You just know that there are people on the Dope who are contrary enough to masturbate to Bea Arthur right now just to prove you wrong.
A lesbian lass of Khartoum
Once took a fag up to her room
And they argued all night
Over who had the right
To do what, and with which, and to whom. 
I know nothing about transsexuals/hermaphrodites in hentai, and I’ve only ever read one novel with a hermaphrodite protagonist. Are there others?
No matter how contrary I am, I shall never Maudesturbate.
You should check out The Left Hand of Darkness, a landmark science fiction novel by Ursula LeGuin. It takes place on a planet colonized by humans who have been genetically engineered to be hermaphroditic. When I read it in college, it was a real wake-up call to me on how much I relied on gender to categorize people. The protagonist, however, is an unaltered human sent to re-establish contact with the distant colony.
I’ve only spoken to one person who was frank about this sort of attraction. I don’t suppose his attraction was typical, but I don’t think it was exactly homosexual.
The thing is, he was one of the worst misogynists I ever met. He was quiet enough about it - sweet to women, meek and submissive – but full of contempt for them which he would only express in their absence (or when they weren’t looking, which was fucked up.)
He bragged to me that he used to like to pick up the most desperate-looking drug-addicted street prostitutes and barter them down as far as possible, which was pretty far. (Not out of frugality - he had a well-paying job, but as a game.)
I was out walking with him one time and a MTF transexual prosititute approached him and made it clear that they had a friendlly arrangement.
This one, he said, he didn’t screw around with (figuratively) because he respected him. Wasn’t a stupid woman, but had most of the physical attributes he found attractive. No “bullshit,” and some good head.
I don’t think he’s gay – he likes sex with women. He just hates women.
Mmmmm, Beatrice Arthur. 
I think we should distinguish between two questions asked in the OP: the mindset of men who are attracted to the style of “chicks with dicks” one sees in the sex industry, and the mindset of people who are attracted in real life to people who happen to be pre-operative trans people. It’s roughly analogous, I’d say, to the difference between porn lesbians and actual lesbians.
The question of “chicks with dicks” as presented in the sex industry (porn and prostitution) has been ably covered, but the OP seems to imply that only a fetishist could be attracted in real life to a woman who is transgender and has not had SRS.
I can assure the OP that that’s not the case; pre-op and non-op transpeople can and do elicit attraction, sexual and romantic attention, relationships, etc.
To make this more concrete, I’m attracted to a lot of different guys, and some of the guys to whom I’ve been attracted have been trans. Now, I don’t usually have the opportunity for a genital check the second I meet someone I’m attracted to (regardless of what you may have heard). A man’s appearance and personality is what I see first and accordingly what attracts me first.
Not everyone will approach things in the same way, obviously. But in answer to the question how can you be attracted to someone with genitals other than those your partners usually have, the simple answer is, I like guys, and there are a lot of hot guys out there, and some of them are trans.
Protagonists are very rare, but books with them as characters are less so. Besides The Left Hand of Darkness, offhand I recall Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon, Dream Games by Karl Hansen ( in that case one of the protagonists is a “pedomorph” ), a childlike hermaphrodite created for pedophiles ), Solarians in Asimov’s Foundation books, Bel Thorne in the Miles Vorkosigan series, and various Jack L. Chalker books ( some protagonists, some not ). The Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine apparently also contains hermaphrodites, although I haven’t read it. Titanides from John Varley’s Titan trilogy are also hermaphrodites of a sort, and willing to mate with humans, but aren’t human shaped ( centaurs ) so may not count for this. I’ve seen them in various short stories as well.
Here’s something quite typical of Thailand. 24-hour transvestite escorts 
:
http://www.orchidbeautylbescort.com/
Don’t forget to check out the ladies’ photos!
Bearing in mind that I’m not an expert in this field, it’s been my impression that most heterosexual men with an interest in “chicks with dicks” pursue that interest as an adjunct to sexual relationships with women rather than in place of it.
Slight highjack, but the price per lady per night comes out to around $300 US - which seems close to the $700 US quoted by a Doper’s boyfriend in another recent thread. Siam Sam, from your previous posts in that thread, these rates seem high - why would that be? Novelty factor, or simply quality?
Oh, and on topic, I would pick at least 90% of those women to be men (something around the mouth and jaw), so perhaps it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Isn’t that what I said? 
(see post #15)
Both the novelty factor and the fact that it’s an “escort service.” There are only a few such agencies, because it’s so easy to just go to a bar and find someone for much less. If the guy in that other post got scammed, I imagine it would have been through an escort service-type setup. But even for the regular escort services, I don’t think I’ve heard of one that charges more than about $200 for a girl’s services.
But the $300 would be for overnight. Somehow I did not get the impression that the boyfriend in that post did an all-nighter. Sounded like the typical 2-3 hour session. Anyway, the escort agencies are definitely for the rich guys who can’t be bothered to leave their room to find a partner for the night. Quite simple to find someone for all night for about $35 to $50. You can find a ladyboy in the ladyboy bars; I’m not up on their prices, but it would be much less than listed in this website.
Actually, I think the “ladies” on this site are rather scary-looking, and all look like men. There are much prettier ones around. This website has been making the rounds among some friends, for amusement value because of the scariness of their looks.
Also, just as we all have stories about the friend who doesn’t realize the gender of his newfound girlfriend, we also have stories of the newbie who takes a girl back to his hotel room and discovers a little more than he’d bargained for. Comic and/or violent antics often ensue, especially if it’s in Pattaya and the customer is a sailor hitting town on shore leave from his fleet anchored out in the Gulf of Thailand. 
I think Dan Savage is called for here.
Some people have the oddest hobbies. Where does one find the time and money need to make oneself over as a Barbie ® doll?
Oddly this came up in the office today. My Saudi counterpart first encountered this sort of thing over the weekend, while searching the internet for something quite innocent he assures me. In any case, I pointed out to him SRS is allowed by Islam, even here in The Kingdom. Also, we American can be whoever he chooses to be.
He was confused.
As distinct from the Thai term for transsexual, which is phuying praphet song, literally ‘woman type two’. Good for the Thais, at least there’s one nation who recognizes a difference.
Question for Siam Sam-- do kathoeys say khrap or khâ?
Are you sure he’s not latent-gay-in-denial? In his book Sex and Drugs, Robert Anton Wilson told a story about a man who acted just like that. After a transformative (and frightening) experience through drugs, he ended up “gay as a tree full of parrots.”