Kathoey

The life of the kathoey kick boxer Nong Tum is related in the 2003 movie Beautiful Boxer. Other highly speculative and somewhat doubtful places for present or past life include the atmosphere of Venus, Titan cryovolcanoes, or even Enceladus. It is loosely based on an incident in December 1998 when a group including a popular singer and his kathoey makeup artist survived a plane crash. Jupiter's moons are also considered good candidates for extraterrestrial life, especially Europa, which seems to possess oceans of liquid water. The film explores anti-gay attitudes in various ways. See Life on Mars for further discussion. The 2002 Thai film Saving Private Tootsie tells the story of a group of gays and kathoey who have to be rescued after a plane crash in rebel-held jungle territory. Recent evidence from the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity supports the theory that Mars once had surface water.

The story of the Iron Ladies volleyball team underlies the successful 2000 movie The Iron Ladies and the 2003 sequel The Iron Ladies 2. Searches for extraterrestrial life are currently focusing on planets and moons believed to possess liquid water, at present or in the past. It relates the story of two teenage kathoey who prepare for and enter a rural beauty contest and then leave for Pattaya to find work in a cabaret revue. Today, the closest that scientists have come to finding extraterrestrial life is fossil evidence of possible bacterial life on Mars (via the ALH84001 meteorite). Ladyboys is a 1992 documentary film made for Channel 4 TV and directed by Jeremy Marre. There have been a number of claims of the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe, but none of these have yet survived scientific scrutiny. Her career ended in 1999 when she had genital reassignment surgery. The question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe remains open, but analyses such as the Drake equation have been used to estimate the probability of such life existing.

She was already cross-dressing and taking hormones while still a popular boxer; she would enter the ring with long hair and makeup, occasionally kissing a defeated opponent. At this time, Earth is the only planet in the universe known by humans to support life. Among the most famous kathoey in Thailand is Nong Tum, a former champion kick boxer. Main articles: Extraterrestrial life, Astrobiology. The Thai government, concerned with the country's image, then barred two of the kathoey from joining the national team and competing internationally. Many models fall into the "genes-first" category or the "metabolism-first" category, but a recent trend is the emergence of hybrid models that do not fit into either of these categories. In 1996, a volleyball team composed mostly of gays and kathoey, known as the "Iron Ladies", won the Thai national championship. There are many different hypotheses regarding the path that might have been taken from simple organic molecules to protocells and metabolism.

The decision had to be reversed after protests by gay, lesbian and feminist groups. There is no truly "standard" model of the origin of life, but most currently accepted scientific models build in one way or another on the following discoveries, which are listed roughly in order of postulated emergence:. This was followed by negative coverage of kathoey in the Thai press; the Rajabhat Institutes (teacher training colleges) then closed their doors to all kathoey. Main article: Origin of life. In 1996, a kathoey education student murdered a young woman. Another exception might be the software code of certain forms of computer viruses and programs created through genetic programming, but whether computer programs can be alive even by this definition is still a matter of some contention. [1]. This argument would, however, include viruses, which have been observed to evolve.

The term "kathoey" is occasionally also used for effeminate male homosexuals who don't cross-dress, and "kathoey-saloey" is a pejorative slang term for these people, roughly equivalent to the English "faggot" (as used in US English). In all known life forms (assuming prions are not counted as such), the genetic material is primarily DNA or the related molecule, RNA. Further, kathoey often belong to lower social classes, and their suicide rate is significantly higher than that of the general population. The study of this form of heritability is called genetics. Kathoeys are also estimated to have been one of the groups that suffered most from the Indian Ocean earthquake, having far less familial support and recourse to government help than most other groups in society. Descent with modification is sufficient by itself to allow evolution, assuming that the variations in the offspring allow for differential survival. (Compare Legal aspects of transsexualism). A useful characteristic upon which to base a definition of life is that of descent with modification: the ability of a life form to produce offspring that are like its parent or parents, but with the possibility of some variation due to chance.

Legal recognition of kathoey is non-existent in Thailand: even after genital reassignment surgery, they are not allowed to change their legal sex. Variations of this definition include:. Families (and especially fathers) are typically disappointed if a son becomes a kathoey. fire). The lives of kathoey are not as easy as many Westerners might believe. These objects are not to be confused with dissipative structures (e.g. However, kathoey generally seek male sexual partners who identify themselves as heterosexual and not as gay. The systemic definition is that living things are self-organizing and autopoietic (self-producing).

