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 crew in a highly publicised 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 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, and they are really nice...
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 some families sending their children to
monasteries to be "re-educated" and transsexuals struggling to find
work in many areas.
"In my heart, I always want to be a flight attendant but I was
waiting for an opportunity," said air hostess Chayathisa Nakmai,
aged 24. But until now "every airline is open only for men and
women, transgender is not accepted".
PC Air's initiative is being welcomed by some activists, who
applaud its efforts to offer a chance of ordinary work to
transgender people.
The company "helps promote a positive image of Thai
transsexuals, beyond certain stereotypes", said transgender
advocate Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya. But others are sceptical
about the motives of the company, which has actively sought to
publicise its recruitment drive.
"They use the zany, outrageous, bizarre side of transsexuals,"
said Yollada Krerkkong Suanyot, president of Thailand's TransFemale
Association of Thailand.
"This emphasises 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 had 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 as a way to make money and
for a "rare chance to affirm their identity as women", said
Winter.
Despite their sex change operation, the law does not recognise
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 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.
"It was never about money," the eccentric 48-year-old told AFP,
before embarking on a rendition of "My Way" by Frank Sinatra as if
to prove his point.
The slogan is also painted on the company's aircraft: "I believe
it's 'my way'".
Mew, who had sex change surgery two years ago, is now hoping
that others will follow in the company's footsteps, in the air and
elsewhere.
"Maybe in the future," she said, "all transladies, all
transgenders could get a job like a flight attendant or be prime
minister."
