The Lost Boy

Gender issues and the negative implications of beauty pageants

Ladyboys intrigue me, I won’t lie about that. They are a kind of enigma. To be a part of a pageant of the magnitude of Miss International 2006 would have been highly interesting, not that the concept behind it really convinces me that it is at all worthwhile.

My problem with an event such as this comes with the pretense upon which it is founded:

“Striving to advance and support today's transvestites/transgender, Miss International Queen offers great opportunities for transvestites/transgender from all over the world to present their individual beauty and intelligence in a friendly atmosphere,” reads the official homepage.

How does a beauty contest support transvestites and transgender individuals? In my mind it does nothing but perpetuate the image of superficial and characterless beauty that Thailand as a whole seems to admire. What message is being sent out to people with gender issues? Is it that they are not alone, that there are people to whom they can turn, or is it rather than the only way to be happy is to be uniquely beautiful?

The message is undeniable. It is also highly immoral and does nothing to make the lives of those who come to question their gender any better. Really it sums up just how materialistic Thai attitudes can be. So long as it’s on TV and everyone looks beautiful, everything must be OK for everyone else: is that what we are to believe?

I loathe beauty pageants as a whole, and I was stunned to see this year’s Miss Universe on the cover of The Nation in July just gone. The coverage that is given to events of this caliber is nothing short of farcical and only serves to highlight the nonsense that the media and advertising circles choose to thrust down peoples’ throats.

It is about more than just a beauty pageant, however, as in a country where the rural masses are already transfixed with a dream of material wealth, there are events such as these, watched by an estimated 25 million people, that do nothing to actually promote a positive message. Instead, the issues are packaged up and sugar coated so as to appeal to enough people to generate money.

Agence France-Presse quoted this year’s Miss International Queen 2006, Mexico’s Erica Andrews, as saying: “"I feel like I am at home. I feel so welcome here. It can't get any better than this."

This clearly emphasises an ideal that the only way to be happy as someone with gender issues is to strive to be beautiful. It is less about acceptance and more about conventional aesthetic appeal.

I did catch a little of the event on ITV before going out to sample the delights of Hua Hin’s nightlife, but I soon turned it off. Thailand is apparently praised for its tolerance of transsexuals, but I also see a strong divide between ladyboys and men and women here. There is an unmistakable stigma that goes with being a transsexual, and ladyboys are often the butt of jokes, be it in public or on television. Also, ladyboys are often not treated as equals when it comes to searching for a job.

What is needed are less foolish spectacles and more effort put into educating people about the value of acceptance. If you have ever worked in a Thai school then you will have seen the enormous divide between the regular boys and the katoey boys. Within this divide there is a certain animosity that highlights the problems associated with gender issues in Thailand relating back to education. If you were to ask one of the katoey boys what they would like to be when they grow up, the answer is always the same:

“I want to be a beautiful woman.”

Techno’ tags: Ladyboy, Pattaya, Bangkok, Thailand, Tiffany, Transsexual