the third sex

“What you think?” asked my ladyboy friend, hand on hip and turning her profile towards me. She had had a chin augmentation job done. Actually, it wasn’t bad. She looked fine. But many ladyboys who opt for cosmetic surgery make a sad mess of themselves. And some of the older ones look grotesque, because they fill their faces full of plastic when they are younger, and they don’t know when to stop. As they get older, parts of their face change: other parts don’t. Bangkok is renowned as one of the world centres for cosmetic surgery, and there are some fine surgeons here who will do a good job at a rate far below those charged in the West. But there are also a lot of slash-for-cash merchants about, and their rates are even lower, thus attracting the kind of clientele that has high hopes but not too much in the way of money.

Not that long ago a young ladyboy friend of mine who had a sweet and perfectly symmetrical face went for a chin job. Heaven knows why she did it: it wasn’t needed. She came out looking like Desperate Dan. It did nothing for her at all. Even worse was the ladyboy I knew some while back who had a chin job done that left her with a square chin that jutted down from her face in the shape of a short beard. And the one who wanted to make her face heart-shaped, and had a pointed chin added that was so badly done you could see where it joined up with her face.

Everyone wants a nose job, whether they need one or not. The people of Issan, who probably produce the greatest number of ladyboys, are rather self-concious about the ethnic characteristic of the squidgy little nose. There is very little bone or cartilage in the Issan nose, which tends to be flat. Women and ladyboys alike have nose jobs done, and it forms one of the staples of the cosmetic business. The routine surgery involves squeezing an off-the-shelf pre-formed plastic bridge up a nostril, with the result that a lot of Issan people are walking around with the same nose, so to speak.

So I see a lot of ladyboys who have had this operation done. Others who want a custom-built job will pay more money, of course, but some of the results I have seen have been frankly a disaster. Yo, who appears a few times on the main site, had the sweetest little feminine face. Then she had a nose job and a chin job that, in profile, made her look like Mr Punch.

Some ladyboys are simply never happy with their appearance. Anny, an early model, went through six noses. Somewhat alarmingly, she had one of them damaged in a minor accident just before she and I were about to leave for Pattaya. It had simply been a slight knock when she was larking about with a friend, but the transplant was dislodged and over the next 24 hours became very painful. We cut our visit short, and hurried back to Bangkok so that she could visit the clinic. I think that had been nose number five.

Another ladyboy friend, whose big eyes and clearly defined eyebrows gave her real beauty, managed to make a mess of herself by having cheekbone augmentation, which distorted the shape of her eyes. Just to finish the job off, she plucked her eyebrows. She just did not understand that she could have enhanced what she had, rather than change everything.

I won’t even get onto the subject of boobs, except to say that I have seen (and felt) some that are so hard that they stand out like water melons, and others where the sacs have been inserted so badly that the nipples point in different directions. I am still haunted by the memory of a ladyboy friend who turned up one day with only one breast. The other had started leaking, and the doctor had whipped it out. This was a ladyboy for whom I really had the hots, but on that afternoon I was struck impotent.

I could go on…the craze a few years back for vampire teeth…the startlingly blue contact lenses that occasionally confront me…lip collagen jobs that create a trout-like effect…adam’s apple reductions that leave the voice a hoarse whisper…it is all very unsexy.

Although I sometimes dress the models in clothes I have stored in the props cupboard, I really like to see what they themselves are wearing, and so in the majority of the picture sets you see on the main site the models are wearing the clothes in which they arrived.

This adds to the air of naturalness that I like to aim for, and it tends to bring out the character of the model. But also, I have to admit, I just like seeing what the girls wear. And although some turn up in jeans or other nondescript stuff, many do take the time and trouble to wear something sexy.

This is particularly the case with panties. I had a member email during the week, saying how much he enjoyed the sets in which the model is wearing cotton pants that show the curve of her bottom cheeks and the crack between them. Well, I have to admit that is a particular liking of mine also, and when I find a girl who is wearing the appropriate kind of knickers I spend a long time photographing them, tucking the material in so that everything is clearly outlined.

I also like panties that have humourous graphics or messages, and I try to make sure this shows up clearly before the pants come down. Best of all, though, are the filmy, semi-transparent pants that allow you to see bottoms and cocks through the material: pale bottom cheeks, a dark shadow of pubic hair and a bulging cock being so photogenic that sometimes it’s an anti-climax when the pants come down.

