Wong, Ying WuenAsiaPacificQueer Network2011-10-202011-10-202005"Wong, Y W (2005, July) The making of a local queen in an international transsexual beauty contest", Paper presented at Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia: 1st International Conference of Asian Queer Studies. Bangkok, Thailand: AsiaPacifiQueer Network, Mahidol University; Australian National Universityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/8692This paper will examine the intricacies in beauty contests and the tensions brought about by the negotiation of a local, authentic culture in the face of Western-derived notions of beauty and femininity. Thailand’s many beauty contests feature as an inept part of Thai society, with an emphasis on the ‘public face’ and beauty. Thailand has been romanticised as a land of beautiful women and more recently, of beautiful kathoey. One of the aims of my paper is to determine the importance of beauty contests, not just as ‘anti-pageants’, but as a means to consolidate a transsexual identity. However, it can also be shown that beauty contests are both sites of empowerment and subjugation simultaneously.AsiaPacifiQueer Network, Australian National University15 pagesapplication/pdfen-AUAuthor/s retain copyrightGay rights -- Asia -- Congresses.Gay culture -- Asia -- Congresses.Gay culture -- Asia -- Social conditions -- Congresses.Gay community -- Asia -- Congresses.Gay community.Gay culture.Gay rights.Asia.