THE LADYBOY STORY

The "Kathoey", the Thai word for men looking like women, like to call themselves "ladyboys". In a hotel somewhere in Thailand, about seventy Kathoey work and live in an eight-floor hotel/brothel. Filmmaker Snijders, a Kathoey herself , lived for a month in this close-knit community. In Thailand, many men undergo sex-change operations and plastic surgery. Some have to save up for years to cover the costs. Unlike the Western world, it is perfectly normal to have a sex-change operation in Thailand. Most Kathoey are prostitutes and have their bodies changed to earn money more easily, but, of course, everybody has a personal reason as well.