The Ladyboy Legacy: How Gender Colors Thai Media Coverage

Thailand's "Third Gender" is a well-discussed topic
both inside and outside of Thailand.

While the exact reasons are unknown, it is well documented that Thailand’s population is host to an unusually large subpopulation of transgender individuals. Some say this is merely due to Thailand’s accepting culture, which allows individuals to feel much more free to express themselves, though others disagree. Whatever the reason, Thailand’s “third gender” invariably plays a large role in Thai society. So large in fact, that it even features heavily in American pop culture, Hangover II anybody?
Contrary to Western society, in Thailand it was much the case that any representation of homosexual desire is not viewed as an exhibition of homosexuality, but instead that of a transgender identity. Not until recently has homosexuality been more widely accepted as a gender identity. This is simply an example of just how deeply ingrained the transgender identity is Thai culture.

A visit to Thailand, and a sampling of the nightlife in any major city will guarantee at least a few ladyboy sightings—that is if you can even notice them. So complete are the transformations that many tourists have a difficult time discerning them.  In fact, a travel article on an Australian newsite featured a how-to on the finer points of how to find a ladyboy.

 Ladyboys often go through countless gender reassignment surgeries. Some go so far as to shave

down the bone that forms their Adam's apple.

For being so ingrained, one would expect a much wider-scale acceptance of different gender identities in Thailand as opposed to its Western counterparts—and they’d be right—but only partially. For all appearances of acceptance, it is mainly just that, an appearance. More of a superficial acceptance than anything else, Thailand’s ladyboys, or kathoey as they’re more formally called, are often subject to harsh attacks and slurs by Thai media.

 In a tourism role, especially sex tourism, ladyboys play a very visible role, and are embraced by club owners and prostitution dens alike. However, for many others in Thailand, the ladyboy's still represent a break from the traditional gender roles and are not afforded the same acceptance. Ladyboys, while still afforded a level of acceptance uncommon in other countries, are not immune from unfair treatment. For example, on the front page of Thai Rath, a Thai-language daily, there was no shortage of derogatory terms. In covering a political scandal where a politician was found visiting a brothel and “consorting” with ladyboys headlines such as “Naked truth revealed. Sexual style of shit-packing Tuy makes hair stand on end” and “Now known shit-packer Tuy is parliament officer ... face of shit-packing cross-dressing  pervert Tuy revealed” were featured on the front page. (Links couldn't be found, headlines were referenced from 'The Semiotics of Transgendered Sexual Identity in the Thai Print Media: Imagery and Discourse of the Sexual Other') 

Pretty striking eh? For supposedly being more accepting of the “third gender” this coverage doesn’t exactly provide strong support for that argument. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find such explicit headlines nearly anywhere else in the world. And in case you wondering, Thai Rath is Thailand’s oldest, best-selling newspaper with a circulation in excess of one million readers.

However, the coverage is far from one-sided. Not all coverage is disparaging in nature. In fact one of Thailand’s national heroes, Nong Tum, a national kick-boxing champion is a household name. In a National Geographic profile 

Another avenue of insight into this seeming disconnect between appearances and reality of transgender acceptance is an examination of how Thailand’s dominant religion, Buddhism, influences the matter. In an interesting first-hand account Tum is depicted as a media darling, one whose riveting story of transformation garnered the support and acceptance of a nation. This example serves to muddy the waters a bit, and purposefully so, as the true level of acceptance of kathoey in Thailand is far from clear. Some, such as Tum are revered, while others, such as the “shit-packing” politician are reviled.

Basing off of this (extremely narrow) cross-section of examples, it appears that other factors may be in play regarding the cultural portrayal of kathoey. On one hand you have a politician that may or may not have been targeted via ulterior political motives, and on another you have a kickboxing champion in a nation whose love of kickboxing is almost on par with religion.

95-percent of Thais practice Buddhism and their culture
greatly reflects this. In some cases, such as this one,
 rather overtly.

 And speaking of religion, another avenue of insight into this seeming disconnect between appearances and reality of transgender acceptance is an examination of how Thailand’s dominant religion, Buddhism, influences the matter. In an interesting first-hand account a native Thai discusses the widely discussed reasons fort the high concentration of transgender individuals in Thailand. He also references the fact that Thai culture, underpinned by Buddhism, is by nature more tolerant. He also mentions that under the Karma belief system, some believe that kathoey are born that way as a result of past wrongdoings, and should thus be pitied rather than blamed.

