Thai kathoey ass8/15/2023 Nor is the kathoey an exclusively urban or adult phenomenon. The guide leading the tourists around may be one. One may be served by a kathoey at a café, market stall, or boutique. In Bangkok and other urban centres they go about their daily affairs – shopping, meeting friends, going to the cinema, eating and drinking in cafes, using public transport, visiting the temple. “Kathoey have become entirely common place in Thai society. ![]() Those who can be ‘read’ may find themselves in that position only because of minor cues: height, width of shoulders, 'adam's apple', stereotypically exaggerated female manner, size of hands or feet, minor facial features or soprano voice. Some kathoey appear indistinguishable from women. When they speak they employ a female tone and vocabulary, employing Thai word-forms normally restricted to females. Many kathoey present outwardly, from their teenage years onwards, as entirely female – in terms of hair (often long), dress, cosmetics, manner, gait, gestures, voice, stereotyped personality traits and interests (including vocational). As Matzner notes, ‘One of Thailand’s more sensational exports is news about transgendered males’. Sam Winter of the University of Hong Kong wrote: Even though katoey “occupy a somewhat marginalised role in Thai society they nevertheless appear to enjoy a degree of prominence and acceptance unknown in most other places. In fact, even gay men who flounce around and maybe put on a bit of make up are referred to as katoeys.” So are those who just dress up like a woman. So are those who take hormones to create female attributes such as breasts. Those who have gender altering surgery are katoeys. Transgender male is probably the closest English term. They use the term for any man who acts like a woman. The thing is, katoey is a Thai word and that is not how the Thais use it. Otherwise, you should use the term ladyboy. What exactly is a katoey? “Some you can only call someone a katoey if they have had gender altering surgery. There are many stories of men picking up women in bars only to find when they get back to their hotel that she is in fact a he. Whilst some are easy to spot, there are others that make very attractive women and if you saw them in the street, you really would not know they were men. Some take hormones to increase their female attributes. Some have had varying degrees of gender altering surgery. Know Phuket reports: “Known in Thai by the jokey term 'katoey' and also called called ladymen or she-males, they are of course men who look like women. Though there is very little discrimination against ladyboys in Thailand, they are not officially recognized as women and their identification cards will always say "male." ![]() They are are commonplace in the fashion, beauty and entertainment industries and especially common in cosmetics shops or health stores, which almost always have a ladyboy shop assistant. Reuters reported: “Transgenders and transsexuals have greater visibility in Thailand than in many other nations, holding mainstream jobs in a variety of fields. ![]() Katoey is also spelled “kathoey” and pronounced “ka-thoey.” ![]() But on they other hand many live on the fringes of society and beliefs remain that they either are cursed by bad spirits or did something wrong in a past life. Some are quite beautiful and sexy and are difficult to distinguish from real women. Many work at cabarets or transsexual bars that feature male performers. On one hand they are fixtures of Thai soap operas, often playing spirited side kicks. Known as “katoey” (”ladyboys”) in Thai, they are not persecuted like they are in some countries, and are accepted to a large degree, but you can’t quite say they are embraced either. In Thailand there a lot-at least it seems that way-of transgender and transsexual males and their variations.
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