It’s been about three months since I first mentioned Venus Flytrap, the ultra-tranny manufactured pop group from Thailand, signed to Sony Records, and something of a cash-in on the success of Korean tranny group Lady who first appeared some two years ago, and now seem kinda quiet. Like all good manufactured pop commodities, they have a mountain of publicists behind, and are no slouches at self-promotion, as their high-content blog shows.
But allow me a moment of smugness (or maybe despair) as once again something I stumbled on courtesy my insatiable consumption of media goes mental (and give me a job as a trend-spotter). I can understand why a group like this could get huge in Asia, where for a few years someone like Harisu is a mainstream icon, and from personal experience (and making a generalisation here based on my time in China and Taiwan), the cultural attitudes to sex and gender are quite different from English speaking countries and Europe.
I’m not so sure of the media push for Venus Flytrap into Europe though. Dana International was the Eurovision winner back in 1998, but this is single-capital-letter-pop, as in J-pop, or Canto-pop, which besides oddly socially awkward geeks like myself, westerners tend to look down on with a good blizzard of colonial disdain. Still, stealing candy from babies and all…
Anyway who cares? Venus Flytrap. They look hot, they sing ok-lah, they’re trannies and they are getting spread over european press like crazy. In no particular order, Metro in UK wonders Thai ladyboys next Spice Girls? (no, Spice Girls were a crap 90s record company stunt, Venus are actually human, and are probably only given Spice Girl names because westerners are generally too thick to pronounce any names not in Queen’s English), and have their video Visa for Love. Gay.com attempts something like an interview. Reuters has a a video report filled with lots of Venus looking smutty for the camera. Gay.tv in Italy has more pictures and video. Plus a few others that do the one paragraph plus photo filler thing. They also have one of those revolting MySpace pages now: www.myspace.com/venusflytrapfan.
Dana International proved that gender reassignment need not be a block to Eurovision success. The UK showed its fleeting love for transsexuals when Nadia Almada won Big Brother in 2004.
Coming our way, and to possible success is Thailand’s first ladyboys band called Venus Flytrap. to The five members were picked from over 200 applicants and have already signed to Sony BMG the global music joint venture with a roster of artists such as George Michael, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera.
The ‘girls’ wore white bridal corsets for their debut public performance last November. They weren’t introduced as sex-change starlets, they merely took the stage like any other girl band
In the middle of performing their debut single, ‘Cause I’m Your Lady’, the 10,000 audience at the Virgin Hitz Radio concert in Bangkok started murmuring, ever since then, they’ve proved quite a sensation.
Ladyboy-band sign to Sony
Dana International proved that gender reassignment need not be a block to Eurovision success. The UK showed its fleeting love for transsexuals when Nadia Almada won Big Brother in 2004.
Coming our way, and to possible success is Thailand’s first ladyboys band called Venus Flytrap. to The five members were picked from over 200 applicants and have already signed to Sony BMG the global music joint venture with a roster of artists such as George Michael, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera.
The ‘girls’ wore white bridal corsets for their debut public performance last November. They weren’t introduced as sex-change starlets, they merely took the stage like any other girl band
In the middle of performing their debut single, ‘Cause I’m Your Lady’, the 10,000 audience at the Virgin Hitz Radio concert in Bangkok started murmuring, ever since then, they’ve proved quite a sensation.
Modelled on the Spice Girls, their onstage personas are Cool Venus, Naughty Venus, Posh Venus, Sweet Venus and Hot Venus.
Posh Venus, 24, is the winner of Miss Alcazar 2005, a transvestite beauty pageant, Cool Venus, 24, is the first runner-up in the Miss Tiffany Transvestite Competition 2005, Hot Venus, 25, was a katoey pub singer in Pattaya while Naughty Venus, 21, and Sweet Venus, 22, are university students.
Sony BMG has heavily promoted Venus Flytrap on video screens at 7-Eleven outlets and BTS (Bangkok Mass Transit System) stations.
The music video has a scene of them running without any clothing while covering their upper bodies.
“When I was little I always wore skirts and was into girly stuff,” said “Naughty Venus” Gina, 24, the most photogenic band member
“The turning point was when I was a teenager and I decided not to be a man.”
In her early 20s, Gina followed the well-worn path of many young Thai boys who come to Bangkok from the provinces looking for a new life as a woman.
In a Buddhist society which prides itself on tolerance, ladyboys, known as “katoey” in Thai are widely respected.
Many Thais believe being a ladyboy is the result of bad karma — paying in this lifetime for misdeeds in former ones — and that ladyboys deserve sympathy not intolerance.
“We feel like girls from a young age,” said Bobo, 25, who worked in a bar in the beach resort of Pattaya before successfully auditioning for Venus Flytrap. “My family has always understood me and accepted me but life hasn’t been easy.”
Hot, Cool, Posh, Naughty and Sweet hope to be an inspiration for young ladyboys and anyone confused about their sexuality.
“It isn’t easy if you’re born into the wrong body,” said Amy. “What happened to us is amazing. We never expected to be here.”
Venus Flytrap’s music www.myspace.com/venusflytrapfan mixes European pop, house and funk with Thai lyrics.