the third sex

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A ladyboy friend announced to me the other day that her young brother had decided he would become a ladyboy. How old is he, I asked. “Twelve,” she said.

I asked her why he had made the decision, when he hadn’t even reached puberty.

Instead of giving me the reply that I expected, that he felt his career expectations would be better if he changed his sex (regular readers will remember this theme), she simply said: “He thinks can have more fun that way.”

I asked her what kind of fun. “Oh, go out, party, disco, lots of friends, try on makeup, buy clothes, go with friends to beach, go singing dancing, have good time.”

But couldn’t he do that as a boy?

She looked at me as if I simply didn’t get it. “Yes, he could, but if ladyboy, someone else pay for him. Ladyboy can always have good time for free. Boys take them, sometimes boyfriend give money, sometimes have fan [lover] pay everything. Then not have to worry about money.”

I’m sure this was not the only reason that the boy had decided on his future life course, but I can see that it would have influenced him hugely, especially as he has a big and very attractive “sister” who seems to do pretty well out of being a ladyboy.

Thais love to have fun, and even in the provincial towns there is a whole world of nightlife to be enjoyed. For the youngsters, the fun they have is much better if no sense of responsibility is involved, and they can just party on without having to worry about money.

Then of course there is the dressing up, and the makeup, and the theatricality of being a ladyboy. There is the excitement of being part of a minority group that rebels against conventional society. The reflected glamour of being allowed backstage at the ladyboy beauty contests and the cabaret shows, of which there are a huge number throughout Thailand, and of tagging along for supper after the show or the bar closes.

The sexuality side of things will not really be considered by a young ladyboy, because he probably won’t really understand it. By the time he does, it will appear normal behaviour: especially if he has begun taking female hormones. And especially when he sees how easily money can be made.

When you compare this life of perceived fun to the lot of the ordinary young working-class Thai male, with his ripped jeans and rubber flip-flops and his paltry wages, you can just about begin to see what attracts so many youngsters to joining the third sex.

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A couple of weeks ago I was driving along the main road in Phuket, the one that runs along the centre of the island, with a ladyboy friend beside me.

It was early afternoon, and we were off to do a photoshoot. I had met the girl on a couple of occasions before, and knew she was a bit of a tease. But even so, I was a bit surprised, as we were driving along, when she hitched up her skirt, wriggled her panties halfway down, and pulled out her cock. She had a good hard-on, and she laughed out loud at my reaction – very properly keeping my eyes on the road, yet desperate to see what she was doing.

She began to jerk off slowly, laughing as she did so. I was just about to tell her to go easy, as I didn’t want her to cum until I was taking the photos, when we ran into a police block.

This was at the junction where you turn to head over the mountains to the coastal resort of Patong. The police often hang around here because you get a lot of farangs riding on motorcycles or motorcycle taxis without wearing crash hats, and you also get some tourists driving hire cars without the proper documentation.

I was sure that my girl was going to be caught with her pants down, because the police had been almost invisible until we got up to where they were. In horror, I glanced sideways towards her as I wound down the window. The policeman’s face peered in. Yet all he saw was a farang with an attractive young girl who was sitting demurely gazing out the window. I handed over my licence and documentation. Everything was in order. The policeman saluted, grinned, and waved us on.

I looked over at my girl. “You managed to put that away fast,” I said, in great relief. She flicked up her skirt, carelessly. Her dick was lying there, flopped over the top of her knickers.

“Lucky didn’t have to get out of car,” she commented.

The funny thing was, the encounter must have shaken her more than she cared to admit, because it took her quite a while when we got to the hotel room to coax her dick back into life again.

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I was walking along Sukhumvit Road during the week, and I noticed that the big hotel that is being built on the site of the Clinton Plaza bar area is almost complete. I hadn’t been along this stretch of the road near Soi 13 for a while, and I racked my brains trying to remember when the plaza had been closed down. Must have been five years ago, at least, probably a bit longer.

Clinton Plaza hadn’t actually been around for long. It took its name from you-know-who, of course. It was a rather neat little cluster of bars, a nice mix of bar-beers and go-go bars, but the big attraction for me was the Crack House, an excellent ladyboy bar.

The frontage of the bar was painted with cracks, but inside the decor was conventional enough. There was a stage, big enough to hold a dozen ladyboys as long as they danced close together, and there was a raised seating area at the back, which was my preferred perch.

The bar had some beautiful girls, amongst them Yo, Tan, A, Anny, May and Janny, all names that will be familiar to the old-timers. The mamasan was a ladyboy in her thirties named Aun, and she had one of the biggest dicks I have ever seen. The first time I went into the Crack House, she came up to me and thrust herself against my thigh. I felt that huge thing stirring in her pants like a large snake. I took Aun out for a photo session, and her dick was even more impressive than I had thought it would be. Boy, could she cum!

There was a short-time hotel off to the side of the bar area, and one of the rooms had a whirlpool tub. I took A in there for a photoshoot, and got her into the tub. I had brought some bubble-bath soap with me, and I tipped it into the water rather too enthusiastically, because when I turned on the whirlpool the bubbles rose up so high that I can remember A’s cute little face being a picture of astonishment and fear, as they threatened to engulf her and overflow onto the floor.

