the third sex

A ladyboy friend came round on Sunday afternoon and told me she had just started working at a bar in Nana Plaza. What happened to your university course, I asked her.
 
“I got my degree and had certificate end of last year.” She made a little flourish to illustrate the presentation of the degree certificate.
 
So why aren’t you in a daytime job?
 
“No good jobs. Economy very poor. Most jobs pay small money. Work not interesting.”
 
But you have a degree in marketing, I said. Surely that must give you a choice of the type of work?
 
“Now I marketing ME!” she said, spreading her arms out and laughing. I couldn’t help but crack up at her, because she is very funny and very bright, and I’ve known her for a long time.

Ladyboys are in fact superb at marketing themselves. They have to be. Take a fairly ordinary looking young boy and imagine what it would need to turn him into a radiant girl, a sexual beauty admired by even the most heterosexual of men. Not an easy thought, is it?

But they do it. I have watched as fairly plain looking ladyboys get themselves made up for a photoshoot, or to go onstage at a cabaret, and the transformation is quite simply awesome.

This is why ladyboys are so sought after as beauticians, hairdressers and makeup artists.

Walk through the beauty department of the Emporium, or Robinson’s, or one of the big Central department stores, and you will always see at least a couple of ladyboys working behind the counter.

Visit a tv studio or a movie set, and there will be ladyboys in the makeup departments and wardrobe.

They know exactly what is needed to transform even the most ordinary person, because they have had to do the same job on themselves and they have also spent hours practicing on their friends.

Apart from the makeup of course they have to train their voices, and to learn how to speak and move like a girl.

I have heard ladyboys with gruff voices, having made no attempt to soften their tones and raise them a pitch or so, and the effect can be off-putting. I have watched ladyboys walking just like a man, rather than adopt small and dainty steps, and it ruins the illusion they have been trying to create through dress and makeup.

I have even watched as ladyboys practice female mannerisms. I remember once watching a ladyboy friend sweeping the floor with a broom and dustpan. I noticed how, rather than take the big sweeps a man might take, she made little whisking movements to get the dust into the pan, whilst keeping her knees pressed together, bending just slightly at the knee rather than stooping, and even pursing her lips while she worked.

Very telling too is watching a ladyboy using the loo. If she is taking her role seriously, she will sit down. And most of those who I have watched using the bathroom do this: you don’t get many who stand up.

Clothing of course is another area, and although many ladyboys show a shockingly garish dress sense, there is no doubt they know how to put colours and styles together.

This makes them ideal dress designers. The rag trade in Thailand is vast. Plentiful homemade textiles and the availability of cheap imports from India and China mean that there is a lot of inexpensive material to work on, and the markets and malls are crammed with stalls and small shops selling good quality fashions at low prices.

I have known a lot of ladyboys who study fashion at college and then get themselves jobs working for a fashion designer or an outfitter, and then very often going into business for themselves.

So, being a ladyboy means more than just putting on makeup. It is a massive marketing job. Many of them deserve a doctorate.