A Second Kind of Woman – Thailand, the Third Gender

In hardly any other country are the boundaries between the sexes as fluid as in Thailand. Not only in the big cities, but even in the smallest villages live up to half a million Kathoey: men who feel like women and also dress and behave as such. In their beauty and femininity, they are often almost indistinguishable from real women. "Sao Praphaet Song" is what they traditionally call themselves: a second kind of woman. As ladyboys, they are known worldwide. Mimi Tao is one of Thailand's most colorful kathoey. To become herself, she had to shed her old self at 17: Phajaranat Nobantao, the Buddhist monk and country boy she once was. From an early age, Mimi Tao had found the male shell alien. After six years in the monastery, she discarded the robe. Bald, but already in women's clothing, she moved to Bangkok and began her second life as a woman. Today, at 24, Mimi Tao is a model who has made it to the covers of fashion magazines. But she has to fight hard against the competition. Many Thai companies do not want to associate their brand with Kathoey's image because, despite all the openness, it is also burdened by prejudice. Especially among the urban middle class, Kathoey are seen as vulgar, cheeky, overexcited, sex-starved, even criminal. In the countryside, on the other hand, Mimi Tao feels unreservedly appreciated - by the old weavers, for example, with whom she, a silk lover, wants to realize her dream of her own fashion label. 360° - GEO Reportage accompanies the model with a monk's past in her hectic everyday life in the metropolis of Bangkok as well as in the countryside, working in the fields with her family, praying in the temple and doing traditional dance at school, where her Kathoey friend Tongta Jareonjai teaches history in uniform. The Thai people's openness to the Third Sex stems from Thai Buddhism, which is characterized by a philosophy of tolerance toward the individual path of life. A Third Sex already appears in old animistic creation myths of the region. According to these, every human being, as a result of his or her rebirths, was once a Kathoey. However, the state does not recognize kathoey. According to the law, they remain men: they receive a conscription order for military service, and in the hospital or prison they are placed in the male ward. Their status as men in contrast to their feminine appearance restricts them professionally. Kathoey are often saleswoman, shopkeeper, or cook, but few are civil servants, doctors, or bank employees. Only in the show, fashion and beauty business there are no restrictions for Kathoey. In this niche, they can even rise to become popular heroines: as top models, beauty queens, dancers, athletes, singers, television presenters or soap opera stars. To further her fight for more equal rights, Mimi Tao travels to southern Thailand with her Catholic teacher friend Tongta Jareonjai for a political campaign. Their appeal: "Out of the glitter cage, more normality for Kathoey!"