13.03.2012
With her crisp uniform, immaculate makeup and hair swept up, Mew looks like any other air hostess, but she’s one of a handful of Thai transsexuals blazing a trail in the skies.
Fledgling Thailand-based carrier PC Air has hired four transgender cabin members in a highly publicized recruitment drive that has divided opinion over whether the move is in the spirit of equality or exploitation.
“I like a job where I can show my ability and I love to wear beautiful suits,” said Phuntakarn Sringern, better known by her nickname Mew, embarking last Friday on the airline’s first commercial flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.
“This is just like my dream come true, and maybe this is a first step for transladies, transgenders, to have a good job in the future,” the 25-year-old said.
In their neat black uniform and fiery orange scarves, Mew and her colleagues ushered passengers to their seats, demonstrated safety features and filled coffee cups — offering little indication that they were any different from the other air hostesses on the flight.
Some passengers, perhaps having seen PC Air’s advertising, asked the transsexual cabin crew to pose for pictures with them, but many seemed unaware there was anything unusual about the flight attendants.
“Oh, I did not hear before about it,” said Bay, a Thai passenger. “They look really beautiful … it’s pretty cool.”
Thailand has a culture of tolerance on issues of sexual orientation and gender, and “katoeys,” as transsexuals are known in the kingdom, are considered a “third sex” in their own right.
In spite of this, more conservative elements of society find it hard to accept, with transsexuals struggling to find work.
“In my heart, I always wanted to be a flight attendant but I was waiting for an opportunity,” said air hostess Chayathisa Nakmai, 24. But until now “every airline was open only to men and women. Transgenders were not accepted”.
PC Air’s initiative is being welcomed by some activists.
The company “helps promote a positive image of Thai transsexuals, beyond certain stereotypes,” said transgender advocate Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya. But others are skeptical about the motives of the company, which has actively sought to publicize its recruitment drive.
“They use the zany, outrageous, bizarre side of transsexuals,” said Yollada Krerkkong Suanyot, president of the TransFemale Association of Thailand.
“This emphasizes the way that society has regarded these people as if they were strange, special, bizarre. Come see them, these are stewardesses!”.
Buddhist Thailand is spared from the “weight of the Judeo-Christian sexual repression,” but has in the past been influenced by some Western ideas that presented transsexuals as “mentally disordered,” said Sam Winter, a psychologist and gender specialist at the University of Hong Kong.
The result is “a practical and bureaucratic intolerance” towards a group of nearly 180,000 people, he says.
With few avenues for employment, growing numbers of Thai transsexuals are moving into sex work.
Despite their sex change operation, the law does not recognize Mew, and her transsexual colleagues as women — a situation that forces PC Air to contact the destination country in advance, to avoid trouble at immigration gates.
PC Air currently has three planes and will operate charter flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong and other Asian destinations.
The company’s eccentric 48-year-old boss Peter Chan, who lent his initials to the airline, is proud of being a “pioneer.”
He denies any intention to use the transsexual crews as a marketing ploy and highlights reasons of the “heart” and “human rights” to justify the policy.
Mew, who had sex change surgery two years ago, is now hoping others will follow in the company’s footsteps.
“Maybe in the future,” she said, “all transladies, all transgenders could get a job as a flight attendant or be prime minister.”
Fledgling Thailand-based carrier PC Air has hired four transgender cabin members in a highly publicized recruitment drive that has divided opinion over whether the move is in the spirit of equality or exploitation.
“I like a job where I can show my ability and I love to wear beautiful suits,” said Phuntakarn Sringern, better known by her nickname Mew, embarking last Friday on the airline’s first commercial flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.
“This is just like my dream come true, and maybe this is a first step for transladies, transgenders, to have a good job in the future,” the 25-year-old said.
In their neat black uniform and fiery orange scarves, Mew and her colleagues ushered passengers to their seats, demonstrated safety features and filled coffee cups — offering little indication that they were any different from the other air hostesses on the flight.
Some passengers, perhaps having seen PC Air’s advertising, asked the transsexual cabin crew to pose for pictures with them, but many seemed unaware there was anything unusual about the flight attendants.
“Oh, I did not hear before about it,” said Bay, a Thai passenger. “They look really beautiful … it’s pretty cool.”
Thailand has a culture of tolerance on issues of sexual orientation and gender, and “katoeys,” as transsexuals are known in the kingdom, are considered a “third sex” in their own right.
In spite of this, more conservative elements of society find it hard to accept, with transsexuals struggling to find work.
“In my heart, I always wanted to be a flight attendant but I was waiting for an opportunity,” said air hostess Chayathisa Nakmai, 24. But until now “every airline was open only to men and women. Transgenders were not accepted”.
PC Air’s initiative is being welcomed by some activists.
The company “helps promote a positive image of Thai transsexuals, beyond certain stereotypes,” said transgender advocate Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya. But others are skeptical about the motives of the company, which has actively sought to publicize its recruitment drive.
“They use the zany, outrageous, bizarre side of transsexuals,” said Yollada Krerkkong Suanyot, president of the TransFemale Association of Thailand.
“This emphasizes the way that society has regarded these people as if they were strange, special, bizarre. Come see them, these are stewardesses!”.
Buddhist Thailand is spared from the “weight of the Judeo-Christian sexual repression,” but has in the past been influenced by some Western ideas that presented transsexuals as “mentally disordered,” said Sam Winter, a psychologist and gender specialist at the University of Hong Kong.
The result is “a practical and bureaucratic intolerance” towards a group of nearly 180,000 people, he says.
With few avenues for employment, growing numbers of Thai transsexuals are moving into sex work.
Despite their sex change operation, the law does not recognize Mew, and her transsexual colleagues as women — a situation that forces PC Air to contact the destination country in advance, to avoid trouble at immigration gates.
PC Air currently has three planes and will operate charter flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong and other Asian destinations.
The company’s eccentric 48-year-old boss Peter Chan, who lent his initials to the airline, is proud of being a “pioneer.”
He denies any intention to use the transsexual crews as a marketing ploy and highlights reasons of the “heart” and “human rights” to justify the policy.
Mew, who had sex change surgery two years ago, is now hoping others will follow in the company’s footsteps.
“Maybe in the future,” she said, “all transladies, all transgenders could get a job as a flight attendant or be prime minister.”
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