Document Detail


Feminine transformations: gender reassignment surgical tourism in Thailand.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21082486     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Process    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Every year, hundreds of transgendered people from the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia travel to Thailand to undergo cosmetic and gender reassignment surgeries (GRS). Many GRS clinics market themselves almost exclusively to non-Thai trans women (people assigned a male sex at birth who later identify as female). This article draws on ethnographic research with patients visiting Thailand for GRS to explore how trans women patients related their experience of medical care in Thailand to Thai cultural traditions, in particular "traditional" Thai femininity and Theravada Buddhist rituals and beliefs. Foreign patients in Thai hospital settings engage not only with medical practices but also with their perceptions of Thai cultural traditions--which inflect their feminine identifications. I draw on two patients' accounts of creating personal rituals to mark their gender reassignment surgery, placing these accounts within the context of biomedical globalization and debates about the touristic appropriation of non-"Western" cultural practices.
Authors:
Aren Z Aizura
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Medical anthropology     Volume:  29     ISSN:  1545-5882     ISO Abbreviation:  Med Anthropol     Publication Date:  2010 Oct 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-11-18     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7707343     Medline TA:  Med Anthropol     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  424-43     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47403, USA. aaizura@indiana.edu
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