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“But aren’t all ladyboys selling their body ?”

Amanda Valentine Dela Cruz
This post was last updated on .

Have you been perusing a dating website for ladyboys but you’re mystified as to why you come across a lot of ladyboy are selling their body ? This activity is the oldest profession in the world and this must not be of a novelty for you.

Any catalyst that has men looking to meet for whatever reason, be it true love, hooking up, and more, will always be susceptible to the opportunistic motives of people who are working on the adult industry.

Ladyboy street workers and Adult Tourism in Asia

Selling one’s body is prevalent everywhere and in Asia, particularly the Southeast Asian region, it’s more accessible. The reason being is a lot of impoverished countries in this region that are lenient when it comes to work in that industry.

a ladyboy

Pr*stitution in Asia varies in terms of legality. Albeit the repercussions with the law, it’s still apparent in countries such as Thailand and The Philippines.

According to the Asian Commission on Aids estimates in 2011:

there were 10 million street workers in Asia and 75 million male customers.

Ladyboy street workers don’t take a huge slice of the total demographic but since the world of ladyboy dating is quite small, you’ll often see a number of them whenever you’re trying to look for love.

Poverty in Asia (particularly in Thailand and the Philippines)

Although Thailand was able to reduce the 65 percent of people living in poverty in 1988 to under 10 percent in the year 2018, a stall of increase in income is still looming. This resulted in a growth of people within the poverty line from 7.2 percent to 9.8 percent in just 2 years.

poor kid

In 2020, 6.7 million people living in Thailand still don’t have enough means in order to live a life of financial security which answers why there’s a big number of ladyboy street workers.

In 2019, the Philippines registered to have 2.7 percent of its people under the poverty line to only possess below $1.90 purchasing power parity a day. The overall poverty rate in the Philippines is at a staggering 20% which makes up to around 20 million Filipinos. Although the World Bank sees a positive shift in 2021 with a prediction of 18.7 percent, waters are still murky most especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lack of Career Opportunities for Ladyboys

Education is a very important sector in the foundation of determining one’s future. Thailand is more advanced in this as ladyboys are allowed to express themselves in major universities.

In the Philippines, there are only a few universities that allow ladyboys to wear a girl’s uniform which can curtail a ladyboy’s interest in studying because the male uniform serves a negative effect with their gender dysphoria.

asian student

The reason why ladyboy street workers are prevalent is because a lot of them have not been given the opportunity to create a solid foundation for their future. Added to that, companies in both countries are not yet fully accepting of their kind.

However, Thailand is showing faster progression as they’ve already had ladyboy flight attendants over the years compared to the Philippines with just having theirs in the last quarter of 2019.

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Risk and Rewards of Ladyboy who are selling their body

Because of the rise in the number of ladyboy street workers, a lot of ladyboys are considering taking the same path. The going rate of a ladyboy esc*rt in the Philippines is around $100 an hour which can be quite luxurious compared to the median salary of an average worker which makes around 15 USD a day.

ladyboy street worker

However, the Filipino ladyboy street workers don’t make as much business as their Thai counterparts. In 2019, the Philippines only received almost 10 million international tourists while Thailand got almost 40 million, which is quite telling of the abundance of the latter’s adult tourists.

Although in the Philippines, an average luxury sex worker may get to charge more in comparison to Thailand’s $30-40 per hour, Thai ladyboy street workers get more customers in a month which garners them more net income.

Rewards

Selling his body is quite rewarding in terms of one’s financial success. Many ladyboy street workers are smart enough to know that this activity is only a stepping stone towards their real goals.

A lot of them save money and open up a business in order to be able to retire quickly from the adult industry. The only way that selling his body could be rewarding is if the street worker herself knows where to invest all of her earnings and to properly make them grow.

Risks

However, not everyone gets to capitalize on this knowledge and this is apparent with a huge number of ladyboy street worker who are still working in the industry at the age of 40 and above.

Added to that, a lot of ladyboy street worker are exposed to narcotic and a big number of them get their futures taken away because of vices such as these, alcohol plus gambling, and more.

Other areas of a ladyboy street worker’s life may also get affected and these are her relationships with her friends, family, and if she’s not careful enough, it may also affect her health.

Are ALL ladyboys selling their body ?

“But aren’t all ladyboys selling their body?” she asked.

I have heard this so many times, from idiots, from educated people, from those who never leave their homes and from world travelers. I dropped my shoulders, and relaxed as hot breaths poured from my lungs.

“No, most ladyboys are not.”

“Well I don’t mean all of them, just you know, most of them.” She added.

“No, no not even most of them, just like women, just like men, some of them are selling their body but by far the majority are not ok with selling their body for money.”

Her head reeled back as her mind exploded with new and contradictory information. “But” she started adding more.

My Take

“There are no buts about it. I have met hundreds of ladyboys all over South Asia; from Cambodia to India and almost none of them were selling their body. The only sex workers I ever came across were in places like Pattaya; where sex workers lurk every street, but even there most of the sex workers were women, not ladyboys.”

Like someone with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, my mind shot back to Pattaya; a horrible place, hundreds of girls, boys, and ladyboys all dressed in strips of clothing and tight leather, their hands prodding me from all sides, their voices calling out for me then join them in their bars. I quivered.

Furthermore

She gave a slight nod, as new information sunk into her.

“But if they’re not selling their body, how do they get money?

