berestweys

[berestweys]

Tumblr isn't social media, it's a habit. Like smoking. We're all gathering by the dumpster in the cold, reblogging posts.

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English added by me :)

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THE GOOD PLACE | 2.03, "Dance Dance Resolution"

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Truly fascinated by the postcolonial approach Memoir of Rati’s taking. Because her highness evil grandma is right in her accounting of France’s relationship to Thailand. In fact it’s worse. Attempts were made on multiple occasions over centuries by France to conquer or colonize the country, and Thailand, in its different formations, was able to resist through revolts or diplomacy each time…but not without being shaped and scarred by its struggle.

I noted in my Enchante review how France in that series represented a place for marriage equality. And that tension’s in Rati, too, at a grander scale. For much of the globe, France and its revolution symbolize democratic values, and ones that enshrined the decriminalization of homosexuality, at that! How do you insist on the native importance of that ideology when the nation that embodies it has been the one cheating, attacking, and cornering your own?

Rati, even more than Theo in Enchante, is an embodiment of that question. Is that queerness native to him or nurtured by Western influence? Is the disruption he brings ruining Thai values or disrupting a defensive stance against colonizers no longer needed? Is his return to Thai society a sign of returning French threats or a return for lost local ideals? Is this love foreign or Thai?

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STOP! before you decide you are irretrievably doomed, try one of the following options:

transition

bdsm

iron supplements

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Doh Kyung Soo ☆ ''SING ALONG!'' for DingoMusic

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I'M THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNT || EP. 2 NUT SUPANUT as PRINCE/WORADET PING ORBNITHI as KOSOL

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posting from my hotel's air conditioning control

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wow okay

shine said we are really political and if you have a problem suck my dick and i love it <3

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Wei Wuxian in every episode → episode seven

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WEI WUXIAN & JIN RULAN in THE UNTAMED ── episode 40.

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-- and hey, i can't believe i captured your heart // wake me, bleachers.

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Moira

(Who is this diva?)

We learn several things about Moira in episode 2 of Shine.

The first is that she learned traditional thai dance as a child and was good enough to be selected to perform at an event to welcome state guests.

So we can assume that her family moved in noble circles even if they may not have been that wealthy, (I'll come back to that.)

There she caught the eye of a man and was married to him at just 16 years old.

He was a mine owner, he may have been a self made man rather than noble born. He had a crown made for Moira who was his "royal” child bride, indicating that he was very affectionate towards her or very pleased with himself for bagging a girl of some status.

She seems to have fond enough memories of him, enough for husband number 3 to feel insecure enough to commission a fancier crown to show his superiority 😆

I strongly believe husband number 1 was much older than Moira and likely died while she was still fairly young as she is married twice more (and potentially widowed) by the time she is having this conversation with Tanwa on the bed.

Husband number 2 remains a mystery. Moira skips over him and seems to have kept no trinket to remember him by. Perhaps we can assume he was not very nice? He may have died or abandoned her or maybe she even divorced him, we just don't know.

Husband number 3 - Henry the farang. We know he was rich, foreign and jealous of husband number 1. He is almost certainly dead and I think any money Moira inherited from him, she used to open the Hotel Grand Paradiso. She kept that crown though so presumably he had his good points 😅

However she felt about her husbands one thing is clear now, she is not looking for any more crowns or number 4. She is finally her own queen, in charge of her own affairs and finances and what a queen she is 👑

The Betel Nut Box and Moira's family.

Historically betel was used for medicine and food and betel nut boxes were a common item for wedding dowries. They were even present during funerals.

Betel nut chewing was outlawed in 1930 which is why Moira said Tanwa had probably never heard of it but before that it was a commonplace everyday activity, as ubiquitous as smoking.

As it was an activity you could share with others it was also a vital part of socialising and community.

I talked about betel nuts before here.

Betel nut boxes carried all the accoutrements necessary for the act and were often used to display someone's wealth or status. While rich or poor both had access to betel, only the noble elite could afford to have betel nut boxes crafted from quality metals and inlaid with precious stones.

The Thai court even commissioned betel nut sets to offer to members of the royal family and other favoured nobles.

Those with royal lineage were gifted round trays with a betel set while civil servants would receive an octagonal tray. These trays were then displayed by the recipients as a sign of privilege and passed down as family heirlooms.

I think Moira's tray looks round but we don't get a clear enough look at it to be sure.

But when she talks about her mother inheriting her grandmother's betel nut tray and her worshipping it, that is the significance of the item.

She also said something very illuminating as to her status as a child.

“That's all that a minor wife was allowed to inherit.” This means that Moira's mother was a minor wife, probably one of the last legal “minor wives,” although the tradition still lingers on even in the Thailand of today.

Mia Noi

The practice of having minor wives has its roots all the way back in the culture of Old Siam.

The kings of Ayutthaya had many wives as did the founding kings of the Rattanakosin era (which is also the current era) and the wives were categorised into different levels of status.

Pharaya luang - the royal wives, being the highest and then wives of the families of favoured nobles and last of all were concubines, girls from families with no influence, just there for the kings pleasure and to have children. (It's actually a bit more complicated than that so I will share a link if you are interested to learn more.)

Minor wives have an inferior status to “first wives,” but unlike a mistress, they are entitled to support from their husbands and in many cases the First Wives are aware of them and may have even approved them.

A man who had many wives in the past was seen to have wealth so it was also a status symbol and polygamy was fairly standard for the rich and elite for a very long time.

Thailand didn't pass its first monogamy law until 1935, later than the chewing of betel nut! 

So Moira may have come from a noble family but she was not high in the pecking order if so and any siblings born from a first wife would have likely inherited the lion's share of any family wealth.

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you can't just slap his prince's shoulder

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I'M THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNT || EP. 2 LEE ARSE as JET

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this is basically a focus on Jack’s thumb stroking Joke’s cheek during the kiss, you’re welcome