Ladyboys in Thailand. Who is and who is not?

[Goosood]

This may seem a stupid question, but what is a Ladyboy?

1) Does it include guys who only dress as a lady for various reasons but who internally feel they are a male?

2) Does it include guys who dress as a lady because they feel they are a female (so they feel being born in the wrong body) but who physically are still 100% male.

3) Does it include guys who not just dress as a lady, but also undergo surgery (for example breast implants) to look physically as a lady (since they feel being born in wrong body). Or is this last category not a Ladyboy anymore, but now has become a lady, certainly if the surgery included adding a vagina it would be strange to still call them a Ladyboy in my opinion.

So what is a Ladyboy? I think only 2) and 3) can be considered a Ladyboy and 3) only as long as the male genitals are till there. For me the guys under 1) are just cross dressers.

Then we get to the next question:

Thailand seems to have proportionally far more Ladyboys than say Europe. What is the explanation for that? Is there a genetic inclination for males to be born who feel being a female? I don't think the tolerance in Thailand for Ladyboys can explain the numbers of them. I mean a country very tolerant for gay people will not have suddenly 4 in 10 males who are gay while in the rest of the world it is 1 in 10. So how can there be so many (relatively, compared to rest of world) Ladyboys?

[Swiss1960]

for your last point, this has been discussed many times and also in the www, you do not really find any other answer as "there might not be more transgender people living in Thailand than in other countries, but they are much for free to live their life and that is why you see many more".. see for example discussions on Thaivisa

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/203154-why-are-their-so-many-ladyboys-in-thailand/ (from 2008) or

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/76833-why-so-many-ladyboys-in-thailand/ (from 2006)

for your first question, this is more difficult to answer, but first of all, the "real" ladyboys (definitely excluding your category 1 in your post) would be called "kathoey" in Thailand, sometimes in Thailand refferred to as "third gender". In Europe, they are called "transgender". To your 3 points:

1) Guys dressing in lady clothes but otherwise feeling male are either drag queens or transvestites and IMHO do not qualify as transgender / kathoey

2) Guys feeling, dressing and living like a woman would definitely qualify as transgender / kathoey, no matter whether they had surgery or take hormones.

3) Transgender persons, who had full SRS (Sexual Reassignement Surgery or also GRS Gender Reassignement Surgery) would "legally" still qualify as kathoey in Thailand, as their passport / ID card will always say "male"

Loads of different shades, that is why my answer is just my short thoughts, nowhere to be seen as complete

[cgphuket]

It up to the person how they identify themselves. Why are you so concerned? If you want to wear a dress but call yourself a man, go ahead.

[DavidBonnie]

Maybe this article will help to answer some questions?

http://davidbonnie.com/2014/08/11/why-are-there-so-many-ladyboys-in-thailand/

[slipperylobster]

seems ladyboys can also be gay, straight, bi, ...and that works for either their "man side" or "lady side". I suspect there are more than a few who just sewed on boobs to make a buck....and are not worried about their gender..either way.

for all practical purposes...anything that looks good in a skirt is fine...but I would check "under the hood" to see if the parts are "original" or "factory"

thats just me though. I get a kick out of anything that looks good...but I keep my distance.

Edited July 29, 2015 by slipperylobster