Originally posted 2023-04-14 18:48:17.
Males who wish to appear to be women fall into two categories: androphilic and gynephilic. The former are attracted to masculine men and the latter to femininity.
In Southeast Asia, the most common English term for such a male is ladyboy. Most do not find this at all offensive and describe themselves using it. But there are some differences from Western notions that need to be addressed.
Firstly, ‘gay’ does not mean what it means in the West. It specifically refers to an unmasculine or effeminate male and note. ‘Gay’ in this context can denote someone who is gynephilic (attracted to femininity) or androphilic (attracted to masculinity.) Locally it is equivalent to bakla, beki, bading, bayot, waria, kathoey and over a hundred others, usually translated as ‘ladyboy’. This literally means ‘having the body of a boy but the spirit of a lady’ and this understanding is consistent. It does not specifically refer to outwardly feminised males, though this error is frequently made. An almost completely conventional-looking male can also be a ladyboy.
This definition was essentially ubiquitous prior to about 1870, though other terms, like catamite, were used in English. This was not in any way challenged until Karl-Maria Kertbeny (alias Bengkert,) writing in 1879, invented the term homosexual (in German) and ascribed characteristics that were somewhat different to the general understanding. (He also created and defined heterosexual.) Kertbeny’s ideas, however, remained obscure until Alfred Kinsey promoted them in the USA after World War 2. This is confusing, so I propose we abandon terms like ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ replace them with others, specifically gynephilic, in which the subject is attracted to femininity and the opposite, androphilic, the attraction to masculinity. Note that these do not reference sex, but gender.
Another opposition we will use was most central to the issue prior to the nineteenth century and remains paramount everywhere except the West, that being dominant/submissive dichotomy. This is particularly relevant to males, since their high levels of testosterone tend to promote dominant behaviour. For a Roman or indeed any ancient, this was the critical factor; not appearance or attraction, but sexual behaviour. Bluntly, men are dominant, masculine males; males who do not conform to this model might be called Not-men, after Professor Don Kulick. Note that the sex of the submissive partner is irrelevant in this; men are not changed by penetrating not-men (though they would be if they permitted the inverse.) No Roman thought Hadrian was anything other than a masculine man, despite his having a boy beloved — a catamite.
‘Gay’ is a lifestyle which contains a number of personality types, which may differ by appearance, orientation, sexual practice and so on. ‘Homosexual’ per Kertbeny describes a sexual act between two individual of the same sex. These concepts are not the same and to complicate matters, attraction was introduced. This is problematic because attraction is to gender, that is appearance and behaviour, rather than sex per se. Basically, opposites attract: most men are attracted to femininity and women to masculinity; but as Pinky below shows, gender does not necessarily follow sex, rather it follows sexuality. Pinky, despite being male and genitally intact, wants men and she knows that men are attracted to her femininity, so she maximises it — just as every normal woman does. Again, in Asia, all homosexuals are ladyboys, irrespective of their appearance and all ladyboys are homosexuals.
In the Philippines, ladyboys appear in two main forms, ‘short-hair’ and ‘longhair’. Short-hairs, as you might guess, tend to wear floppy hairdos, still recognisably feminine but which can be concealed easily. Their dress code depends on the social situation. At work, they might wear a shirt and slacks while at night they would probably wear something more feminine and quite possibly a wig. Longhairs wear feminine clothing all the time. Both classes will likely be taking hormones as long as they can afford them. These are often  in the form of contraceptive pills, but injected forms of oestrogen, usually estradiol, are popular too. The effect of these in not to ‘change sex’ but to make the individual more feminine.
This works because men, that is, masculine males, are androphobic. That means they are repulsed by masculinity in their sexual targets while at the same time being attracted to femininity; nearly all men who partner ladyboys are also attracted to females, because of their femininity. So ladyboys are as feminine as they can be, because the absence of masculinity and femininity are the same thing.
