The other trap in femininity
Ziri Sutprasert February 3, 2012 1:00 am
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/The-other-trap-in-femininity-30175067.html (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/The-other-trap-in-femininity-30175067.html)
My big-bodied female friend loves to overact, so she's always being teased about sounding like a katoey, much to her annoyance.
Lately she's even more worried because an astrologer gave her a new gender-less name that he said would improve her life. Now she's afraid people she's introduced to will think she really is a katoey,
It reminds me of the public announcement that was made during the Plaek Pibulsongkram regime: People's given names had to match their gender, so men couldn't be called Patcharapa, for example, and women couldn't be Teeradech. Any name connoting beauty, sweetness or timidity was automatically female, while names suggesting bravery, strength and power belonged to men.