"Toms and Dees is an engagingly written and fascinating account grounded in extensive fieldwork and a rich interdisciplinary literature. Sinnott's nuanced and sophisticated study enhances our understanding of women, gender, and sexuality in a rapidly modernizing region of Southeast Asia long regarded by Westerners as a sexual paradise and a haven for gays and lesbians alike. Toms and Dees has great potential for use in the classroom and simultaneously sets new standards for scholars grappling with the dynamics of gender, sexuality, and globalization--whether in Southeast Asia or elsewhere." --Michael G. Peletz, W.S. Schupf Professor of Anthropology and Far Eastern Studies, Colgate University

"This marvellous and much-needed study of female same-sex cultures in Thailand redresses a major silence in previous studies of gender, sexuality, and same-sex cultures in Thailand and provides an important counterpoint to studies of same-sex cultures in the West. Sinnott's highly accessible presentation makes it equally useful as an academic text and as an undergraduate teaching text." --Peter Jackson, Fellow in Thai History, Australian National University

A vibrant, growing, and highly visible set of female identities has emerged in Thailand known as tom and dee. A "tom" (from "tomboy") refers to a masculine woman who is sexually involved with a feminine partner, or "dee" (from "lady"). The patterning of female same-sex relationships into masculine and feminine pairs, coupled with the use of English derived terms to refer to them, is found throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Have the forces of capitalism facilitated the dissemination of Western-style gay and lesbian identities throughout the developing world as some theories of transnationalism suggest? Is the emergence of toms and dees over the past twenty-five years a sign that this has occurred in Thailand? Megan Sinnott engages these issues by examining the local culture and historical context of female same-sex eroticism and female masculinity in Thailand. Drawing on a broad spectrum of anthropological literature, Sinnott situates Thai tom and dee subculture within the global trend of increasingly hybridized sexual and gender identities.

Megan J. Sinnott teaches anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Read the introduction (PDF).

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