BEHIND THE CURTAINS: THE LIVES AND EXPERIENCES OF TRANSSEXUAL PERFORMERS IN PHUKET

Abstract

"Behind the Curtains" is an ethnographic project which tells the stories of transvestite and transsexual performers working at Phuket Simon Cabaret in Phuket and their experiences. Transsexual performers take great efforts to undergo dazzling transformations to look beautiful on stage. Phuket is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand Tourism plays an important part in providing the economic sustainability and "stage" for these transsexual performers to be themselves. However, emphasis on appearances means that such glamorous images of "beauty" are also very much constructed and "performed" at the surface level When a tourist watches a show at the cabaret and spends the hour watching such amazing transformations taking place, glamorous images are constructed in his mind. But how much do we really know about these transsexual performers? Such representations only limit our understanding of the transsexual performers in Thailand The reality these performers face is neither glamorous nor promising. They have to live with certain representations - images that they create for themselves and stereotypes that others construct for them. The lives of these transsexual performers cannot be told merely in technical terms. They must be seen in a larger context, that of Thai society and also seen from their own point of view. This paper attempts to show the transformations that take place, the construction of "beauty", with the help from tourism, and the lives of these performers behind the glamour and glitter, their experiences and the reality they face.