Attraction and Sex Symbol of Males in the Eyes of Malaysian Male-to-Female Transsexuals

Male-to-female transsexual issues, especially their sexual orientation, has become complicated due to their tendency to regard themselves as women, and are exclusively attracted to men. This paper explores one group in male-to-female transsexuals, which is homosexual transsexuals, and their attraction towards homosexual and heterosexual men. The objective of this paper is to identify aspects of sexual attraction in the body or nature of the men that attract homosexual transsexuals to develop romantic relationship with them. Qualitative methods were used in gathering the data. This includes in-depth interviews that have been carried out on six homosexual transsexuals, which were selected using purposive and snowball sampling. The location of the fieldwork was Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The result shows that facial appearance, specific body parts such as chest, calves and buttocks, and specific social behaviors, especially caring and affectionate, have been regarded as men's sex symbols.