Green Blood
All gays, ladyboys etc. have a quality which is described in the Philippines as ‘having green blood.’ A male with this can never be a man, because it signifies that he is unmasculine. Green blood can be innate, present from childhood, or it may be acquired through sexual contact with other males; but also through dreaming about them, or, importantly, being fascinated with one’s own femininity, again either in fantasy or by wearing feminine clothing and accessories. This phenomenon is called Autogynephilia and it is the stimulus for all males who desire to appear to be feminine; they are sexually stimulated by their own appearance as girls. Green blood may also be acquired by being ‘girly’, small, artistically talented and so on.
There is no difference between a longhair and a short-hair, other than appearance. Both have ‘green blood’, that is, in Tagalog, berding dugo. Indeed they might jokingly greet each other saying ‘Berde ba ang dugo mo, ate?’ (Is the blood in your veins green, sister?) This insight is relevant in the West, too: there is no difference between a feminine boy and a transsexual, other than the way they appear. The first hides her feminine nature, the second immerses herself in it. However, all feminine boys are potentially transsexual, so a change in circumstances, in the West as elsewhere, may lead to completion. That is because the state of being a feminine boy is unstable and the only resolution is to bring sexuality and gender fully into alignment — that is, to complete or desist; but the latter is rarely chosen.
Finally, here, note that this discussion, as regards Asia, applies mainly to males from the social classes C1,C2, D and E, from the Approximated Social Grade Scale, with its six categories A, B, C1, C2, D and E. This is a useful socio-economic classification produced by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS). The prevalence appears to be weighted too, with more visible ladyboys (either long or short hair) in the D and E groups and fewer in C1. Again this is not hard and fast but does generally apply; the effect of this weighting may be changing as ladyboys become more accepted in management and professional careers.
Blanchard Types
The two main classifications of male trans expression, homosexual and non-homosexual, described by Dr Ray Blanchard, do appear across southeast Asia, but there are marked differences from the Western model, caused by cultural variation. The most striking of these is that almost all ‘non-homosexual’ ladyboys (actually an oxymoron) are androphilic; they pursue men exclusively, regardless of whether they prefer to be sexually dominant or submissive. This contradicts Blanchard. Note also that both short-hairs and longhairs can be in either Blanchard class.
Why would that be?
In the first place, these are conservative cultures. In all, the virginity of young girls is strongly protected and in some, breaching this rule could result in the death of both parties. Fortunately this is rare, but in the Philippines, for example, unmarried girls, especially those from good families, are generally not available for sex. I know that visitors to the red-light zones might raise an eyebrow at this but a little investigation will quickly reveal that almost all the women in sex work are actually single mothers who, because of a careless slip (and probably alcohol) or a delinquent partner, fell pregnant as a teenager and thereafter were unable to find a husband. They are literally ‘fallen women’.
Michael Tan put it like this:
The male libido (libog) is considered to be strong and needs to be satisfied. It is considered acceptable for a ‘real man’ to have sex with a bakla as long as he himself does not become bakla. This is especially the case for binata or unmarried males, who are not allowed access to their girlfriends because girlfriends have to be ‘respected’ and female virginity retained intact until marriage.
That raises issues: first, with whom are randy teenage boys going to have sex, if girls are unavailable and they are being encouraged, in order to join the male culture, to lose their virginities?
Loob and Labas
So what is a boy to do? Would it not be ideal if there were a person whose virginity was not protected and who was willing (more) to be sexually submissive, that is to be anally penetrated? Male virginity has absolutely no value in these cultures, so it would be the solution to all the problems, wouldn’t it? Step forward, gays, ladyboys, whatever the local name is. Their function becomes to provide sex to other males, in a culture where girls are off limits.
It is very common in the Philippines for adolescent boys and young adults, who will later marry heterosexually and fully engage in maintaining families, to have sex…with baklas. These males…are not marked as homosexuals by society and do not experience themselves as such. The Filipino view that only the “feminine” partner in the sexual relationship is a homosexual reinforces the emphasis on the feminine loob as the core of bakla identity.
Masculine-appearing men, who are assumed to take the inserter sexual position, are also assumed to have a masculine loob; they are thus real men even as they have sexual relations with bakla. In spite of the fact that…male partners of the bakla acknowledge sexual satisfaction…from their bakla relationships, the masculine-appearing partner stoutly denies any deep affection or emotional impact in the relationship…only the feminine bakla is deeply emotionally affected.