In any case, Thailand’s “other sex” makes for a truly interesting cultural overtone that distinctly colors Thai media coverage of gender issues. Certainly, nothing is cut and dry, just as if you walk into a bar in Thailand, there’s no saying whether the woman sitting next to you was born that way (although quizzes such as this one are prevalent), or underwent the gender reassignment process. And, superficial or not, ladyboys receive more cultural acceptance in Thailand than anywhere else in the world, where even mere acknowledgement is far from being a given. Just leave it to the American film industry to trivialize a cultural milieu into a few one-liners. #HangoverPart2

Osama Bin Laden's Death: The International Response

Osama bin Laden's death was a polarizing international
issue, prompting strongly framed coverage on both sides
of the spectrum.

The killing of Osama bin Laden by American Special Forces marked a worldwide media event. How the event was interpreted and covered by various national media outlets and the extent to which it was covered seemed to vary greatly among different countries however.  Much of the coverage spanned a broad spectrum, adopting different viewpoints and widely varying depths of coverage. From repackaged wire stories to in-depth original reporting, the coverage was truly varied. While in some countries, nationally biased slants were clearly decipherable; in others much of the coverage simply mirrored its Western counterpart.

            A larger theme that revealed itself however was the correlation in coverage between each country’s level of connection with 9/11, and their level of coverage on Osama’s death. The deepness of the country’s connection (or lack thereof) with 9/11, definitively affected the type and level of coverage Osama’s death received.

Thailand

           Thailand’s coverage of Obama’s death was rather straightforward for the most part, with much of the national coverage being restricted to wire stories (with AFP largely appearing to be the news service of choice). However, some outlets chose to localize the story a bit by adding some original reporting. As in the story illustrated above, the outlet chose to put a local take on the story by detailing the increased security efforts the government was taking in areas of the country with a higher Muslim population.

            However, other than this, the coverage was largely straightforward accounts of the American Special Forces mission and how the aftermath was being played out in the Middle East—practically the same as most Western coverage. What separated it from Western coverage however was the quantity. Whereas in the U.S. the Osama story grabbed virtually every front page in the nation, it was given much less importance in Thailand. It stands to be argued that this is related directly to Thailand’s lack of connection with 9/11. Not being a nation directly allied with the U.S. or having ties in the Middle East, or a history of terrorism, 9/11 did not play heavily in Thailand’s history, giving Osama’s death much less firepower in terms of being an important news story.

Brazil

            Brazil provides another approach to coverage. While taking a similar approach to Thailand in its heavy use of wire coverage while the story was breaking, it differs greatly in the amount of original reporting it eventually contributed to the coverage. This is especially apparent in examining the follow-up coverage of the event contributed by the Carta Capital Outlet.  The coverage they provided after the killing took on a very investigative slant, asking the U.S. some hard questions, examining the morality of such a killing, and even calling into question President Obama’s Nobel. This type of coverage was sparse in other countries, let alone the United States, and so served as an interesting example of how the event was covered after it was broken.

            The United States is a major player in Latin America, and for many is viewed less than favorably. It seems almost as if the killing of Osama Bin Laden was used in Brazil as an avenue to point a critical eye at the U.S., rather than covered out of a sense duty to cover something newsworthy.

Mexico

            As another Latin American country, one would expect a certain level of similarity in coverage, however, much of the coverage was much more favorable of the United States, if not downright openly supportive. Several articles openly condemned all acts of terrorism and commended the United States on its recent success in its efforts against terrorism.

A great deal of coverage, both in America and abroad
 dealt with the response of the general public, as documented
in the above photo that was posted in New York City.

            This obviously was a rather stark departure from the coverage seen in Brazil. The drastic differences between the different coverage is most likely due to the level of press freedoms in the respective countries and their government's respective relationships with the United States. Mexico's press is notoriously unfree, and it's government has strong ties with the United States, so this points towards why the national coverage of the event may have differed so greatly from that of Brazil. 


Libya


          In stark contrast to all of the coverage examined so far, especially that of Mexico's, Libyan coverage of the Osama bin Laden killing has been decidedly partial to pre-existing anti-U.S. sentiment. An article on the Tripoli Post website openly questioned the validity of the U.S. claims that Bin Laden had indeed been killed by U.S. special forces.  The article, "Have they really killed what they created" openly calls into question the U.S. claim that OBL was dead, and went on to even question the U.S. claims that OBL was even behind the 9/11 attack in the  first place. The article even began with the quote "The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth."
        It then becomes pretty easy to see that the coverage of Osama Bin Laden's death was greatly influenced by outside political factors, namely a profound anti-American sentiment within the Libyan government, and by proxy, much of the country's news coverage. Whereas in other countries, even if there wasn't original reporting on OBL's death, there were at least wire reports. In Libya however, national outlets  actively tried to refute the wire coverage, citing American misinformation as the basis of the reports. All in all, Libya clearly provides quite a change of pace from other international coverage.

