in female uniform probably works to the advantage of teacher-student relations and consequently of scholastic achievements.

As to the increase in young people opting for the ladyboy lifestyle, I have written about this before and although I can put forward a number of theories, each of which is probably valid in certain circumstances, I still can’t quite grasp the real underlying factor.

I refuse to believe there are such a large number of transgendered people in one country, and so the reasons must be social, political and economic. Yet Thailand’s problems are not restricted to Thailand, and similar can be found in other Asian countries.

There are other countries in the region that have a ladyboy culture, notably the Philippines, Indonesia and even Japan, but nowhere is it as prevalent as in Thailand, where it could now be considered endemic.

I often ask the younger Thai ladyboys why they became ladyboys, and many of them say they made the choice before puberty. I met 13-year-olds who were taking female hormones. But as to pinpointing exactly why they have made the decision, I am probably as far away from understanding it all as I ever was.

As to the schools, they have a genuine dilemma. While the colleges and universities usually provide separate facilities for their ladyboy students, such as toilets and changing rooms, the pre-college level schools – particularly the city schools – tend to have less space to do this. The ladyboys often therefore find themselves joining in with the girls, and generally having to make their own arrangements to avoid mutual embarrassment.

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She was on her hands and knees, with her bare bottom in the air. “What you want me to do now?” she asked. I scratched my head. There had to be an answer, but I simply put the camera down and told her to take a five-minute break.

“Don’t you want me?” she asked slyly, a delicate hand snaking out for my zipper. I withdrew modestly. She was attractive, but not my type. A bit too pushy, a bit too big and noisy. She came after me, tugging at my zip. But I really didn’t feel any attraction. I didn’t actually want to do anything but finish the photoshoot.

She pouted. “You don’t like me.”

You are a very nice model, I told her. Your photos look good. Here … And I grabbed the camera and quickly wheeled through the shots we had taken. That did the job. She became enchanted by her own image, and I wriggled out of a situation that I did not want to be in.

When I tell people that I don’t have sex with the models during a shoot, they look at me as if I’m slightly bonkers. Well, I wouldn’t deny that. But the fact is, I don’t. If I like a model, I arrange to see her later. But getting halfway through a photoshoot and then giving up and hopping into the sack is not what I’m there for. I need to get photo sets. I would never get any pictures done if I behaved like that.

Nor is it a case of making myself, or part of myself, into an element of the pictures. When I look at photos from other sites, if I see a big penis extending from the lower part of the frame and into my fantasy, I switch right off. I’m very happy to see as many ladyboy cocks as I can, but a photographer pushing his dick and his beer belly into the shot is an instant turnoff.

The funny thing is, that when I’m taking the photos, I’m very single minded. I don’t actually want to have sex, I want to get the job done. Although this might surprise a lot of people, I do have a lot of self-discipline. Besides, I certainly don’t lead a sex-starved existence. I am surrounded by ladyboys, and a phone call will have one of them in my apartment within the hour. So, I’m alright, Jack.

Years ago, when I was a student, I studied art at night school. One of the biggest attractions about this for me was the figure drawing classes, when a model would be hired for the evening and come in and disrobe for us. At the age of 18 or 19, and bursting with hormones, I used to go hot with desire if the model was a young and attractive one. Even if she was not that attractive, quite frankly.

I also used to disbelieve the stories that I read about photographers who specialised in glamour work, and how they primly kept their hands off the models when they were doing the shoots. But now I can understand. I have also in my career done food photography. You don’t eat what is on the table, no matter how hungry you may be: you take the photographs.

Ladyboy photography is like sex, in a way. You get the model to undress, you flatter her, coax her to get a hard-on, then you photograph her having an orgasm. After she has done that, she doesn’t feel the need for sex. Maybe I do. So, as I say, I reach for my phone and an hour later….

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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…)