Kathoey “In Trend”

Emergent Genderscapes, National Anxieties and the Re-Signification of Male-Bodied Effeminacy in Thailand

Bibliographic Data

ID12349641
AuthorsDredge Byung’chu Kang (0000-0001-9958-7793, Emory University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume36
Issue4
Pages475-494
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10357823.2012.741043
OpenAlexW1965028347
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited24

In Thailand, genderscapes, or the terrain of gender and sexuality, continue to evolve quickly, with male-to-female transgenderisms and effeminate gay identities proliferating alongside masculine ones. The previous coding of kathoey in popular discourse as being traditional is shifting to one that identifies “kathoeyness”, or male effeminacy, with modernity. Recent incidents point to a discursive shift based on a purified nostalgia for Thai “tradition”, which excises kathoey presence. In this article, I consider how social evaluation and moral legitimacy underscore the contemporary terrain of gender/sexuality and contradictory attitudes towards kathoeyness. I describe how the increasing visibility of male effeminacy provokes national anxiety, becomes associated with degeneracy, and is used to excise non-normative gender from recent reconstructions of Thainess

Human sexuality · Legitimacy · Modernity · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies