#my favorite way to waste time is scouring the internet for thai media critiques

[itoldsunset]

so i never posted this but a while ago i translated parts of this podcast episode (linking it here just so y’all know where it’s from, but there are no subs) where they’re talking about thai bl and the lgbtq community.

a lot of this is stuff we already talk about in the fandom but i wanted to share this since we consume a lot of thai content/bl here and i like hearing directly from lgbtq folks in thailand too:

there’s very little representation of various sexual orientations in thai bls, such as pansexuality and bisexuality.

most thai bl series are adapted from bl novels, which are essentially fantasies written so that people can access some happiness they don’t get in real life. because of the fantasy-like nature of these novels, it doesn’t always translate well to the screen, especially if the series producers didn’t make an effort to adapt the script. so that’s why sometimes the story is weird or the lines have a cartoonlike quality when they’re being delivered.

beauty privilege still plays a huge role in bl series. what we see happen is usually, the series can be whatever, but we hear “please support the actors, they’re good-looking,” whereas the content of the series often isn’t the thing that gets praised. and after the series ends, oftentimes the thing that remains is the image of the actors, not the series itself.

homophobia: “i’m not gay, i just like you”--it doesn’t make sense, being gay doesn’t mean you love every man in the world. they try to paint it in a romantic light in the sense of polyamory, like you only love this one person, but it ends up confusing people on what it means to be gay.

sexual harassment: not just in bl, but in all thai series and has been there for a while. like when one character puts their face up really close against another character who’s not into it, but the audience expects in their minds that they’re gonna end up together so some may allow it. and some also allow it because they’re attractive.

heteronormativity + gender roles, top/bottom dynamics: thai bls usually have the more feminine character be the one who is passively being pursued/hit on. part of this is because the writers are usually women and end up writing characters who are closest to them, as part of creating their fantasy. thai bls also replicate the gender binary in that there’s a tendency to have one person (the “top”) be the one to go out to work more, while the other one tends to do household chores, cook, etc. also, one of them mentioned having been approached by a woman who asked him who was the top/bottom in his relationship, and he said he felt like, “why is that question necessary? we’re the same gender, we’re both men.” he said we need to disconnect gender expression (femininity/masculinity) from sex positions (top/bottom), since one doesn’t necessarily reflect on the other.

also some comparison to yaoi (since that’s the origin) and they mentioned some research about how yaoi was born out of escapism from being part of an oppressed gender so that you could escape into a fantasy where you were as equal as possible in the fiction.

the term ‘y series’ (bl) is a way of avoiding saying gay or queer, reinforces the fantasy nature of the genre that it’s not about what it actually means for men who like men, and it tends not to explore their experiences beyond ‘i have a crush on you’--focuses on the gratification of shipping/imagination more than anything else.

do boys’ love dramas help the lgbtq community? thailand has so many bl series, so people might think thailand is accepting of lgbtq folks, but is that true?: “we can look at who makes up the majority of the fanbase, and we see that it’s mostly women. when the stories are about relationships between men, why are there fewer mlm fans than women?”

do bls hurt the lgbtq community?: in terms of reproducing stereotypes, like the way trans women are often depicted; also, the tendency of thai television (including bls) to devalue feminine men by using them as comic relief, so if you’re a man with a feminine gender expression, you have to be funny, you have to be obsessed with men, you have to entertain others, you have to exaggerate your femininity.

the treatment of women in thai bls: if they’re not just extras who are holding signs and screaming for the male leads, they’re the third person or the obstacle. even if they’re not doing anything wrong, they’re made into the person that the audience will hate. it’s as if there are no women allowed in bls because the presence of a woman will break the fantasy.

the bl industry is profiting off of a group of people who are still oppressed in society. as bl audiences, you can’t just consume bl for your own fantasies/personal satisfaction without thinking about what it means for the communities that are being impacted.