the third sex

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.