Georg Knoll Photography
Katoeys
Ladyboys in Bangkok, 2000
Her lips are red, her eyelashes long. When "Chicken" stands combing her long hair on the street in Bangkok's red-light district Patpong, only a handful of customers guess which gender the Thai beauty really is. Her motto is: the more perfect the illusion, the better the business.
Transsexuals are a daily phenomenon in Thailand: if you don't want to be a man, you wear high-heels and take hormones that make you grow breasts. Society doesn't find it indecent. Many parents allow their sons wear girl's clothes if that's what they want. The transvestite is respected the same as any other person in the village.
"I always knew I was a girl. My female soul was accidently born in a man's body", "Chickens" colleague "Jodie" explains. Creating the perfect illusion is just a financial question. Hormones are cheap but an operation is expensive and only affordable for those who transform their sexuality into money.
Textexposé von Andrea Claudia Hoffmann
