masturbation and then you’re finished.
It makes a huge difference. The friends
“Although transgender sex
I hang around with say that once you’re
workers do their best to
used to making a living this way, you
conceal themselves, if they
won’t take any more homosexual
are discovered, clients can
clients.”138
become abusive and refuse
to pay...Sex workers’ fears of
Lili has a lot of confidence in her technique.
arrest and detention render
She believes that ordinary men will still come
them powerless to defend
to her even if they know her identity, because
themselves and demand fair
she’s more open-minded than the average
treatment by clients.”
woman: “A lot of guys know we’re trannies and
they still want us, because we make them feel
comfortable. We’re open to a lot of things that still embarrass the average woman.”139
However, concealing their transgender identity while working is very important for most
transgender sex workers. Xiao Zhou claims to have never been discovered by a client:
“I keep the lights low and approach my clients from the side. My lights at home are red
and even dimmer than a cell phone’s light. And it’s in a corner where there’s basically
no light at all.”140 Xiao Shao has a secret weapon: “I wear special underpants that
expose my buttocks in back and cover up my jj [sex organ] in front.”141
Although transgender sex workers do their best to conceal themselves, if they are
discovered, clients can become abusive and refuse to pay. Xiao Qiang says clients will
engage in verbal and physical abuse.142When that happens, the sex worker often tries
to patch things up and chooses to compromise. Xiao Bai encountered such a client just
a few days before being interviewed: “That client discovered I was a trannie and didn’t
want to pay me. He felt it was unacceptable. I just treated it as bad luck. There was
no way I could make him pay, because I was at home, and I was afraid that quarreling
would cause the client to retaliate, and it would be unsafe.”143
Binbin believes that some clients intentionally use a transgender sex worker’s identity
as an excuse not to pay them, but given the illegal nature of sex work, she is powerless
to deal with them: “Some men finish and then say they didn’t know [her transgender
138 Interview with Xiaomeng, Beijing, April 20, 2014.
139 Interview with Lili, Shanghai, July 28, 2014.
140 Interview with Xiao Zhou, Beijing, April 29, 2014.
141 Interview with Xiao Shao, Beijing, April 30, 2014.
142 Interview with Xiao Qiang, Beijing, March 20, 2014.
143 Interview with Xiao Bai, Beijing, March 25, 2014.
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