A possible explanation for the high number of kathoey is the fact that open male homosexuality is a much more recent and less visible phenomenon in Thailand; becoming a kathoey might thus be a solution for a number of male homosexuals. Generally, all six characteristics are required for a population to be considered a lifeform. Some believe that this higher acceptance is due to the nature of the surrounding Buddhist culture, which places a high value on tolerance. Still, some would not call these entities alive. The phenomenon is not restricted to urban areas; there are kathoey in most villages, and kathoey beauty contests are commonly held as part of local fairs. Viruses reproduce, flames grow, some software programs mutate and evolve, future software programs will probably evince (even high-order) behavior, machines move, and some form of proto-life consisting of metabolizing cells without the ability to reproduce presumably existed. Compared to Western countries, where transgender and transsexuals are just beginning to become visible (and demand their rights), kathoey are much more visible and more widely accepted in Thai culture: several popular Thai models, singers and movie stars are kathoey, and Thai newspapers often print photos of the winners of female and kathoey beauty contests side by side. However, most forms of life rely on foods produced by other species, or at least the specific chemistry of the Earth.

Kathoey working in regular occupations are not uncommon; some of them are valued beauticians or hair stylists. For similar reasons, viruses and aberrant prion proteins are often considered replicators rather than forms of life: they cannot reproduce without very specialised substrates such as host cells or proteins, respectively. There are also persistent reports of groups of kathoey working as pickpockets in tourist areas. It is also worth noting that non-reproducing individuals may still help the spread of their genes through such mechanisms as kin selection. Many kathoey work in entertainment and tourist centers, as dancers, in cabaret shows (Alcazar and Tiffanys in Pattaya being among the best known ones) or as prostitutes. One could say that the property of life is inherited; hence, sterile hybrid species such as the mule are considered life although not themselves capable of reproduction. Their makeup, dress and figure is usually very feminine. It is important to note that life is a definition that applies at the level of species, so even though many individuals of any given species do not reproduce, possibly because they belong to specialised sterile castes (such as ant workers), these are still considered forms of life.

They often start to cross-dress, take female hormones and undergo various surgical procedures at quite a young age. Some assert that this must be the case for all possible forms of life throughout the universe; others describe this position as 'carbon chauvinism'. Virtually all kathoey cross-dress and undergo hormone replacement therapy; most have breast implants; some also undergo genital reassignment surgery to transform their genitals, surgery to reduce the size of the Adam's apple, and other surgical procedures. All life on Earth is based on the chemistry of carbon compounds. They are sometimes referred to as ladyboys or as the third sex in Thailand. Although there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, the generally accepted biological manifestations are that life exhibits the following phenomena:. A kathoey or katoey (in Thai กะเทย) is a male-to-female transgender person in Thailand. How can one tell when an entity is alive? It would be relatively straightforward to offer a practical set of guidelines if one's only concern were life on Earth as we know it (see biosphere), but as soon as one considers questions about life's origins on Earth, or the possibility of extraterrestrial life, or the concept of artificial life, it becomes clear that the question is fundamentally difficult and comparable in many respects to the problem of defining intelligence.

For the Alan Partridge drink combination, see Ladyboy (Drinks). . Describes the story of Nong Tum. Life is a multi-faceted concept that may refer to the ongoing process of which living things are a part; the period between fertilisation (in sexual reproduction) or mitosis and splitting from the parent (in asexual organisms), and death. Chanon Intramart and Eric Allyn: Beautiful Boxer, 2003. Procedures for producing random RNA molecules can produce ribozymes, which are able to produce more of themselves under very specific conditions. Description of the gay and kathoey scene of Thailand. Phospholipids spontaneously form lipid bilayers, the basic structure of a cell membrane.

Allyn: Trees in the Same Forest, 2002. This was demonstrated in the Urey-Miller experiment. E.G. Plausible pre-biotic conditions result in the creation of the basic small molecules of life. Thailand's "Women of the Second Kind". Stuart Kauffman's definition of life as an autonomous agent or a multi-agent system capable of reproducing itself or themselves, and of completing at least one thermodynamic work cycle. An insight into ladyboys, by Christos. This is, however, a description rather than a definition of life, meaning it excludes other possible forms of life.

Transgender Asia including several articles on kathoey. Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana's definition of life as an autopoietic (self-producing), water based, lipid-protein bound, carbon metabolic, nucleic acid replicated, protein readout system. Reports on a kathoey "sorority" at Chiang Mai University. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth. Andrew Matzner: Roses of the North: The Katoey of Chiang Mai University, 1999. Reproduction - The division of one cell to form two new cells is reproduction. Criticizes the common view that kathoey are fully accepted by Thai society. A response is often expressed by motion: the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.

Andrew Matzner: In Legal Limbo: Thailand, Transgendered Men, and the Law, 1999. Plants also respond to stimuli, but usually in ways very different from animals. Response to stimuli - A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. It is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the individual's heredity. Adaptation - Adaptation is the accommodation of a living organism to its environment.

A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. Growth - Growth results from a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life. Metabolism - Metabolism produces energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (synthesis) and decomposing organic matter (catalysis).

Organization - Living things are comprised of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.