Honglou Meng

Unfortunately, this is very true.

Ah, okay. Thanks!

Could you send me a link? I speak Japanese.

I don't know why you mention me by name. And your message leaves me in doubt as to whether my comments hurt you or helped you. If the former, I'm sorry. If the latter, I'm glad.

A few things to set straight (ironically):
1. I'm a gay man in his 40s.
2. I grew up in a country where it was illegal to be gay, and threatened with life imprisonment.
3. I'm of Asian origin, though I have now mostly lived in the West.
4. I've been beaten up and admitted into a hospital for being gay, and have lost friends to suicide because they were gay.
5. I have friends in places where they cannot be open because the military will come and set their houses on fire.

I don't mean to be heavy or bring people down. But these are the facts. And since it's become de rigeur to declaim one's experience to justify one's feelings, I have done so.

I love My Stubborn. I have loved it from the start. I take the mick out of it, because I take the mick out of everything, most of all myself. And I never take BLs seriously. It's a piece of light entertainment. But few who could have followed my comments here could have doubted that I enjoyed this show.

I don't care to defend shows or characters as if they were my siblings. But I do hold that, no matter the country or the origin, how you depict gay/bi characters matters: and that each depiction has consequences. Yes, you won't get it right, but that's okay. People learn from mistakes. However, BLs have been around since the 60s, and LGBT rights from around the same time. Yesterday, I rewatched Funeral Parade of Roses: it's not as if people in Japan and Thailand haven't been aware of our plight for a long time. They have. Thai BL may be relatively new: Thai gay films are not. So, certain ideas/tropes have more than outlived their dates, and are actively harmful to our community. Funny and erotic as My Stubborn is, it largely pretends as if gay rights haven't happened. Does it even use the word "gay" or "bi" at any point? That's fine by me, if you don't use words that a lot of gay men now consider distasteful, to say the least. But you can't have your rainbow cake and eat it too.

Also, it is one thing to talk about the reality of sexism, racism and homophobia, and another thing to talk about the depiction of it. You say 'humans are humans', true. But it is inconsistent, to say the least, to create a fictional universe in which everyone is 'gay'/'bi' and no one minds -- wonderful! -- and then still go around using words/tropes that are tiring and upsetting for the people it depicts. It is as if there is a world in which racism does not exist, but it is still okay to go around using anti-Asian slurs because it's funny or it's customary.

Far be it from me to spoil anyone's fun. So I won't go further. As I said, I enjoy My Stubborn a lot.

I was dismayed to hear of the appalling biphobia you have experienced, and to hear of you living in such an environment. I hope either that things change where you live, or that you get to move to a more welcoming and accepting place.

On which note, happy pride! 🌈

I wonder if a gay man wrote it.

One of my best friends is Thai, and he swears to me that only straight people and homophobes use that term. Certainly not the gay men he knows. One of the many reason he refuses to watch BL.

Amen! I'm not annoyed with Jun as character, but with how he's written. His character did start out with some degree of self-possession and independence of thought, and he was allowed to express his obvious desire for Sorn, even if he was torn about its meaning. However, the show has gone down the route of making him a classic, petulant 'uke', who resists every attempt at the 'seme' touching him, as if being desired were a crime, and as if Sorn had visible eczema. Please...

Sorn can do with me as he pleases. So long as he lets his hair down. ;)

I *hate* calling one of the partners 'wife'. Why?

I imagine a lot of female writers imagine themselves as the 'uke' when they write BL stories. Which explains the 'wife' nonsense and the utter passivity of the 'uke's. Now, I have no beef with straight women writing whatever BL stories they want -- it is their right to do so, and at a time where they are being arrested for it in China, I will defend it -- but don't demean us in the process. Don't pretend as if the last 50 years of gay rights didn't happen. Least of all in Thailand.

I'm not seeing people talking about this anywhere on MDL, and of course the powers that be won't put it up on the front page. But in case you didn't know:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c056nle2drno

If you have it in your power to support the writers in anyway, please do so.

I'm not seeing people talking about this anywhere on MDL, and of course the powers that be won't put it up on the front page. But in case you didn't know:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c056nle2drno

If you have it in your power to support the writers in anyway, please do so.

I'm not seeing people talking about this anywhere on MDL, and of course the powers that be won't put it up on the front page. But in case you didn't know:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c056nle2drno

If you have it in your power to support the writers in anyway, please do so.

Thank you! I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but I should hope we have far outlived certain tropes and ideas.

It seems a lot of you found the line about 'making babies' funny. More power to you. But, as a gay man who's been forced far too many times into straight labels and brackets, I just found it... icky. If anyone said that to me in real life, I'd just go: "By all means, take it up the arse and bring more babies into this world!"

I wish people would stop talking about gay men getting pregnant and other such nonsense. We are not substitutes for straight women. Just... don't.

Lol. Nope. I've been calling him P'orn throughout the last 10 weeks here. Either P'orn or Sorny, depending on my mood.

Lol. I have no objection to the use of the word 'cum'. But I object to the suggestion that gay men could ever run out of it. ;)

To be honest, the main conflict involving the leads was resolved last week, rather precipitously. So, there isn't much to do now, except draw some focus on to the side couples, whose plotlines have been severely underdeveloped, and in which, therefore, no one was invested. The effort to desperately ignite some interest in the fate of Champ and Thai, by introducing a last-minute conflict, isn't working. And the potential for maternal acceptance for Sorn, which could have been placed in his country home rather than a short phone call, and mined for emotional warmth, was missed. Instead, they went back to the familiar dynamic of petulant Sorn and pouty Jun, and a side-couple who don't have a brain cell between them. It just seems like they are stretching the show for two more episodes to fulfill their quota, and keep people hooked with a few more shirtless scenes.

What the hell. I'll watch it for P'orn and Jun.

We live to see it.

I'm sorry, but bringing in a new (?) character in the penultimate episode to drive a conflict between two side characters who are the definition of wet blankets, and whose story, it seems, most people don't care for, because it is so underdeveloped, is the definition of lazy writing.

Is it just me, or, has the show taken a sharp turn towards the anticlimactic in this episode? I suppose the main conflict between the protagonists has been resolved, and it's only left for Champ and Thai -- who have all the chemistry of wet cardboard to a lighter -- to get together.

Pity. I hope the show does not end on a flaccid note.

It occurs in the very first scene, when Thai wants to have another go (Sure, Jan), and Champ says 'you're all out of... '. Maybe the original said 'steam', but the translator certainly made it pregnant with meaning.