Trans-Asia

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My life has once regained a sedentary nature! But there has been a rather slack effort on my behalf to update this blog and I am lagging behind. One of my problems is the lack of subject, not that these are not interesting places but the subjects are difficult to put into meaningful words without boring you!
Just to get you up to date, I travelled through Laos, meeting the now famous Max and on to Cambodia via the 4000 islands, a river archipelago inhabited by relaxed fishermen and some stoners.

I saw fresh water dolphins in Cambodia and then on to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Taking in the awe of the Angkorian ruins, which in terms of ruins ranked in the top five for me at least. Krac des Chevallier and ancient Rome and Athens, and Machu Pichu mingled in there, hard to put in a order.
Then back to Phnom Penh to find a job, which was successful, phew!

Also please note that the photos are a handful of photos I have taken recently but don't relate to this blog at all really.

But this is an aside for anyone who was interested as to where I am/was. The subject of this blog is sexuality, yes here you have it, Tim getting down to the nitty gritty of human nature, roll on the Sociology 101!

In most cultures since time and memorial the homosexual, transsexual and transvestite has been relegated to the dark underworld, condemned as mentally diseased or criminal. These things have changed over time but this still pockets of these feelings in most places.
Here in South East Asia, these things are hardly seen with such disdain, in fact the average person here wouldn't flinch to see or meet a gay person or probably more surprisingly a transvestite, which to the non SE Asian is often humorous or disgusting or maybe just a little odd. Here I have met openly gay men in remote villages without electricity who still have a strong conservative culture with mandatory head wear and leg wear for women and definitely no holding hands in public. Oddly the number of lesbians seems to be practically zero!

So why is it? and why only here?
Could it be Religion? An open minded Buddhist background without written doctrine would suggest that this might be the case, where a culture and community can (if it wants) develop towards liberalisaton of thoughts and sexuality. Where as Poly- and Mono-Theists would have you believe that one or a few great Gods have set down the codes to moral conduct and as such this is driven into the culture and hell and high water wait for those who disobey it. And with the Spanish Inquisition or a bunch of Neo-Nazis round the corner its not surprising we don't see cross dressing in the streets, for they might fear a beating.
Could it be genetics? To be sure by European standards the men here are quite effeminate, they don't grow hair, they are shorter and thinner and they have a higher pitch to their voice. Could it be that they also have more effeminate brains. But surely what a man is is defined by society. To have facial hair here is a sign of lack of evolution, an increased similarity with apes or in a modern context being a terrorist. All of these things are the mass reaction of society at large. Another argument for genetics is that of over-population, a friend of mine talked of a hypothesis that said that gay people exist in greater numbers in denser populations and this is caused by a safety trigger to avoid over-population. It is true that SE Asia is a people dense part of the world but not like that compared with Japan or Europe.
It seems a far more reasonable explanation that it is seen more because it is less victimised and more socially acceptable. A gay friend here told me that alot of Cambodians think that gay people didn't exist here until the westerners came. This is not true of course, but it does tell us that things changed in the outwardness of gay people here.
I think a most likely scenario is that here, in the US, in Saudi Arabia and Europe there are roughly the same percentage of gay people, only the hidden statistics change dependent on social acceptability.
I think TV has a big influence as with the end of various regimes everyone plugged into cable or got beamed at by satellites. TV broadcasting US shows with lots of gay characters (almost every show has at least one token gay bloke but less lesbians). From the acceptable world of show business to the streets of SE Asia open homosexuality has become the normal. And I have to say it is very nice to see, the lady who sells me a can of coke on the corner once was a guy and the bus conductor in Bangkok had some charming make up, even the extremely polite waitress on the 4000 islands in Laos with her tight dress she explained her sexuality. They aren't trying to make statements just simply live their lives as happily as possible.

Well there it is, my observations but no conclusion.

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Photos

Eric the Red
(Not Thundercats)

Comments

[Frosty the bichon frise]

sort of an answer to your question
hi Tim, I really like your blog so far! So nice to see your travels. Anyway, the reason s/e Asians are so open toasted homosexuality and transgenders has something to do with buddhist philosophy, sorry I'm not sure exactly what. Something about letting people do what they want and accepting them for who they are. Btw, there are tons of lesbians in Thailand. Didn't u see any? I saw a ton - bull-dyke types that look like guys.

[TouristTim]

I'm not so sure
Buddhism is a something I considered but wasn't fully convinced by. My experiences with Buddhism is that it is parallel to Christianity in many ways. That the original teachings of Christ or Buddha are that of forgiveness, acceptance and inward thought, however the established Church(not all of them) and the established Temple(not all of them) generally talk of doctrine, ritual and imposition of a certain way. If Buddhism were the reason, why is this not present in China, India and Nepal where Buddhism is also strong albeit a variation of SE Asian Buddhism.