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decreaseI was surfing through The Lab on ABC.net.au (http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1710838.htm) and I came across an article that said the 'Y' chromosome is facing its demise. It went on to say that not too far into the future people born without a Y chromosome would split off from those with, and eventually evolve into a new species of hominid. It got me to thinking that obviously, the scientists must have been doing their research in Thailand.
Have you noticed how difficult it is to tell what sex many Thais are today? I mean, there you are walking down the street and you spot this really nice set of buns mincing ahead of you. You speed up. As you pass you throw a quick look sideways and it's instant disappointment. "Oh-oh! What the heck is that?"
A business associate of mine, a Russian, came to my office a couple of times with his assistant. It was slim, short even for a Thai, with hair cut short in a somewhat mannish style, a business shirt open at the neck, and a pair of slacks.
Hmmm. Dressed like a man, but with that squeaky voice, it could be a butch dyke. I couldn't take my eyes of her/him (shim?). I ogled the chest several times wondering if I could really see a couple of bumps there. Or was it was just the way the shirt hung? If they were there, they were certainly very small.
Each time my associate came to visit I kept looking, hoping for a clue. I even dropped a pen I was handing over in the hopes of getting a squizz down the front of its shirt. But no luck. The T-shirt under the business shirt stopped that stratagem.
In the end I gave in and waited till it was out of earshot one day. Then I asked my Russian client what sex it was. He replied he wasn't entirely sure either. Even though it had worked for him for six months! He ventured that it was actually a lesbian because it turned up with a female in tow once and introduced her as 'girlfriend'. The jury is still out.
So, why are there so many trans-gender types in Thailand? Does Thailand have more homosexuals of both persuasions than other countries? Do a lot of Thais sit somewhere inbetween?
Well, at first glance it would appear so. However, I commented on this to a gay friend of mine once and he laughed at me. He said, "How many of those straight looking Western businessmen you mix with do you think are gay?" Then he answered the question himself. "A lot more than you would ever imagine, here and back home."
I have to confess I looked at him dumbstruck. The thought had never occurred to me. I knew some of them were gay. It was obvious. The limp wrists, the hissed sibilants, even the eyes batted at me on a couple of occasions. But that ultra-butch Managing Director who drank beer with the guys? Or the hotel manager who was the scourge of any slackers on his staff? How could you tell? After that conversation I was always much more observant at business meetings. But I have to admit I didn't spot many.
The Westerners that are obviously trans-sexual or who dress as females can never achieve any real feminine beauty. With heavy beards, or obvious Adams apples, there is no way they can ever look as beautiful as any Thai katoey.
But that doesn't answer my first question, does it?
I believe it's the rice. Yes, that's right. Think about it for a moment.
The farmers have been spreading all that fertilizer on their fields for the last 25 or 30 years. What is in that stuff? Well, among other things it contains hormones to encourage growth. It sure does that. Thailand has had bumper crops for years now. And in that time I have noticed a growing increase in the number of different-sex people here as well.
The CIA website shows that more males are born. But from age 15 onwards the number of females increases:
Thailand Population Figures:
0-14 years: 22% (male 7,284,068/female 6,958,632)
15-64 years: 70% (male 22,331,312/female 22,880,588)
65 years and over: 8% (male 2,355,190/female 2,821,805) (2006 est.)
The early years determine the path our lives will take. Perhaps with more males around at that time Thai boys to choose to go the other way. After all, some animal species do the same when there are more males than females.
By the time they reach 15 they are pretty well set in their ways, and a significant percentage have died off along the way. That leaves more females from then on. Maybe some segments of both sexes change in an effort to balance the equation.
Anyway, the reality is that Thailand has an awful lot of people who were born Arthur but have decided they are really Martha, and vice versa. The boys who decide to go full female aren't like the ones in the west either. Some of those who change their sex are more beautiful than any woman you are likely to meet. It's downright hard to tell sometimes.
Take my brother Andrew. He came up here a few years ago and I thought I would introduce him to the nightlife in stages. Our first stop was at the Safari Bar in Patpong where he was quickly surrounded by a bevy of girls after I told them he was a Bangkok virgin. They were feeding him his beer, massaging his back, groping him, kissing him. You know the drill. I stood back and drank my beer enjoying his enjoyment.
