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'Ladyboys' lead the way

AFP, BANGKOK
Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007, Page 12

Members of Venus Flytrap, a "ladyboy" band modeled on the Spice Girls, perform at a stage in Bangkok. PHOTO: AFP

Thailand's famed tolerance of transsexuals often stops at the cabaret ticketbox but a new and apparently all-girl band has set its sights on the pop charts hoping that mainstream success will help change social attitudes.

Venus Flytrap is not a girl band in the strictest sense, but a "ladyboy" band of five members who were born males and had their sex surgically altered.

With the guidance of one of the world's major recording companies, which has its eye on a market niche, they have become the first such act to win a mainstream record deal.

Modeled on the Spice Girls, their onstage personas are Cool Venus, Naughty Venus, Posh Venus, Sweet Venus and Hot Venus.

Their first album, Visa for Love, was released in December and though it has yet to break into the charts it has enjoyed high-turnover play on Bangkok's SkyTrain rail network and won the group a high-profile spot at an downtown open-air concert.

Big backers

Sony BMG Music Entertainment developed the idea for the group as a new twist on the tried-and-true girl band style, said the company's director for artist and repertoire Amonrat Homhoul

The company auditioned 100 transsexual performers before selecting these five, who then underwent a year of intense singing, acting and dance lessons, she said.

"It is not easy. Producing the album took a long time because there are five of them," Amonrat said. Recording was also time-consuming because the group members sing as women, but cannot keep their voices at a high pitch for more than a few hours, she added.

Nevertheless, she said: "The response has been good, even if the songs aren't on the chart yet."

The five Venuses say they hope their first single Cause I'm Your Lady, and the rest of their music will help broaden perceptions of transsexuals in Thailand.

"I see being in Venus Flytrap as another chance for me, for a ladyboy, to work in another field of entertainment" other than cabarets and beauty pageants, said Dhanade Ruangroongroj, or Cool Venus.

Thailand is believed to have one of the largest transsexual populations in the world. Academics estimate at least 10,000 live in Thailand, though some put the figure 10 times higher.

Even the conservative number would mean that per capita, Thailand has many more transsexuals than most developed countries.

Part of the reason they have become so prominent here is the ready availability of medical treatments for sex change operations, which can cost rougly 150,000 baht (about US$3,750) — a hefty sum in Thailand but still a fraction of the cost in Western countries.

Another reason is that traditional Thai culture has fewer prejudices against transvestites than many other countries. Known as "kathoey," they had special roles to play in village festivals, usually involving decorations or performances.

Nonetheless, transsexuals typically remain on the fringes of society, tolerated but still curiosities, finding work such as exotic entertainers in cabaret revues.

Naughty Venus, Topmonthawan "Gina" Boonchalee, said she hoped that her new band's success would show that transsexuals could compete with mainstream entertainers to find an audience beyond the cabarets.

Ladyboy cabarets are often either tucked into red-light districts or set up as enormous spectacles for tourists, but Gina said Venus Flytrap proves that ladyboy entertainers are capable of more than that.

"We are artists, we can offer any kind of performance," Gina said.

That doesn't mean that no one ever frowns on their shows or gives them disapproving looks, but the band says they have encountered far less negativity than they expected.

"We are a new phenomenon. I hope we are paving the way for other ladyboys. I hope society will be more open for them so that they can work, because they are able to work," said Krerkkong Suanyot, or Posh Venus.

Krerkkong, who has degrees in food science and humanities and is studying for a masters in political science, said she hopes her experience with the band will help earn recognition for other transsexuals.

They do have at least one musical edge on their pop star competitors, noted Ploypaitoon Moukprakaaiphed, or Hot Venus.

"I can sing as both a woman and a man," she said slyly.

The group does have a nagging concern that their rising celebrity might be based more on who they are, rather than how they sing, said Rachakorn Jaroensuk, or Sweet Venus.

"People know us, but they don't know what songs we sing," she said.

I hope audiences do look at us for our work, rather than just for being pretty," she added.

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