Alas, Clinton Plaza was terminated in the time-honoured Thai way, with locked doors and angry tenants. I can remember going along on the evening the bar operators had arrived to find their businesses had been closed for them, and finding a crowd of bemused ladyboys outside the Crack House, their jobs and salaries gone without warning.

The hotel will be a nice one, but it will be only a hotel. If the guests should see the occasional scantily-clad ghost walking the corridors, I would not be surprised.

Schoolgirl O

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There was a rather pathetic story in the Pattaya Mail recently about a ladyboy arrested for stealing money so that she could pay for a boob job.

Personally, I can take or leave ladyboy boobs. Many is the time I have been photographing and the model has said to me apologetically, as she started to undress: “I no have breasts.” And I have always replied that I didn’t really care, and that a lot of people I know who love ladyboys also don’t care too much either.

Although of course the startling combination of breasts and penis is often what makes a really good ladyboy photograph, I just don’t find implants sexually exciting. To me, they are just….implants.

There are varying degrees of quality when it comes to breast implants. Ladyboys who are able to afford a Rolls-Royce job will end up with soft, rounded breasts that look and feel very much like the real thing. But these aren’t cheap, and I don’t see many of them.

Most will go for the medium-range job, which costs around 40,000 to 45,000 baht. The result here will often be pretty good, but it’s a bit hit and miss. I have known cases in which one of the sacs has leaked, which of course is very dangerous. I once had a ladyboy friend turn up with only one breast, explaining that there had been a leak and the doctor had removed the faulty sac for repair. The effect was so bizarre that I was rendered temporarily impotent.

With many of the medium-price jobs, the surgeon fails to align the nipples, so that they point in different directions. Sometimes you can feel the place where the sac rests against the breastbone, which always makes me feel queasy. And constant massage of the breasts is needed for a few weeks after the operation so that the implants settle in and soften up, friends often being seconded to help out, which is nowhere near as erotic as it sounds.

The cheaper range, costing about 20,000 to 25,000 baht can be distinctly iffy. Sometimes the breasts are as hard and round as watermelons, pointing at the ceiling like missiles when their owner lies down. Heaven knows what is inside the sacs, but industrial silicon cannot be discounted. I feel sorry for girls who have this type of boob job done, as the result is neither convincing nor sexy.

Natural breasts that are the result of taking female hormones over a period of time can be very attractive. Schoolgirl O had the most perfect example I have ever seen: perfectly shaped natural breasts that had not a hint of silicon. I have seen other pretty good examples, and I have even known several ladyboys who could lactate. One girl I remember could squeeze her breast and literally squirt a thin jet of milk.

But of course, the taking of hormones to form breasts has its corollary in the downstairs department. Inwardly I groan when a ladyboy removes her bra to proudly display neat hormonal breasts, because I know that when the panties come down there is not going to be anything correspondingly impressive there.

One thing that all ladyboys have in common is the urge to display their busts in public. Time after time after time, I have seen ladyboys walking down the street in broad daylight with their breasts hanging out of their blouses or T-shirts, and without a hint of embarrassment. That is what marks out a ladyboy who might otherwise pass as a genetic girl. But they never learn.

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Following on from the previous couple of entries, and mulling over as to what it really is that makes a young Thai boy decide to become a ladyboy, I decided to ask the opinion of my maid. Not only is she a fount of information on all things that relate to the Thai working class – which forms the vast majority of the population – but as regular readers of this site will know, she has a son who is a ladyboy. Consequently, she has a huge number of ladyboy acquaintances, and knows a large number of families with ladyboy members.

She confirmed what I had long suspected, that many young Thais become ladyboys as a way of attempting to escape from poverty. Although for us from the Western cultures it is hard to understand how changing one’s sex is a route out of an impoverished life, we do not really understand just how hopeless life can be for a young Thai man from a poor background and with limited education.

My maid told me about the large number of young men, many of them from the rural northeast of the country, where she herself comes from, who go to work in the gay bars of Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and other tourist destinations. She said they are usually not gay, but that by working in a bar and going with a foreign visitor they are able to earn as much in one or two nights as they would in a month working in the rice fields or the factories.

Ladyboys, she said, are really only carrying this idea a step further. Many of them are gay, but some are not. What they really want is a life of glamour and money. Their biggest ambition is to find a wealthy man, usually a foreigner, who will take care of them and their families. They see how girls from poor families use their beauty to make money, and bearing in mind the enormous and increasing demand for ladyboys, feel they can do the same.

As a lot of youngsters are making this decision at a very early age, usually the onset of adolescence, it is not necessarily a rational one. Little thought is given to what might happen later in life. But the attractions of working in cabaret, in one of the big red-light areas, or even mainstream in beauty salons or the media far outweigh the alternatives.

My maid added that such is the vast number of young Thai males who are now opting for work in the gay sector, or becoming ladyboys, there is actually now a shortage of eligible young men in Thailand. I hadn’t known that. But apparently it is a well-known fact amongst the Thais, and when you realise just how big this sector is, it becomes understandable.

Given the current political situation in Thailand things are not going to become any easier in the near or medium future. But one rather frightening aspect is that tourism has plunged in the wake of the political turbulence, and the international meltdown. This is also not going to improve very quickly. Which means there are a lot of young guys and ladyboys chasing a diminishing dollar.