THAILAND: First Thai transsexual "girl band" debuts with high hopes to hit the high notes.

Record ID: 249000

  • Title: THAILAND: First Thai transsexual "girl band" debuts with high hopes to hit the high notes.
  • Date: 23rd February 2007
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) AMY SAYING: "When I was a teenager, I tried to force myself to act like a boy because my family did not understand the way I was. I was trying to act like a boy -- like playing sports and flirting with girls. I tried to court a girl one time as she looked quite pretty but when I saw her brother, I was getting to like
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVA81VP00M6AYGZQT22BKG0K0K3B
  • Story Text: Looking the part of a glamourous girl band, Thailand's first transsexual pop group shakes up the music industry with their looks and dances.

    Five beauties, great dance moves and the skimpiest of outfits: "Venus Flytrap" fits the girl band cliché in every respect but one.
    These "girls" are really boys. Bobo, Taya, Gina, Amy and Nok are young Thai transsexuals (commonly referred to as "ladyboys") brought together by record company Sony BMG to create a girl group with a twist. The band is hoping a newly-released album, "Visa for Love" and risqué video will propel them to stardom.
    Stylish and articulate, they want to sweep aside the common image of transsexuals as cabaret queens or tourist curiosities and join the mainstream of international pop.
    "The outstanding and selling points of us are our special looks as special women or ladyboys. For this album we are selling something that is similar (the ability to sing female vocals) but in different way (as in a ladyboy band). We have these two strong selling points - the same but different, said 24-year-old Nok, branded "Posh Venus," a name she got from the Spice Girls. Nok had also won a beauty queen contest in 2005.
    Hot, Cool, Posh, Naughty and Sweet now hope to be an inspiration for young transsexuals; however, they want their music to be all inclusive. Venus Flytrap's music mixes European pop, electronic house and funk with Thai lyrics.
    The performers spent almost a year to improve their singing and dancing abilities before launching their first album in last December. Hard work has definitely paid off.
    "We received the positive feedback which was much more than we expected. Before the albums launched, we were worried of complaints by the public, like how they would accept us and how would they think about us. But when the albums were launched, everybody gave us positive feedback. It might have some negative feedback as well but we have never heard of it. We feel very good and want to keep going," said 23-year-old Sweet Venus, who said she has undergone sex change operations.
    Many Thais believe being men who wants to be woman is the result of bad karma -- paying in this lifetime for misdeeds in former ones -- and that men deserve pity, not blame.
    Yet transsexuals and transvestites are widely accepted in Thailand, a Buddhist society which prides itself on tolerance
    However, Amy says she tried to make her family happy by forcing herself to act like a boy.
    "When I was a teenager, I tried to force myself to act like a boy because my family did not understand the way I was. I was trying to act like a boy -- like playing sports and flirting with girls. I tried to court a girl one time as she looked quite pretty but when I saw her brother, I was getting to like him more than her because he was very handsome," she says.
    Clever camera angles protect the modesty of the singers, who have breast implants and take female hormones. Four "Flytrap" members have undergone sex change operations.
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