the third sex

.
.
.
.
.
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.