reefpicker

If what you will like is the BL part, don't worry, Thailand has plenty of stories to keep you going... :P Thai BLs are awesome.

Have you watch a full on BL, like from Thailand?

Which of the actors are from Domundi? They mention it on the special Episode....

You could put it up on the discussions like they did with TharnType (was it you too?). It makes it more like a sticky so we can access the episodes anytime we want!

Well, thanks for letting me know about the silent diacritic! I am trying to learn the Thai alphabet but I haven't learn the diacritics (or most of the vowels) yet!!! :)

Btw that is not bo baimai but po pla so it is a p sound indeed

Which begs the bigger question, why the heck do they transliterate it as type!

I am afraid you didnt read what I said carefully. I didnt say a sociologist has the ultimate say, I merely pointed out that a sociologist would disagree with the statement that moral values are universal.

The declaration of human rights is a social compact between states but it doesnt spell out any sort of universal truth about life. It is no different than a religious document. No idea why you feel the need to quote it. Or why you think telling me your (commendable) academic accomplishments is relevant to this topic. You are not a sociologist, an anthropologist or an expert in thai culture.

Tbh neither am i but i read a lot of academic papers on the topic of sociology and I am perhaps the only person in these boards who have actually read academic papers on Thai bl and yaoi.

Maybe that qualifies me for something?

W/E you have your opinion and I have mine. I just like to tell you what my opinion is and I did and thats all that matters. We should both be happy about that!

Type-casting in Thai dramas is so... typical? I wonder how you can put up with it? :) Have you noticed how the dark skin characters are usually the "dumb" or "funny" ones? It drives me nuts! I love Thai BL but sometimes I wish it was more.... liberal? in the sense of being liberated of stereotypes....

You are right that I am applying it to a different context but the original research on lakorn's seems to be well documented as far as I could tell.

And I agree that you have the right to criticize it. I am merely trying to make you self-aware of the fact that we use our own morals often to judge others and we may forget that other cultures do have other standards. I respect your opinion so don't take that the wrong way. But I do want you to be aware that because this is fiction, we can actually ask the question of who wrote this and why did they write it the way they did.

As you know from that original post, my analysis centered around the hypothesis that women write scenes of rape not because they have a desire to be rape but because it is a way to circumvent premarital sex mores. As such, in yaoi and Thai BL, rape could serve to circumvent mores related to hegemonic masculinity. One thing Thai BL definitively challenges is our notions of what is heteronormative but one thing that it does not challenge is hegemonic masculinity.

I do predict that as LGBQT and women's rights evolve in Thailand, we will see less of these rape stuff and begin to see BL challenge hegemonic masculinity within the Thai culture.

See you around this boards! (My next show is going to be Why R U the series!!!! and later I will be watching The Shipper with Ohm Pawat when it comes out! I love Ohm!)

A sociologist may disagree... Each culture comes with its own set of moral values. What is immoral in a Muslim country is OK here. What is OK in Europe is immoral in Thailand.

People should be able to walk naked and honestly, they should be able to have sex on any corner of the street. But we have decided that those things are immoral. Just like we decided that rape is bad a long time ago.

Don't get me wrong, as a Westerner I agree with our moral values. I am liberal but not THAT liberal. And of course that the rape scenes in TharnType make me uncomfortable, specially the insinuation that Tar was raped as such a young age. The scene in episode 12 where they are looking at the video made me upset that they even included that. I thought it was highly unnecessary. But I am not going to go and proselytize and start saying that oh, damn Thai BL why do you do this?

I know what it made me feel and I will say what it made me feel and I will tell you why I think it made me feel that way but I am certainly not going to push my morals on another culture. (Sweet Tar, poor baby! I was really mad!)

I accept Thai BL for what it is and I would love to see some changes towards a more liberal view of masculinity and a more favorable view of femininity but that's all I can do and ask for. I would like it to still be Thai regardless of it becoming more liberal. I don't want it to be completely Westernize probably because I HATE HOW the western media portrays gay ppl too. Western media is so hypocritical about LGBQT issues. The day an American producer decides to do an adaptation of LoveSick, air it on a big network and hires real 15 yrs old to play the roles of Phun and Noh is the day I will have respect for the Western media. :P

Well congratulations and welcome to BL (if you are new to it!)... I can tell you the experience of watching Lovesick is sadly, one in a lifetime apparently.... I haven't seen anything that compares. It took me a long time to get over it. :P Hope you get over it soon! :)

I still rewatch it more than a year after I watched it for the first time so it may be that we never really get over it. Its a lovely series.

Yeah, don't go with what a name sounds like in Thai. They are great at dropping Rs and not pronouncing the last vowel. :P

Watching Tharn Type, Tharn would often say "Hey Type" as in "Hey Ty[soft P]" and Tar (another character) sounded like Ta with a super soft R that was hard to know existed.... So I gave up on trying to know how something is pronounced by how its written. Thai people don't pronounce things the way we do for sure!

You should read my post about why thai slap/kiss lakrons tend to have rape fantasies. Its not really the reason you may think.

For someone so self conscious about rape and homophobia, you are clearly coming in with a very Western mentality about it. I also sense you are judging the ethics and morality of the show from the perspective of woman's rights. I think that is the wrong way to analyze this show.

I liked him but Daichi stole my heart. I dont think I ever got over it. He is such a gorgeous and sweet man.

I hated her.

Lol me too! Now I cant watch anything else lol. If its not an Asian drama, I dont care much about it!

I always thought it had to do with that morning kiss when the alarm went off and she went in the room. He calls out Yuris name I think and they kiss. So it could have been titled good morning kiss too lol idk thats as far as i got

All good points. This show has set a new bar for LGBTQ representation.

One thing you have to say about Tay is that he only gets involved in shows that empower th LGBTQ community. DBK and 3 will be free really have set a new bar for representation of gay, bisexual and transgender characters.

I have to wonder if you missed my point. I tried to analyze why this happens. The idea is that the reason we see this has to do with the fact that yaoi and thai bl are written by women and in societies with puritanical views about premarital sex, rape is a way to have the female not commit an act of impurity. Why such societies do not consider rape to be evil or impure is beyond my analysis but those are the facts. In bl, I propose that rape is a way to circumvent the issue that gay man are not allowed to desire each other romantically. I know it sounds contradictory in bl but think about the sequence of events: in almost every case the non-consensual sex act is the genesis of the attraction (lovesick is an exception but here a ruse is used to make Noh fall for Phun) or precedes any romantic feelings.

Of course, Thai bl is evolving in front of our own eyes. This troped will undoubtedly change with time and lgbt characters will be better represented.

One last thing. I do resent when ppl try to make it sound like LGBTQ representation in American shows is somehow better than Asian shows. I dont think so. Otherwise why would Thai BL be so popular? No. We owe a lot to Thailand. As a gay man, i have nothing but respect and I am grateful to everone in Thailand who make this wonderful shows happen. The closest thing we ever had to romantic gay relationships being portrayed in tv was Queer As Folk and tbh we have never had anything like lovesick on this side of the world.

I know that you meant well but just wanted to let you know how I feel as a member of the LGBTQ community. ;)