Book - titled Ladyboys

[Ninewives]

Has anyone read the book: Ladyboys, The Secret World of Thailand's Third Gender by Pornchai Sereemongkonpol & Susan Aldous?

Is it worth reading?

Thanks.

[Ninewives]

Probably should have searched google for a book review. Found this and don't think I will waste my time reading the book.

The justification that straights reading this book will come to understand and empathise more with kathoey might stand up if it were better written, with answers to more probing questions, rather than being a lazy transcript of nine women€™s not-altogether-edifying life stories. Besides, the bigots are never going to read this book.

The authors seem to think they€™ve got a closet full of secrets to share with the world about ladyboys following their interviews with the nine disparate individuals.
Unless I€™m badly mistaken, these €œsecrets€ are that the ones who still have penises tape them tightly into their crotches to appear more like women, and that breast implants have to be massaged daily following the operation to keep them from assuming unsightly shapes.

This stuff is common knowledge to anyone who€™s ever read a magazine feature about the women-trapped-in-men€™s-bodies who seek new identities under fresh but misguided labels like sao praphet song (second kind of woman) and phet thi sam (the third sex). Why the authors are so caught up with taep €” the Thai word for penis-taping €” is beyond me. It€™s just €œtape€, just as com is the €œThai word€ for computer.

And are the authors really €œauthors€? Each of the kathoey featured tells her own story with no interjections from an interviewer, first person all the way through. Presumably Aldous and Pornchai have stitched together the segments and fixed up the syntax, but in doing so, their approach is exposed for its affectation, because all nine women misspeak the same, and surely that€™s not their fault.
Everyone refers to their place of origin, for example, as €œthe Ubon Ratchathani province€ or €œthe Nakhan Sawan province€. Why €œthe€?

Finally, while Aldous and Pornchai gush in their introduction about the €œwillingness, warmth and openness€ their subjects displayed, only two of the ladyboys come across as likeable. One of them is Parinya €œNong Toom€ Charoenphol, the celebrated former kick-boxer, who KO€™s any desire to embrace kathoey wholeheartedly.

€œIt is very disheartening to find a group of people who you think understand you, only to discover that not one among them is genuine,€ she says of the ladyboys she€™d sought out as companions.
€œI have plenty of friends who want to eat with me in nice restaurants and have fun, but none of them are willing to be there for me when I€™m down. I don€™t intend to stop socialising with them, though. I think it€™s important to be able to acknowledge their flaws and keep them at bay. I just won€™t be giving them any further handouts.€

TEXT BITE: From airline hostess Nicky, one of the €œsuccess stories€ in the book: €œThe only real difficulty we now face is that some of his friends and family don€™t know about my true identity, and he insists that he doesn€™t want them to ever find out. His parents are very fond of me and often ask when we plan to marry and how many grandchildren I expect to give them. I feel so flattered by their expectations that I hate the thought of dashing their hopes.€

[farangbah]

(Ninewives @ Sep. 19 2010,19:21) And are the authors really €œauthors€? Presumably Aldous and Pornchai have stitched together the segments and fixed up the syntax, but in doing so, their approach is exposed for its affectation, because all nine women misspeak the same, and surely that€™s not their fault.

This was my main issue with the book.  It was so overly English-fluent it was extremely irritating.  I would have much preferred the glorious way Thais employ English.  

To overly stylize it with English idioms and such that no Thai has ever heard just took any last semblance of authenticity out of it.  At first glance I probably never would have even touched it, actually, but a wonderful person (Joy, proprietor of Phi Phi Massage on the island of same name) lent it to me and said it meant something to her.  So I read it...

File Under: Mildly entertaining.

[jimslim]

I read it a few years ago when it came out , not great as I recall

[dixon cox]

(jimslim @ Sep. 21 2010,16:21) I read it a few years ago when it came out , not great as I recall

Ditto.