the third sex

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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.