Bangkok – A columnist in the Bangkok Post newspaper, thinks society is handing a raw deal to Thailand’s ‘katoeys’ (ladyboys).
“As expected after Songkran, it was inevitable we would have a piece of controversial news to talk about once the great water battle was over. Last year, the country’s media was in a frenzy about two girls dancing bare-breasted among the celebratory crowds on Silom Road. This year, another topless dancer sparked social criticism, only this time it was a 19-year-old transvestite.
It all started with video footage of Sarawut Suparb and his transvestite friends captured dancing during Songkran. In the clip, Sarawut is cheered on by a crowd to take off his shirt, unveiling his implanted breasts. A photo of Sarawut was on the front page of almost every newspaper in the city, including the Bangkok Post, when he turned up to the police station in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya to answer a charge of indecent exposure. He was fined 500 baht and ordered to “apologise” to the whole country for his behaviour.
Besides learning that exposing bare breasts in public, even a pair that are surgically made, is obviously a sensitive issue among Thais and the media, I have something else to say about what happened to young Sarawut. I find it ironic that, after all, it was a “man” who danced topless.
What I am trying to say is that there is another way to look deeper through what happened to Sarawut.”
