thoughtcrumbs

Incongruous ways to make money

From an article about Thai boxing from last week's New Yorker, in which women were banned from the ring:

In 1998, the celebrity boxer Parinya Kiatbusaba—he was one of Thailand's numerous transvestites—refused to take off his underwear for a weigh-in at Lumpini. Since Kiatbusaba made weight even in his underwear, the management eventually let him into the ring. Wearing his trademark red lipstick, Kiatbusaba easily defeated his opponent and then kissed him on the cheek. Kiatbusaba had become a boxer because it was the only way that he could earn enough money to achieve his lifelong dream: sex-reassignment surgery. After the surgery was performed, in 1999, he, too, was banned from the major stadiums.