I had one model arrive recently who was wearing a tiny g-string. She had shaved off her pubes and tucked her cock in so well between her legs that she really did look like a genetic girl. But when she lowered the g-string and her dick swung out and proved to be extremely large and fat, I wondered how she had managed to keep it all in. What happens if you get horny, I asked.

“Hurt a little bit because everything get big but cannot move,” she replied. “But I only wear like this when go work bar. Customer like feel cock so not stay like this long time.”

The Thai cock, in repose, does tend to be small, and usually it tucks away without any problem. Time after time I see models arrive and when their pants come down, the dick looks disappointing, a little bud tucked away under the pubic hair. I sigh inwardly, thinking that I’m going to get an unexciting picture set, but when she begins to work on her dick, it blows up to an appreciable size. This applies even to the more heroically endowed girls. So wearing tight or confining pants seldom appears a problem.

Many girls do however wear a pair of tight shorts, like cycling shorts, over their knickers. These have the effect of smoothing out any unseemly bumps, and some tuck a little padding inside at their hips to give a little curvature there. So, I do get to see all types of underwear, as well as what is beneath. It’s an interesting life.

A member emailed a few days ago to say how much he had enjoyed the set of a certain model named A in gallery 26 on the main site. I had to go scrambling back through the galleries, because that was quite a while back, and I had forgotten the model. Seeing the pictures however brought the shoot back to me, because A was actually a boy. He had told me his parents and his college disapproved of ladyboys and so he was compelled to remain a male until he reached independence. Consequently, the young man before me had seemed an average type, trim build, quite good looking, just a smidgeon of makeup, but undeniably male. There had been no female aura.

I had done my best with the pictures. A had been wearing neat little cut-off shorts and white pants, so we got some good shots there. His cock had been fully active (no hormones, of course) and so we had reached the orgasmic part very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that he had shot a load while standing up, which had deprived me of the puddle-on-tummy shots that I like. 

Although I had a reasonable set of pictures, I had been unsure of posting them on the site. This is, after all, all about ladyboys rather than young men in makeup. But I went ahead, and eventually forgot about it. I never met A again, unfortunately, so I never knew how things turned out. The enormous, churning community of ladyboys in Bangkok makes keeping in touch very difficult.

I do remember how I felt during that shoot, however, and it has been the same whenever I have photographed other models who have been male rather than ladyboy. I had felt a kind of detached interest. Rather like a doctor, I suppose, asking someone to strip off and produce their willy to show me that it’s in working order. The intense excitement of photographing a ladyboy has not been there. Instead, there has been an academic interest, the interest of the photographer intent only on getting good shots.

I had at one time contemplated opening up a gay site, as a commercial venture rather than for my own interest. I shot several gay-type sets of pictures, but the only feeling I had was a mixture of curiousity and mild embarrassment. 

The reaction between model and photographer is very different when it is male-male, rather than male-ladyboy.

With the ladyboy model, I treat her exactly as if she was female. Opening doors, offering a glass of water, asking if she is comfortable, getting her to talk about her home and anything else that will make her feel relaxed. Complimenting her on her makeup, hair, clothes, anything that I think looks especially good. All the sessions are relaxed, and when the model finally leaves it is almost invariably with mutual friendliness. I don’t remember ever having one bad session.

With the young guys, the gay sets, the atmosphere has however always been completely different. I quite simply don’t have that interest. Beyond normal courtesy, I’m not particularly concerned about how he looks and feels. I tend to think he is probably as embarrassed about the whole thing as I am, and that we both want to get it over and done with quickly. I’m wary about touching, and always ask before I do so. As to the posing, it presents a few problems. The model often feels compelled to puff up his torso so that he looks beefcake. The elbows-and-knees up-the-bottom shots that I so like doing with ladyboys just don’t happen with guys. The wanking-off sequence has often been a bit of a disaster. Usually the model has not been gay, and I am not gay, and consequently there is no sexual frisson in the room. If a ladyboy has a problem getting off, I am ready to lend a helping hand, or whatever. With boys, that doesn’t happen. So I gave up the idea of a gay site. My heart simply wasn’t in it.

I’m perfectly happy taking pictures of youngsters in the transition phase from boy to ladyboy, such as the pictures that illustrate this entry. It’s simply that there is a turning point,  a point where the male vanishes and the ladyboy comes into being. I have watched and watched over the years,and tried to figure it out. How it happens, when it happens, why it happens. I still don’t know.