The Thai term kathoei refers
to non-gender-normative females, males and intersexual individuals at different
stages of the transitional spectrum with recognized social and cultural roles
in society. Nevertheless, kathoeisare
only tolerated in Thai society. Many kathoeis seek
social acceptance through beauty and turn to the off-label injection of various
‘beauty drugs’.
The first author conducted an ethnographic study of
injection parties at a wedding studio in a Central Thai provincial city between
April and September 2011. Data were gathered through participant observation,
focus group discussions and narrative interviews with six participants. All
data were collected and analyzed in Thai, and later translated.
While injection parties provide opportunities for kathoeis to
socialize, bond, and share experiential knowledge on chemically-assisted
transformation, they also reproduce ideologies of gender, beauty and sexuality
that reinforce the notion that if a kathoei is to
maintain her beauty, she must use medicines more frequently and in higher
doses.
Injection parties among Thai kathoeis feature
drug use that is entirely reasonable in terms of their own lay knowledge.
Empowering kathoeis, by
providing accessible information on chemicals and health in a way that reflects
the complexity and diversity of their practices, would be one way to reduce
health risks. Society must give more long-term options to kathoeis to
build their sense of self, based on things besides being beautiful...
Because our kathoei informants do not have
the bodily capital that can constitute womanly beauty from birth, they have to
resort to the careful, continuous modification of their bodies. Injections in
this context are instant infusions of beauty. Their new bodies, in turn,
provide opportunities to acquire more capital, social space, and both economic
and romantic opportunities. Within the injection party, the construction of
beauty becomes an easy and fun thing to do, while truths about beauty and
chemicals are constantly reinterpreted, based on kathoeis’ individual
learning experiences or thuk gun. Although medical knowledge is
invoked at these parties, it is done to increase credibility rather than to
confirm its principles.
The findings of this study on the complex phenomenon of
injectable chemical use among Thai kathoeis present serious
challenges to our general understanding of medicine use. Individual chemical
use that does not fit with professional medical understandings is often branded
by the latter as irrational (Lupton 1999). Yet, the injection parties
arranged among Thai kathoeis feature drug use that is entirely
reasonable in terms of their own lay knowledge, acquired on the basis of
experience.
Empowering kathoeis by making available
transgender-specific services that provide accessible information about
chemicals and health in a way that both reflects the complexity and diversity
of their health practices would be one important way to reduce health risks. It
could also help to reduce the exploitation they are subjected to by
entrepreneurs willing to profit from their greater understanding of and access
to chemicals and medicines. More importantly still, society must give more
long-term options to kathoeis to build their sense of self,
based on things besides being beautiful. Only then could each kathoei individual
build her sense of self based on what she truly wants, and be freed of her
dependence on drugs...
Full article
at:
By:
1Department of Society and Health, Faculty
of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Thailand
2Department of Community Pharmacy, Faculty
of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University, Thailand
3Center for Health Policy Studies, Faculty
of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Thailand
Correspondence: Thomas E. Guadamuz, Department of Society
and Health, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University,
25/25 Buddhamonthon 4 Road, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom THAILAND 73170, Email: moc.liamtoh@umadaugt Phone:
++662-441-9515
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