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| quote: | Originally posted by dj_alfi
I'm pretty sure you can't call it exploitation when you sign up for a contest fully knowing the rules and setting surrounding it. And it's not like anyone beside her knew she was a trans-X (I don't speak thai so I don't know where on the scale she was), so how were they exploiting her for being a trans-x?
Or did you mean she exploited the fact that she was a trans-x to get further in the contest than she would have under "normal" circumstances? |
yes, she totally did, and in doing so that way she made it OK for everyone else to undermine her and other transgender people. this makes her gender look like 'an act' versus her true self. it perpetuates a negative view that many people have against transgender people. in thailand transgender women are accepted as a separate class called 'kathoeys' so long as they fit into and likewise accept a certain set of social expectations. they don't have actual civil rights protections in thailand - for instance, they are not legally recognized as anything but their birth gender even after sexual reassignment surgery. most are forced to work in menial professions like beauty salons, sex work, cabaret, and manual labor.
a lot of people like to bring up thai 'ladyboys' (itself a pejorative term meant to disparage) to make the argument that thailand accepts transgender people. a lot of people in the transgender community hold this belief because they are very open in thailand, and there are is a big industry around it (sex work, tourism, sex tourism, surgery, entertainment). the reality is they are simply institutionally marginalized and exploited, and many all buy into it because it gives them some semblance of acceptance even if it is a lesser acceptance.
so when i see this kind of video, i only see a tragic reinforcement of social stigmas. it's kind of the transgender equivalent of malcolm x's 'house negro'.
please remember this is only my opinion and i don't speak for all transgender people. in fact my opinions are even relatively marginal within that community.
Last edited by nefardec on Aug-31-2011 at 20:54
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