A couple years back, we did a photo essay about the Ladyboys of Thailand at anderbo.com, one of our favorite lit magazines . We were recently organizing our videos and found a bunch of footage from the show that we loved. It’s incredible that before we attended, I didn’t know very much about them. The performance was a whole lot of fun and in many cases, it was hard to distinguish between man and woman. We recorded a part of the essay and set it to video from the show. You’ll see a Marilyn Monroe that looks gorgeous- but happens to be male and a bunch of other awesome dance sequences that are even more incredible in real life. (the essay also has me sharing about some of my personal experiences).
Whenever I write non-fiction, I always struggle between that balance of talking about what I’m describing and intruding with my own thoughts. In this case, the idea that kept on coming back to me was metamorphosis and how much the ladyboys wanted to change. It was an angle, however different from my own experiences, I could understand.
If you’re in Thailand, make sure to watch them! The default res is HD and if you see low-res, be sure to set to at least 480. Check this link to view the essay and the video is embedded below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jXXMVTlqos&hd=1
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