the third sex

I once had a ladyboy friend who was excessively fond of wanking off (if that can be considered unusual). By which I mean that although she was always up for a session at any time, when I was busy working on the computer, say during a warm afternoon, she would creep away quietly and a while later I would hear a cry: “Come see this!” And she would be sprawled on the floor next to the sliding doors and the balcony, the warm sun on her body, and a huge puddle of sticky white semen over her tummy.

“You might have called me earlier,” I would say, reproachfully, because I’m never too occupied to stop for five minutes to watch a ladyboy having a wank. “You too busy,” she would reply, watching her cock subsiding, an expression of satisfaction on her face.

She would wank off in the bath, and under the shower. She would sit out on the balcony, in full view of the street (I’m a dozen floors above street-level), and wank off there. She wanked off in the kitchen once, ejaculating into a glass, holding it up to the light to admire the milky white colour and taking a tiny sip, although wrinkling up her lovely little nose in disgust.

We went upcountry, to a waterfall, and she wanked off in the bushes. She wanked off behind a tree in a banana plantation. She kept a small motorcycle at her upcountry family home, and she sat bare-bummed on the saddle, saying that the warmth of the material turned her on, and she wanked off there.

She also had a habit of laying flat on her tummy on the bed, reading, and suddenly getting an idea in her mind. She normally wore a little pair of shorts about the house, and down these would come, revealing her bare brown bum. Then she would bring herself off by massaging and thrusting her cock against the mattress, letting out with a groan and then leaping up eagerly to examine the big wet patch on the sheet.

“Oh, yes, very good,” she would say approvingly, because this was at a time she had stopped taking hormones and she was enjoying the life that was coming back to her dick.

She liked to lay face down on top of my thigh and bring herself off in the same way, generously allowing me to massage her bottom as she thrust against me, until I felt a great warmth spreading over my leg. And of course she enjoyed kneeling over my face, allowing me to lick her balls as she wanked off frantically above me.

None of this affected her ability to cum at any time I felt in need of a taste of protein, spurting fulsomely within a minute of tongue touching cock.

When I’m taking photographs I look at the model’s cock as soon as her pants come down, wondering if she is going to be an easy or a slow cummer. Very few ladyboys have an instant erection, despite the attractiveness and sexual desirability of the photographer. It needs a little gentle massage to bring a cock to life, which I am quite happy to supply, and as soon as I touch the thing I can get a pretty good idea of how effective it is going to be.

There are cocks that spring into life straight away, and which have a good deal of muscle to them. These are almost certainly going to be spectacular. But also I often find that the smaller, more limp ones can do a pretty impressive job.

I suppose it all comes down to the fact that most of the models are young, and are as fit for it as the rest of us. Those taking hormones might take a long time to get there, but they usually do. No matter how feminine they appear, they still have the instinct to ejaculate, as quickly and as often as possible, which is one of the reasons that sex with a ladyboy is usually such an explosive affair.

Three ladyboys came round to my place the other afternoon for a general social visit and to suggest friends I might like to photograph, and during our conversation two of them mentioned they both came from the same town in Isaan, Roi Et.

Now, the majority of ladyboys I photograph come from Isaan. And of that number, I would say the majority are probably from Roi Et. Why, I asked my two young friends, are there so many ladyboys in Roi Et?

“I not know,” they both said. “But many ladyboy in Roi Et. Many!”

They went on to tell me of a particular muban in Roi Et province that is famous for having a large number of ladyboys. There are, they said, at present 40 ladyboys within this muban. A muban is a village, the smallest administrative district within the Thai governmental system. Taken as an average across the country (I’m looking at Wikipedia here), a muban typically consists of 144 households or 746 persons. So 40 ladyboys represents a significant number of the population. Why, why, why, does Roi Et have so many ladyboys, I repeated. Why oh why oh why oh why? And I banged my head against the wall (I feel sorry for that wall, sometimes). They smiled at me again. “Not know!”

They went on to tell me that they were not only talking about ladyboys. “Many, many gay too,” they said. “Not easy find ordinary man in Roi Et.” They went on to explain that the gays sometimes morphed into ladyboys. “Most ladyboy, most gay, they know already from very young. Some want be lady. Some want be gay man. But they know already when still at school.”

I imagine that peer pressure must have some bearing on this. Otherwise I cannot explain why there is such a concentration of ladyboys and gays.

Roi Et (the name translates as “One Hundred and One”) is a rural capital on the northeastern plain of Thailand, depending largely upon agriculture, handicrafts and textiles for its local economy. Like the rest of Isaan the region is relatively poor, and much of the population migrates to Bangkok and Pattaya. Try asking a Bangkok taxi driver where he comes from, and chances are it will be Isaan, and quite possibly Roi Et. Career potential for young Thai men in the province is far from good, and the average trajectory of a young Thai male will be early marriage and fatherhood, followed by a lifetime of manual work, possibly enlivened by alcohol and drugs.

