Gendered Ambivalence
37
who at an early age finds himself drawn to women more than men. When his
parents are unable to work, Nong Toom becomes a Muay Thai boxer. Moreover,
Thai boxing becomes a way for Nong Toom to raise money for his sex change
surgery (Nong Toom underwent full sex reassignment surgery in 1999).28 The
movie highlights various levels of Thai cultural ambivalence: Firstly, kathoey
belief that they are women who are trapped in the bodies of men, which is used
in the movie’s preview billing "who fights like a man so he can become a
woman.” Underscoring kathoey belief, when asked by National Geographic
which gender she would choose in her next incarnation, Nong Toom said that
she would "choose to be bom a man (in her next incarnation). But this time, a
real man, with a man’s heart to match the man’s body.”29 Secondly, the movie
discloses Thai ambivalence of kathoey as depicted in Non Toom’s penchant for
wearing lipstick during her fighting bouts, and her refusal to strip before a
reporters’ pre-fight gathering in 1998.30 Moreover, Nong Toom’s character
threatens Thai concepts of masculinity to the point that she is suspected by a
daunted Thai boxing fraternity as being a product of "a well-crafted promotional
conspiracy.”31
While the Beautiful Boxer contests popular Thai misconceptions of
kathoey, Thai media has tended to represent kathoey according to social
stereotypes. They are often depicted as silly, comical, histrionic, childish, weak,
and insignificant. Asiaweek magazine reported that some psychiatrists thought
that images of kathoey on T.V. could "encourage youngsters to turn gay.”32
According to Jittima Phanutecha of the Women’s Health Advocacy Foundation,
gays, lesbians, and transgenders "in the Thai media remained stereotyped as
being abnormal and unnatural/'33 Her article "The Media’s Portrayals of Sexual
Diversity” further states that discrimination is also apparent in the use of
language. “While heterosexual couples are khoo rak (love couple), same-gender
couples in the same situation are invariably called khoo kha (sex partners).”34
She also found that visual portrayals of non-heterosexuals often showed them
wearing “skimpy costumes or making hypersexual displays of affection.”3*
Similarly, Viroj Tangvanich, a well-known medi