ABSTRACT
Get a detailed look at the Thai sex/gender system—through analysis of the personal stories from transgendered youth in Thailand
The Thai term sao braphet song (a “second type of woman”) describes males who reject the gender of masculinity for femininity. Male Bodies, Women’s Souls: Personal Narratives of Thailand’s Transgendered Youth uses the narrative method, stories in the words of these “second type of women” to analyze these transgendered experiences. This previously ignored perspective of the Thai sex/gender system gained through this theoretical and methodological approach offers students and general readers a rich, more readily accessible foundation of knowledge about gendered subjectivity and sex/gender systems.
Male Bodies, Women’s Souls: Personal Narratives of Thailand’s Transgendered Youth features in-depth, autobiographical life histories from individual Thai transgendered youth. Life stories, told in the participants’ own words, provides an engaging, at times touching, always insightful look at Thai culture’s sex/gender system. The authors then expertly analyze the narratives to illuminate common themes and constructions within this group, allowing an opportunity for contrast and discussion on transgender experiences in other nations.
Male Bodies, Women’s Souls: Personal Narratives of Thailand’s Transgendered Youth analyzes the major themes in the stories, including:
- identities
- definitions and descriptive labels
- etiologies of sao braphet song-ness
- the notion of acceptance
- narrator motivations for participating in the project
