Tom / Trans / Thai is a short, experimental film that explores the intersections between tom identity, trans-masculinity and Thai id entity in a transnational context through writing and dance. It opens a door within Thai discourse, in the hope that a conversation between tom and female-to-male (FTM) transgender identity can begin.
I interviewed toms and trans-masculine Thais living in Chiang Mai, Bangkok and the US. I look at the ways gender is culturally and linguistically constructed and communicated in Thailand and the US and how that affects toms and Thai trans-masculine people, and how the presence of “tom” and “trans” influence each other.
I found that the demand to gender oneself in the Thai language, under the guise of politeness and respectability, often silences us and renders invisible and illegible our inhabitations of queerness and masculinity. Positive information around the possibility of FTM transgenderexpression within Thailand is nearly nonexistent and available only via the internet, which isolates Thai trans men, sometimes even from toms, leaving them with the painful task of finding a language to explain who they are.
Thai Americans often felt that their gender or gender non-conforming presentation excluded them from Thainess, and that being Thai (and having Thai mothers) conflated Thainess with femininity, rendering their transition as a transition away from Thainess. Many toms had pride in being both Thai and tom without separation, although their ethnicity and gender came into question when they traveled outside Thailand, without the presence of tom or queer community.
An introduction to the subject of Thai masculine gender expression and the research I have gathered so far, I attempt to visually represent a gender non-conforming experience that exists outside gender binaries, include tom identity within an archive of Thai trans-masculinity and create a language for our kind of being.
The film “Tom / Trans / Thai” has been supported by ComPeung as part of their contribution ‘ComPeung featuring Jai Arun Ravine’ for exhibition ‘Chiang Mai Now’ @ Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, April – June 2011. ComPeung is the first non-governmental artist-in-residence program in Thailand. Since 2005 ComPeung aspires to provide a platform for explorations and questioning in the arts.
*To acquire a DVD of the film, please email eucalyptusravenATgmailDOTcom.
(via smells-like cinnamon)