We walked out after the beer and he turned to me and said, "Marc, that's the best value for a beer I've ever had!" I just grinned and told him there was more and better to come. So we dropped by the King's Castle bar. I haven't been there for a long time, so I don't know what it's like now, but back then it was well known for employing the most beautiful katoeys in town. We sat down and ordered a beer and watched the bodies gyrating around the chrome poles. His eyes were popping out of his head. I leaned over and asked him which one he liked.
He couldn't answer at first, but eventually he pointed to a leggy, full-breasted girl who was giving him the eye. I leaned across again and told him it was a boy.
"No! You're kidding. It couldn't be."
So I pointed out the surefire giveaways; the slightly prominent Adam's apple, the large hands, the rough elbows. The look on his face should have been recorded for all time.
Getting back to the topic, though, it is difficult to tell the sex of a lot of Thais these days. Look around you when you walk down the street. Drag your eyes away from the feast of females sashaying by for a moment and look at the other Thais. How many of them do you think are 'men', or even 'women'?
Maybe the scientists are on to something. Could Thailand be the first country in the world to start losing the Y chromosome? Are we seeing the birth of a whole new addition to the human race?
You'll see them in offices, department stores, on the Skytrain...everywhere. Once you start to look, you'll see them all over the place. Or maybe you won't....
© Marc Holt. All rights reserved by the author.
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January 1, 2007, 22:38
It is even odder than . . .
Some katoeys have no interest in transgender issues . . . it is just a job. A way to make a living. The percentage of these katoeys is extremely small but they are real people and there are a lot of them. Boys who became guys and then made a decision about pretending to be something else being easier than working next to dad and mom in the rice fields. In the West we romanticise physical labor and the natural life, etc: in Thailand some humans are willing to do anything to escape ruralism and agrarianism. Quite a departure in points-of-view.
Another of the 'weird' categories in the full-on katoey subject is the enormous length of the bones. You would think that the bone length would be set for life by the time they start taking female hormones around the age of fifteen or sixteen or seventeen. Additionally, you would think that the suppression of testosterone and the increase in estrogen would at the least not cause increase in bone length. Ok, then why are the katoeys so incredibly tall? They are as a species taller than the average Thai female by a lot and they are taller than the average Thai male. How does that happen? And, where are the short katoeys? I have never seen one. Of course this makes no sense at all. Since katoeys represent male to female transgendering (otherwise known as 'pretending') they are all drawn from the population base. But the population base simply does not display tall men like this. Based on the population base there should be thousands of katoeys from five foot two inches to five foot six inches tall. I have never seen one. A friend of mine theorizes that they exist (they have to exist) but that they service the Thai market and so are invisible to farangs. In other words, the farang market filters out the alpha katoeys who are so incredibly tall. This would account for the odd situation but I do not believe it. A mystery.
Another mystery is why so many katoeys are dramatically sexier and more feminine and more beautiful than women. Again, this makes no sense but it sure is evidenced on a daily basis. Particularly in the sex(y) department katoeys simply carry the field. Stand at the foot of the Skytrain steps at the Nana Skytrain stop around five o'clock when they are starting to come to work and you will get smouldering eye contact that the average woman simply can not deliver. One theory is that the katoeys have to try harder because they are in the 'pretend' business and women do not have to try at all so they mostly don't try. Maybe. It is a compelling argument . . . but you will forget the argument in a nanosecond if you ever come in eye contact with some of these sex monsters. A mystery start to finish.
And the final frontier is that some of them can 'pass' so effectively that ONLY another woman can spot them--a sad but indicting illustration of the fact that katoeys are ultimately in the 'pretend' game and real women are not. The extremely extremely small percentage of katoeys who can fool every man, can not fool a woman. This interesting fact that no one really pays attention to is also a kind of startling and sad look at a world that men will never know. We can never know what it is like to be a woman. They have access to knowledge that we do not have access to. We posture that we are smarter but they can spot a sexual fraud of the most clever kind and we can not. Sometimes you get a feeling but a feeling is not a fact. Once in Mike's in South Pattaya I had to ask Noi if the clerk was a katoey. The answer was 'Yes'. My Noi knew instantly. I had to ask.
There is a katoey that street dances on Walking Street in South Pattaya. She must be six foot four inches in her bare feet. I have a theory that if she was not a katoey that she in fact would not even exist. The whole subject is just very strange.