“They do jobs like everyone else. I have many ladyboy friends. There is Geng, the sweetest person, man woman or otherwise, that I know. She is a pharmacist on Ko Samuai. I know Sui, a screwed businesswoman who already owns several business; and would be rich if she stopped spending money on cars and boys. Wa, Wa is amazing, she’s smarter than me. She has her masters in political science and works in an NGO helping refuges.” Their smiling faces flashed through my mind. “If you want to see a ladyboy working, go into any mall in Bangkok. Go to where they sell jewelry or perfume. And maybe one out of every three will be a ladyboy.”

“Wow, I’m sorry, I just only heard about ladyboy sex workers.”

“It’s ok, when I came to Asia, I knew little about ladyboys too. But here they are common, here they are accepted, they are part of life and they fill all the rolls life will give them.”

New Age of Ladyboys

There’s a lot of up and coming ladyboys who have been blessed with more education and opportunities. They’re currently making a mark and a huge impact on the workforce. They’re the ones who can prove that gone are the days whereby ladyboys were only seen as ladyboy street workers.

ladyboy office workers

In today’s world, they’re more visible in a typical corporate setting. You’ll see them:

  • in politics (Congresswoman Geraldine Roman) ;
  • business (Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip) ;
  • service ;
  • BPO ;
  • beauty ;
  • entertainment ;
  • and more.

In fact, the marketing director of MyLadyboyDate.com is a transgender woman and her name is Maki Gingoyon.

Ladyboys are like any other human being. They’ve been normally seen as tabooed because of the unfair treatment of the media. However, that’s slowly but surely changing with the new age of ladyboys; the ones able to provide a more positive representation of the whole transgender community.

The best way to know the real situation is if you travel to these countries; or to widen your horizons in terms of getting to know ladyboys in a different approach.

Where to find Decent Ladyboys

My Ladyboy Date has a team of ladyboy moderators; ensuring that the website is not being used for other purposes other than finding a soulmate. Every picture and text in one’s profile is carefully observed before it becomes visible to the public.

This is what makes My Ladyboy Date extra special; why it’s easier for the male members to find what they’re truly looking for. If you’re looking for a decent ladyboy girlfriend, you should make a My Ladyboy Date account today.

Here are some real ladyboy love stories that were made possible by My Ladyboy Date.

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About the author

Amanda Valentine Dela Cruz
Amanda Valentine has been a writer for My Ladyboy Date for over 10 years. She writes various topics on trans dating and other trans-related content. Her personal experiences as a transgender woman have given her a unique point of view on trans topics. She has written 5 books on trans women’s relationships and has made it on Amazon’s best-seller list. Her book “Dating Transgender Women for Gentlemen” reached #3 on the Transgender Studies category on Amazon. Her love for writing started when she won a poetry contest in 4th grade which made her pursue a career in literature.

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Comments (7)

  • Anonymous number #1252238
    While you are very correct that there are many who are not selling their body and have so called normal jobs, you neglect to tell, perhaps by ignorance, that many of those are easily bought, and get a lot income from scumbags proposing to them, both in real on their jobs, and through social networks. Let's imagine this, you have a ladyboy X in Thailand, who perhaps has gone to some school, and is 25 years old, works in same cosmetic shop of sort. X earns about 15-20 000 Baht, which is about 400 dollar and it is actually quite good for Thais, but still a low salary, in an ever increasing sick capitalistic world where product fetishism is developing. In comes this scumbag, starts talking to her privately, starts flirting and flattering her, and after a while out comes the offer. Certainly depending on the scumbags bank account he usually offers something between 50-100$, some have told me get even much more then that. Now, you see how easy someone could fall for that, when they are offered for 1 night of paid pleasure, 15-25% of their monthly salary. My point is of course that there is a statistically neglected number of working girls. Just because they don't operate through the street or a bar, doesn't mean they can operate through their "Normal job", or as many do now days, through internet.
    • My Ladyboy Date
      Thank you for your comment but I don't see why this is a ladyboy issue? If you show $100 in front of an average Thai or Filipino (whether they're male, female or ladyboy) I'm sure many would agree to sell their body, yes. It's not making them working in the adult industry. The scumbag you describe is as likely to sell his body for $1000 or above if he needs quick money (everybody would accept a number if he's in a situation where he needs it). Let's imagine imagine a world in which there is a country 10x richer and more powerful than the US, than American scumbags like this will sell their body too.
  • i have read the artical and i know that their is a small percent of the girls in some of the asian countys who are selling their body but their is major majority who have decent jobs and i have to comend them fo is as it cant be easy but the goverments maybe should reconise them and have a equality bill passed so they get protected by law but i could say their is alot that goverments all over can do to protect the rights to the trans comunity on a whole or maybe i am just stateing the obvious this is the 21 centuary after all
  • I do not know if the majority are not in the adult industry. what I do know is that the vast majority who are in the adult entertainment industry do not want to be in that. I have never been with a working girl but I have spoken to many and their friends. Most have left school early to support their families. In the Philippines you cannot even get a job serving in Jollibee unless you are a college graduate. In Thailand They also want a higher level of education. Trans gender's face discrimination anyway. Some like my partner do not selling their body but where else can a ill educated girl from a poor family get money to support her family and enable her siblings to go through school let alone college, Transgender women are a small percentage anyway but I think that you only believe it is a small percentage because you mix with more educated section of society. It seems to be the majority for poorer girls.
  • Albert Godfrind
    I noticed that some of the ladies present on MLD are also advertising themselves on escorting web sites, and I actually met such a lady. She admitted that the escorting bit is occasional and a way to complement her salary (she has a full time day job). I can understand that. After all, being a ladyboy means a lot of efforts and an expensive lifestyle. IMO problems only start when the escorting becomes the only or largest source of revenue.
  • Hello there I'm wondering if you have members in Sydney Australia ? Paul

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