Translating Transgender: Collective Production and Symbolic Boundaries in Thai "Kathoey" Identity

• In Event: 105 - Section on Body and Embodiment Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Identity, Cognition, and Emotions in Embodiment

Abstract

This literature review examines the collective production of "kathoey" (male-to-female transgender) identities within Thailand from the perspective of cultural sociology. In the first portion of the review, I analyze how literature on "kathoey" identities – which resides primarily in anthropology, cultural studies, and Asian studies – can be read through a symbolic interactionist lens wherein the production and reception of "kathoey" identity is influenced by other important identities enacted through Theravada Buddhism, Thai nationalism, and familial roles. In the second half of the review, I utilize the symbolic boundaries approach to explore the roles of language and medical regulations in creating previously nonexistent subdivisions within "kathoey" identity. I begin by synthesizing how various thinkers have posited the indigenization of English terminology within Thai, a language which has one term ("phet") to denote both gender and sexuality. Building upon this, I theorize that international medical guidelines for transgender health care such as the “Standards of Care,” which was created by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), have solidified emerging divisions between "kathoey" who desire sexual reassignment surgery and those who seek minimal or no medical intervention in the expression of their gender. Finally, I identify two gaps in the existing literature: first, the absence of in-depth examinations of the role of socioeconomic status in the expression of "kathoey" identities; and second, research that examines how "kathoey" identity is produced through in-group interactions within "kathoey" social groups.

Author

• Alyssa A. Lynne, Northwestern University