Not all reactions to OBL's death were favorable,
this was mirrored in various news coverage as well, as in
the case of Libya. 

Syria
While Syria, as a Middle Eastern country, is prone to be subject to impressions of the same anti-American bias as seen in the Libyan coverage, the coverage seen on Syrian-News.com was much more objective, providing a more detailed account and sticking to including more facts, while focusing less on pejorative "analysis". While there was certainly a non-Western tone to the piece, it was  certainly to be expected and, if anything, enhanced the piece's credibility. 


Afghanistan
       Afghanistan is surely an interesting country in which to examine the coverage of OBL's death. Serving as the front lines of the "War on Terror", the country has a unique perspective to be sure. And, not to be let down, Daily Outlook Afghanistan offered an interesting analysis of the reports of bin Laden's death. In addition to the straightforward news accounts of the event, there were pieces like "Obama's Death No Game-Changer" that provided a interesting context to the event. 
      While most American and Western accounts heralded Osama's death as the largest single progress made in the War on Terror to date, the Daily Outlook's provides a decidedly different viewpoint, and one with an inherently high level of credibility. 

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United States of Ignorance?

How can one of the worlds's wealthiest industrialized
nations be home to some of the least informed citizens
in the world?

 It is a startling state of affairs when your bubble of personal perception is burst with all the subtlety of one of Donald Trump’s latest political gaffes. But burst it did while conducting interviews polling the general public’s perception of Thailand, and by proxy, their general sense of awareness of anything remotely foreign to America. Conducting these interviews led me to drastically recalibrate my expectations of the general American’s ignorance of the world outside of the good old U.S. of A.  When asked just a few (six) questions about Thailand, it was startling to see such a general lack of the slightest idea of anything to do with Thailand, other than the fact that it was in Asia.

Just the Facts Ma'am

The Questions:

           1) What continent is Thailand in?

           2) What is the capital of Thailand?

           3) What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think          

           of Thailand?

           4) Can you name an important historical event that 

           happened in or involving Thailand in the past century?

           5)     ... in the past five years?

           6)     ...in the past year?

The Sources:

            Barbara: 54, Bachelor’s Degree, Manager

            Tom: 79, Bachelor’s Degree, Human Resources (Retired)

            Lou: 60, Bachelor’s Degree, P.E. Teacher

            Tim: 22, 4^th Year Political Science Major, Cal Poly

            Mike: 26, Bachelor’s Degree, Civil Engineer

            Megan: 23, Bachelor’s Degree, Graphic Designer

  Ignorance FTW   

  

       Out of the six sources interviewed, all of them surmised the proper continent. All’s well and good there, but in subsequent questioning, the results were decidedly worse. Of the six sources, only Tim and Tom were able to answer the majority of the questions.  

What does American Pie have to do with Thailand?

 For a country that has had a good amount of American news coverage in the past 5 years, it’s quite telling when only a few people can answer some basic knowledge questions about a foreign country that many Americans pay little heed to what going on outside the American isolation bubble. Even Tim, who was able to respond to all but one of the questions (Can you name and important event that happened in the past year?) found a way to put an “Americentric” spin on the question “What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Thailand?” with his answer of “Stifler punching a dude in the balls and yelling Bangkok!” While Tim subsequently offered the more serious answer of “cheap tourism” his initial response just goes to illustrate the collective “me” mentality of America as a whole, more concerned with pop culture and  domestic trivialities than what goes on in the big wide world outside of the American isolation bubble.


While I was quite taken aback by the general ignorance of foreign events by most of my sources, what hit me even harder was the general unabashedness of this ignorance. And this is a trend I consistently see, not just during the interviews I conducted. I’ve never considered myself an outlier, but after these interviews, it appears I may be, which has prompted me to question: How is it possible for so many people to know so little about the world? It only seems natural to me to cultivate an interest in what is going on around the world, not just in my immediate backyard, but apparently that view isn’t shared by nearly as many as I thought. But, if I were a betting man, I’d be willing to say that everyone I interviewed knows that Donald Trump is considering adding the White House to his real estate portfolio. Good to know we’ve got our priorities straight. 

America Photo Assignment

What's more American than apple pie? McDonald's Apple Pie.

America: A Fast Food Nation

The New York Stock Exchange

The heart of American capitalism since 1817.

The imagery of the Founding Fathers has played heavily in the collective American identity.

The autocracy of Kim Jong-Il serves as an effective antithesis of what we consider "American"

A typical parking lot in the Netherlands. America's oil-dependent car culture stands in stark contrast.

This sidewalk cafe in Europe highlights the contrast between the American "gotta go" sense of urgency, with the much more laid-back cultures of Western Europe (and much of the rest of the world too, for that matter).