คุณเป็นเกย์แท้จริงหรือไม่ HEY GAY PEOPLE, ARE YOU GAY? AN EXPLORATION OF GAY IDENTITY IN THAILAND’S BOY LOVE DRAMAS

Abstract

My thesis about a new genre of Thai popular culture. Termed recent “Boy Love dramas” these televised dramas are a platform to present different representations of male homosexuality in modern Thailand. The dramas make publicly visible what was once an almost invisible group of people in mainstream media. In a world of images, Thai Boy Love dramas transmit varied images and interpretations of homosexuality, my research discusses these televised representations. Expanding Peter Jackson’s (2011) work on Bangkok’s queer boom, I probe how Boy Love dramas extends our understanding of male homosexuality in Thailand and Southeast Asia. In so doing, I showcase how the notion of homosexuality is one that is transformative in modern Thailand and intimately associated with ideas of cultural stereotyping as seen in Thai Boy Love dramas.