Miss International Queen 2006

[Guest]

I met somone who knows "Dong" the Thai girl who lost.

She apparently works at Miss Tiffany's, is very sweet, gorgeous, no boyfriend, and was very uncomfortable in the show because she is quite poor in English, and was also nervous on her question, and appartently gave a not great answer.

No matter, she's a star in my mind.

[rxpharm]

I know this is rather late after the fact, but discovered a Nation newspaper article about the Miss International Queen Contests, so wanted to add it to the original thread.

From the Nation, November 2, 2006.


Leading ladyboys

These stunners are the prettiest blokes in the world. Stop staring!... Oh, all right, then

The winner Mexican beauty Erica Andrews - who outglowed 23 other gorgeous contestants to win Sunday's Miss International Queen competition in Pattaya - is clearly getting good at this beauty-contest business: She's won six other titles as well.

Unfortunately, she said the next day in an interview with The Nation, few other transsexual beauty pageants around the globe give katoeys (as they're known here) the kind of positive exposure they receive at the Thai event, which happens to be the world's biggest.

Andrews edged aside Patricia Montecarlo of the Philippines and Thailand's own Ratravee Jiraprapakul to win the crown on Sunday, while lovelies from as far away as Egypt and Australia looked on.

She's been crowned at six previous pageants, including Miss Continental in Chicago and Miss Texas Continental, but in the United States and most other countries, she said, "The attention is only within the gay community."

What little publicity is generated in the US invariably focuses on the narrow negative connotations of cross-dressing, Andrews said.

In sharp contrast, the organisers of Thailand's International Queen contest - the same people who run the Tiffany's katoey cabaret in Pattaya - claim that more than 25 million Thais watched the show on TV. That seems a stretch in a population of 65 million, but interest was inarguably keen.

Candid throughout the interview, Andrews recalled the moment she "knew" she was gay. There had been a growing "natural instinct", and then abruptly she started eliminating all the boy's clothes from her wardrobe.

With the support of other transgender people in her adopted hometown of San Antonio, Texas, she broke the news to her parents. They weren't even that surprised.

"My parents knew there was something," she said. "Whenever my mother went out I would go to her cabinet and dress up as a girl."

There are places to hide, communities within cities, where cross-dressers and transsexuals can feel protected, but Andrews insists that it's a matter of "stepping out of the comfort zone".

"It's not cut-throat. The process happens slowly," she said, adding that she felt public acceptance when she realised she "wasn't being stared at. There are more of us everywhere now, so it becomes a familiar sight. It's either you accept the stares for what they are or ignore them."

It's not necessary for her to tell others she's transsexual, but if anyone wonders, she doesn't consider it rude to be asked.

Much of society still frowns on transsexuals, but rather than the slightest shame for herself, Andrews feels only pity for those too narrow-minded to be tolerant.

She singles out for admiration the "masculine", straight men who accept her for who she is.

"There are many guys who like ladyboys who are straight. For them it's normal and natural. To me, they're brave. They go with what they feel inside."

Andrews works as a makeup artist, but she certainly does some entertaining nationally, donning sexy dresses that show off her feminine curves on her MySpace Web page.

She hopes one day to own an entertainment lounge or a spa, and meanwhile she wants to continue giving transsexuals positive promotion.

What makes Andrews so good at these pageants?

She always maintains her calm, and "You can't look at the others, otherwise you lose focus."

Beauty tips?

"I try not to eat a lot, exercise and have a stress-free life. When it's too much, I get in a tub and forget about everything."

Andrews will be participating in the Bangkok Pride Festival parade on Sunday, giving the celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender community something extra to cheer about.

And the runner-up

Ratravee Jiraprapakul has the face of every man's dreams and a body many women would envy.

But the 22-year-old runner-up in Sunday's Miss International Queen competition is somewhat less - what would you say? - less professional than the champ, Erica Andrews.

She likes to lose herself once in a while. She'd love to squeal like a girl on occasion, but for now at least, it wouldn't come out sounding very girlish. And, besides, she has a new feminine image to uphold.

"I wish I could scratch myself like every other guy, but I can't now," Ratravee told The Nation in an interview.

Unlike Andrews, she didn't want to be a woman at first. As a man he knew he was gay, but his looks were too girlish to pass for a man.

"I looked like a tomboy when I dressed like a man - it looked really strange. So I dressed as a woman instead."

Offering encouragement was her straight boyfriend, who very much wanted her to look like a woman.

"He saw me as a woman, so I wanted to be woman for him," she explained.

Though it was her girlish looks that nudged her into womanhood, now that she sees herself looking truly beautiful, she's completely comfortable with the transformation.

Ratravee consulted a psychologist before taking the plunge, and felt safe with the process.

Transsexuals in Thailand have no major problems being who they are in public at any time, she noted, but you just don't see them in Taiwan and South Korea - where she's promoted the Tiffany cabaret show - except in certain places at night.

"They stay to themselves in the morning, so I'd never see any of them around. I wondered where they'd all gone!"

But even in Thailand, Ratravee wishes there were more and better jobs for katoeys.

"Why can't we get jobs in government offices or be a police officer? For us it's either makeup artist, designer or beauty shows. I'd like to work in hotels, in the service sector."

Even in Thailand, she said, people stare.

"At first I was suspicious about why people were looking at me, but now it's a normal thing. I just think they probably look at me because I'm beautiful. If they didn't look, that would be strange!

"Being a transsexual is much more difficult than being gay. You can't leave your house without a lot of primping - otherwise everyone will go, 'Eeww, why is she dressed like that?' "

Then there's the sonic factor.

"A lot of people wonder why we always scream and make a lot of noise, but that's just the way we are - please understand!"

There should be a lot of screaming at the upcoming Pride Festival. Is she excited?

"It's really difficult to identify who's who at the Pride Festival. Some are gay queens, some are gay kings and some are both.

"You have to experience all of them to know what they really are," she said, laughing a rather manly laugh.

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

The Nation, Agence France-Presse