Love Lane

After Singapore I headed up straight to the island of Penang - Northwestern Malaysia. Thought i'd try and see a bit of it before i had to meet Andi and Purvi in KL. The bridge between Butterworth and Penang happens to be the 3rd longest in the world. Pretty impressive. That's one of the first things I noticed about Malaysia that was different from Indonesia... it seemed so much more developed. Tall apartment complexes, skyscrapers etc. Of course I'm sure Java is a bit more like that in Indo. I stayed in a backpackers in Chinatown off of love lane. Now Malaysia has been a British colony and alot of the old world still lingers in Penang in its buildings, street names, etc. So at first i wasn't sure if there was anything behind the 'Love Lane' street name. Well come 7 o'clock i soon found out :) Out came the lady boys who would hang out in front of the hotels and on the main road Jalan Chulia. I think the most amusing/shocking scene for me must have been to see a South Indian guy on a motorcycle chatting up a Chinese lady-boy. It was kind of nice in a odd/late night HBO sort of way. Of course all the lady boys seemed to be chinese so not sure if it was totally regardless of race.

Anyway it got me to think about how sex vs sexual preference is viewed in the east and the west. I mean the west is considered to be highly sexual - with its sex on tv, movies, the style of clothing for women thought of as too revealing etc. Yet when it comes to sexual preference we seem to be the complete opposite - the drama caused when Ellen Degeneres came out on national television, the current issues on the rights for gays to marry, the moron out there who thought that spongebob squarepants shows homosexual tendencies and therefore should be taken off the air. Do you think America would ever have a transvestite hosting a morning show?

Now on the other hand you have South East Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia (india too even though its not southeast) where sex is never seen on tv or movies (unless its porn) i mean the only kisses seen on their soap operas are on the cheek or if its the movies up until the late 90's all kisses really consisted of the head turn so all you could see was the guys head and the girl running her fingers through his hair. But still accepted into to the community or atleast given their own place in it are the ladyboys and the transvestites. Prostitution is a big business here, but that's not the only way they are accepted. You've got openly gay folks hosting talk shows, transvestites so famous they've been signed 3 year record deals and are slated to star in the next big film

This isn't a comparison between east and west but just me trying to point out how they both view some parts of one topic so drastically different from the other. What makes one acceptable but the other not? If religion has to do with alot of the cultural beliefs why is one aspect of sex considered taboo but another tolerated? Why is it that a Malaysian Indian man will give me looks for wearing shorts and a tanktop but not even blink when a local Malaysian Chinese girl gets on the bus with a short skirt and tube top? Why is it so easy to apply cultural beliefs/rules to some but not others?