Insert Clichéd 'Dude Looks Like A Lady' Headline Here

For those readers living in Edinburgh it would have been impossible to miss the month of mayhem that is the Edinburgh Festival, in all its many and varied forms. Almost as difficult to miss is the now annual showing of the Ladyboys of Bangkok, whose posters appear everywhere; in bus shelters, kebab houses, elegant eateries and newsagents. In fact, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that in this short month the Ladyboys gain more exposure than any other transgendered chorus line in the country.

And yet, and yet... there is something about the whole circus which bothers me. I went to see the ladyboys several years ago, and I found the evening uncomfortable. It is a colourful and entertaining show - as long as I managed to ignore the voice in my head that told me I had just paid good money to watch some Asian transexuals mouth the words to gay disco when, being part-Asian myself, I could easily have stayed home and performed in front of the mirror.

Something about it just doesn't sit right. I've thought about this quite a lot. I have to say, it is wonderful that throughout the show the performers are never ridiculed in any way because of their transgenderism. In fact, apart from the beginning when they are announced as a group of "all male Thai nationals" there is very little else in the show to suggest that you are watching anything other than a cabaret. So what's the problem?

I think the question that we really should be asking is, what's the point? Why do we need to know that they are transgendered? How does that enhance our evening? There is a cloying stench of the freakish about it, especailly at the interval when one is given the opportunity to pose for a photo with a ladyboy. I sat with friends to whom I was not out, and kept a dignified silence when they said in awed voices; "You'd never be able to tell!" I'm reminded of a time I had coffee with a girl I knew who, having just returned from a trip to Thailand, and not knowing my little secret, said "Of course, I can always spot them. It's like a gift." What a gift; she should take it on the road.

Then of course there is that jarring phrase 'all male'. Now far be it from me to pass judgement on how the performers identify, but I for one would be very uncomfortable being referred to as male, as would many other male-to-female transexuals. The show makes its point by holding this hidden 'maleness' up as an exotified ace, and in doing so objectifies the performers. Their very name 'Ladyboys' separates them from us; they are male, but they are not, they are somehow other, and this otherness makes them forbidden, alluring and almost ethereal. They do not speak throughout the show, as they have no need of words. Speech, in fact, would break the illusion - it would humanise them, and make them one of us again, and the whole charade would fail.

One has to wonder, as well, how we would react if the ladyboys came from somewhere a little closer to home. Would the Ladyboys of Bangor be a sellout show? It seems that as well as their transgenderism, their ethnicity is also used to set them apart; the ever-smiling Thai girl, subservient, exotic and graceful. There would be something a little Stepford Drag Queen about it if the girls were all from Slough. In many ways, this affects the way we view the show; it is our culture which makes this a freak show, not the show itself. After all, this show is one of hundreds of shows all competing for an audience, so why shouldn't they use our own prejudice and ghoulish curiosity to sell tickets? People are fascinated by transexuals, and to this end they are just giving the public what it wants.

All in all, I feel there is something exploitative about the show. The girls are portrayed as exotic parodies of feminine beauty, unattainable and somehow not quite real. But despite this, there is the inescapable fact that they are transgendered, out and, apparently, proud, and for this alone, they should be saluted.