It must be a depressing prospect for any sensitive young man growing up there. So, in the earliest years of adolescence, when one’s sexuality is still a floating entity, why not focus on some kind of rebellion. Anything to get out of the trap.

Of course, the shortage of marriageable young men is a problem for the girls of the community. But then ask any Bangkok, Pattaya or Phuket go-go dancer where she comes from, and guess what the answer is likely to be.

A friend was asking me the other day if I knew of any lesbian ladyboys. The real thing, he said, not those acting for the benefit of punters. “After all,” he said. “Ladyboys are gays who have taken their feminine side just that bit further. Put two gays into a room, and they are probably going to have sex together. Same thing with ladyboys, surely?”

I pointed out to him that ladyboys are young males who feel happier and more natural living as women. That means they are attracted to men. Not to other ladyboys.

I added that in all the time I have been following the Thai ladyboy scene, I have known only one “lesbian” relationship, and even that was more hearsay than known fact. It was, in fact, a couple I knew down in the South of Thailand. And I would have classified them as two effeminate gays, rather than two ladyboys – although one had silicon boobs.

Ladyboys consider themselves to be female, I pointed out. They would no more think of having lesbian sex than would genetic girls. Possibly even less, I added after a moment’s thought.

I remembered the times I have been privy to ladyboys getting changed together: in my home, in ladyboy apartments, in the backstage area of cabaret shows, in the go-go bars. Any malarkey has always been just joking around. And – I have to admit that I notice these things – I have never known a ladyboy to become erect at the sight of her companions during a changing-room session.

This brought me onto another thought, about the way in which a group of ordinary male youngsters starts to feel towards one of their number who decides to become a ladyboy. In the past I have asked about this, but seldom got a satisfactory response.

I remember asking one young ladyboy if her male friends had become interested in her when she started to put on girl’s clothing and makeup. “No,” she said. “They knew me when I was a boy.” She did however say that other boys, friends of friends, began to take an interest, and that she had had a few steady relationships that way. I asked her if gays found her attractive.

“Sometimes,” she said. “But usually gay only interested in man. Gay like talk with ladyboy, but not sex. Many Thai guy can go with man or lady, not hundred percent one way or other way. So also like ladyboy, same girl. Better, sometimes, because easy sex. Ladyboy will always have sex. Not same girls. But Thai guy no respect for ladyboy. Have sex, then go away, forget.”

Ladyboys do however enjoy the prospect of watching two men have sex. Sometimes, when I’m taking photos and the model is having difficulty turning herself on, she will delve into her handbag and pull out her mobile. There will be porn clips stored there, and watching one of those will quickly do the job for her.

I stand there listening to the squawks and thumps coming from the mobile’s speaker, and wonder to myself if there could be anything less erotic. But then again, who am I to judge? I find a girl with a cock to be my own particular turn-on. Maybe it’s me who is the weird one.

The latest must-have accessory for ladyboys appears to be coloured contact lenses. It has reached the stage where a model with standard brown Thai eyes is something of a rarity, and during a shoot I now frequently find myself confronted by bright blue or hazel eyes, or even by a shade of solid brown that gives the wearer a foxy, rather opaque appearance; not particularly a pleasant one.

Although they are far from being a new idea in Thailand, cosmetic contact lenses have recently become much cheaper and are being made in a range of sometimes startling colours. Ladyboys being ladyboys of course have to go right over the top and they choose colours that contrast oddly with their natural skin and hair tones.

In person, they don’t look especially bizarre, but under photographic flash the lenses take on an extra bright quality. Also, there is no getting away from the fact that a lens is a lens, and it has no expression – so I am getting, literally, a glassy-eyed look.

Musing this over, I recall other fashion trends of the past few years. There was the craze for dyeing hair red or blond, or an in-between colour that was a Coca-Cola shade. One model even turned up for a shoot with her pubes dyed blond, which actually was very effective. The hair colouring was good, because it gives a real lift to the photographs

Then there were the talon-like fingernail attachments, often with vibrant colours or strange designs. Again, yes, quite good for photos, and they had the added advantage of hiding chewed nails and fingertips – details that are important in close-up, because scruffy nails and skin is a turn-off. Some years ago, when vampire films were all the rage, I would see ladyboys with vampire tooth-caps. Some of these were good quality, but I did ponder the wisdom of going to a dentist and having a perfectly good incisor tooth filed down to take an enamel fang.

And let us not forget the mania for tattoos, which in Bangkok has been going on for some years and which now must surely have reached its peak. It is at the stage now where, when I find a ladyboy who does not have some kind of tattoo, I involuntarily comment on the fact. The most common is a Buddhist prayer that is tattooed onto the left shoulder blade, but massive illustrations covering almost the entire back are becoming the semi-norm. Ladyboys never do things in moderation. Quite what they will think of these works of art 20 years from now is anyone’s guess.