Serena Nanda
How ladyboys provide a Social Service
Ladyboys therefore provide a social service that helps to protect female virginity and also the status of other boys, by enthusiastically making their own bottoms available for sex. And be in no doubt about it, many ladyboys begin their careers around the age of ten to twelve. In these early years they are uniquely servicing local men and older boys. As one author put it, though perhaps shy at first, ‘soon, however, (the boy) does begin to get thrills from the sexual acts for these are the only sex available to him. His desires naturally adapt to the situation. ‘ Paradoxically, perhaps, when they reach around twenty, their pool of sexual partners diminishes rapidly, because the masculine men they desire are now seriously courting women to make families with. A known habit of dalliance with cute juvenile ladyboys might hamper that.
Two other factors apply. First, males of green blood are expected only to pursue male partners and not female ones. There are cultural taboos surrounding this and the strongest is this:
‘Like does not go with like; boys go with girls and girls go with boys.’ The corollary being ‘But it doesn’t really matter how the parties got to be as they are.’
So, a ladyboy, that is, a ‘boy-become-girl,’ can be with a man and that will largely be accepted, especially if she’s passingly feminine. Indeed if she is genuinely beautiful and many are, she may be regarded as a trophy — by other men, not necessarily by their wives. Similarly a lesbian, that being ‘girl-become-boy’, can date women. In fact this latter may be better accepted since no penis is present and there is no risk to the girl’s virginity, if intact.
Obviously an androphilic ladyboy is not going to be interested in women, but just as obviously, a gynephilic ladyboy might be. If she has money, she might persuade a ‘fallen woman’ to partner her, but this is unlikely to be made public in either’s home area. In these cultures, young women and ladyboys share rooms all the time and all ladyboys have legions of female friends. That would immediately be called into question if the ladyboy made sexual advances towards these women.
One result of this is that while some ladyboys are theoretically attracted to women, in practice they rarely get the opportunity and anyway, they know that the potential cost might be too high. Quaintly perhaps, this can cause them to predate on other, more feminine or submissive, ladyboys.
At the same time, most ladyboys quickly learn to enjoy being penetrated anally and many make it their preferred avenue for sex.
The change of focus
It is obvious that two cohorts exist, to anyone observing in Asia. One type appears in childhood and conforms to the congenital Sexual Invert type. With onset of sex-atypical traits being evident by around age five, these children will tend to be small, delicate, slight, to dislike rough and tumble, to develop marked crushes on older more dominant boys and men, be distinguished by facial neoteny, may be talented dancers or artists and so on. We might call these the Childhood onset type. The other form appears at or after puberty and we might call them the Adolescent onset type. Note however, that both types are androphilic, though some in the Adolescent type might be gynephilic too.
There are two main techniques of classification.
The first is morphology. There are general, though not absolute rules that Childhood onset individuals will be will be: smaller, neotenous, lightly built, artistic, have feminine digit ratios and much else. The adolescent onset type will not cluster like this. They can be tall, heavy, bigger-boned and tend to be more studied in their performance of femininity.
The second is age of appearance. Childhood onset individuals present around the age of four to five and the Adolescents from about sixteen up. This is not a scale of variation, they are two completely separate cohorts. One study specifically remarked on this dichotomy, which surprised the authors, whom I spoke to.
When I was in my sophomore year, something strange happened regarding my personality which I could not comprehend. It’s not just that my voice changed, new hair started to grow, and inevitable pimples began to appear. I loved to mingle with my girl classmates, rather than the boys. I loved to be with them most of the time…it was the very beginning of my transition period regarding my gender identity.
Gabrielle Diolata Payla
Batang baklas again
In the Philippines these two groups are often called batang baklas, baklitas, or similar and late bloomers, although there are other terms, because the nation has many languages. Batang bakla means, roughly ‘baby ladyboy’. They are clearly evident in the streets, barangays and the informal ‘baby gay’ beauty pageants, while late bloomers tend to dominate the adult versions.
Confirming a diagnosis of batang bakla, when the individual is adult, can be difficult but the most reliable way is to speak to the individual’s close relatives, their siblings and mothers, who will remember how they were in childhood. If photographs are available they will usually provide convincing evidence.