Transnational Genders and Sexualities

1. SAO BRAPHET SONG & MORE
THAI IDENTITES
Transnational Perspectives 11/1/12

2. GOALS
• Discuss
explosion of identities through images of books
produced by Thais
• Background of Sao Braphet Song Narratives
• Separate identities and compare

3. What’s UNAIDS ambassador?

4. HERE’S THE TERMS:
• METHOD OF HIV/AIDS ENLIGHTENMENT IS STATED AS:
1) USE OF CONDOM SHOULD BE DE FOCAL POINT OF YOUR CAMPAIGN
2) ABSTINENCE FROM SEX SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED
3) FAITHFULNESS TO ONCE PARTNERS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED IN
COUPLES
4 )HAVING MORE THAN ONE PARTNER SHOULD BE DISCOURAGED.
5 )BLOOD SCREENING BEFORE USE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED
6) USE OF UNSTERILIZED NEEDLES AND BARBING CLIPPERS SHOULD BE
DISCOURAGED
7) NEED TO KNOW ONES HIV STATUS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED
8 )PERIODIC HIV SCREENING SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED
9) MOTHER TO BABY TRANSMISSION/ PREVENTION SHOULD
BE EMPHASIZED
•

5. Bangkok

6. Buddhism in Heart of City

7. Kathoey/Sao Braphet Song

8. 8

24. • Chiang Mai
Context
• City in Northern Thailand
• “An exciting multicultural city whose population
now totals more than 600,000” (Narratives 51)
• Chiang Mai University (CMU)
• Thailand’s first regional university
• 22,000+ students, 17 faculties (programs), 107
departments
• Has a club for sao braphet song called Rosepaper
• Researchers who wrote the book were “amazed at
the relatively large number of cross-dressing male
students on campus” (Narratives 3)

26. Why Narratives?
• We can see how sao braphet song perceive
their own subjectivities
• “The narrative method promotes a more
humanistic and participatory social
science” (Narratives 11)
• “Personal stories of unique and complex
individuals” (Narratives 53)

27. “Co-producing” the
Narratives
• Advertised the narrative-taking project with flyers around
campus that “explained that we sought the life stories of sao
braphet song in order to help people better understand their
lives” (Narratives 4)
• “Anonymity freed individuals to be more honest and open in
a society that does not always encourage such personal
exposure” (Narratives 5)
• Offered payment for participation
• “We seek to illuminate the experiences of male university
students living in northern Thailand who identify as sao
braphet song, or ‘a second type of woman’” (Narratives 1)

28. Mistaken Understandings
• Cross-cultural Misconceptions
• “[Participants] were often shocked...about the homophobic and
transphobic violence and harassment experienced by gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people in the United
States...Ironically, both Thai and Americans believe the other
to be living in a more free and accepting society when it
comes to sexual and gender expression” (Narratives 5)
• Western tourism portrays them as “free from discrimination and
able to express themselves without fear of stigmatization or
violent reprisals” (Narratives 2)
• Negative Stereotypes
• “Despised for their tendency to draw attention to themselves
through loud and unfeminine voices, revealing clothing,
aggressive manners, and ‘overacting’” (Narratives 2)
• The narratives provide "a window into the lives and experiences of a
group of people about whom little is known but much is
assumed” (Narratives 8)

29. Early Life
• Marco: "'Kathoey' is a word I have been familiar with since I
was a child. It was the term that people used to refer to me.
It is surprising that from the first time I heard this word I
immediately understood what it meant." (77)
• Thai Silk: "I was born into the midst of voices that told me I
wasn't a 'real man.' Everyone around me regarded me as a
kathoey or tut. But my parents decided that they would try to
turn me into a 'real' man" (93)

30. Adopting an Identity
• Marco: "After mixing more and more with the girls I noticed good
things about being a woman and began to change what was
masculine about myself. My behavior and manners started to be like
those of a woman, so much that one day a friend came to me and
asked whether or not I was a kathoey. I thought about this for many
days, until I was brave enough to decide that I would accept who I
was--and that I really was a kathoey." (79)
• Thai Silk: "What made me express myself more openly was that there
was a gay person who lived next door to me...But then one day he
tried to come on to me. This forced me to express myself because I
had heard from my friends that gays generally aren't attracted to
kathoey. I am afraid of this group, although there are some of them
who I wouldn't mind having sex with." (97)
• Marco: "I decided to make friends with people who were kathoey, just
like me. I felt that at least we were the same, and if something
happened we could help one another and be able to understand one
another." (80)

31. Adapting Identity
• Marco: "College education was very hard work...I didn't
have time to take care of myself at all...I began to change
from kathoey to gay, as some people call themselves...and I
have remained this way until today...Today I am gay, but
don't know whether I will change yet again in this life." (81)
• Thai Silk: "I began to consciously change myself. I was very
afraid of teasing and so made myself into more of a 'real
man' by acting like a 'man.' In my heart, of course, I was still
very much a woman...I wasn't able to cover up my true
personality for long because sometimes my mannerisms
would inadvertently come out." (95)

32. Vision
• Marco: "Sincerity is very important among gays: if we have
sincerity, I certainly believe that one day we will be able to
freely and completely become the 'third sex' without other
people caring one way or another." (82)
• Thai Silk: "I think that society will eventually accept people
like me more than they do now...until eventually we will be
equal to people who are 'normal'." (99)

33. Ladyboys Documentary and "The Evolving
Situation for Transgender People in Thailand"
• Documentary follows two Thai kathoey who
leave rural homes to become cabaret performers
• 7:55-8:23
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ezQ_KbYnh_8&feature=endscreen&NR=1
• A broadcast on Channel News Asia
• start-1:33
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=gUHFyx94hZc