#the shipper thai drama

[deliriousblue]

High School Frenemy Episode 6 || Never Let Me Go Episode 1

Jojo Tichakorn: เหมือนคุณหนึ่งเดีววกับนายปาล์มเลยค่ะ มันเหมือนไอ้นั้น ("same as khun nuengdiao and nai palm. it's like that.")

[heretherebedork]

Yai is still the number one supporter and shipper of TharnPhaya and for that he is a hero to us all. He loves them so much and all he wants is for them to have that chance to be happy and to be with each other and to love each other so, so much.

[keungking]

okay real talk, how do i breach the thai bl fandom bubble. I WANT IN but i don't even know where to start 💔💔

[gmmtv-bl-tournament]

GMMTV Non-BL Tournament - Round 1

While you're here, please consider donating to Layan's GFM campaign or the Shawwa's family's GFM.

Layan's campaign is vetted by @/gazavetters (#108 on their list) and @/gaza-evacuation-funds here. You can follow her mother @/layanramy. The Shawwa family are relatives of Ola who has been vetted by @/el-shab-hussein (#205). You can follow them @/najwa-shawwa.

[space-coupe]

Something in my Room -

on love, loss, parenthood, and grief

Warsan Shire / silas denver melvin / Georges Bataille / Matt Rasmussen / Laura Gilpin / Anne Carson / Euripides tr. Anne Carson

[inspiritjun]

First's acting is always first class!

He just appeared in the show but is already making us feel things.

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

Ranking Kim/Pan's "Ehhh" | The Shipper จิ้นนายกลายเป็นฉัน | First Kanaphan

[queenbeedarling]

I finally finished The Shipper!!

I really wish it was Pan/Soda endgame, so I didn't have to see the brothers' kiss that was so weird.

Also, that ending?? And the teacher plotline was just 🤢

They did sell me on WayKim, I was crying so hard, but I still think WayKhet would've been a more interesting curveball.

[thestarsonyourface]

Ok. I was spoiled but that’s not important right now

1. I knew she was gonna leave us 🥲

2. I have been shipping Alan x Gaipa out of the weakness I have for First Khaotung and this feels right

3. If you excuse me I will go cry, here, sitting on a bench at university… in front of anyone who passes by me. I can almost hear them say “oh, they must be so stressed out with work, studies” “Are you alright, girl in pink?” (I am wearing a full pink outfit/ I felt cute) now I am devastated… cannot wait to get home and watch this episode so I can grieve.

“please take a seat.”

[wereflamingo-in-thai-dramaland]

Yuletide sign-ups are open with multiple Thai drama fandoms in the tagset!

Yuletide is a multi-fandom small fandom fic exchange, with a 1k word minimum and a tradition of dear writer letters with fun prompts and ideas (they're optional though, so you might be assigned someone who didn't write one). There are quite a few Thai fandoms in the tagset that you can request and/or offer, including Not Me, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, Laws of Attraction, GAP (but Sam is not in the tagset????), Only Friends, and many more.

I'm definitely requesting Home School and The Shipper, maybe something else too (you can request 3-6 fandoms so I have enough with my third one which is not Thai, but I could request more).

If you don't want to sign up and be matched, there's also the pinch hit list, so you can see the request and decide if you want to take it or not, and the tagset app and letter post to look through if you just want to write treats. Not all the letters are up yet (mine isn't), but there will be more!

Sign-ups close on Saturday Oct 21st at 9 PM UTC. If you're new to the exchange, leave yourself some time to read the rules and prepare your sign-up. You can edit it even after submission as long as sign-ups are still open.

[olderthannetfic]

Okay I NEED to know what the current most popular slash ships are, being on tumblr just feels like slash fandom is dying out, and I'd like to look up some ships because even if I don't like them, following other slash shippers feels so much nicer than seeing people bash them all the time.

--

On AO3, the m/m category is a tag like any other.

That means you can go directly to that tag and look at the sidebar, either in general or filtered for the past year. (No need to rely on those faulty ship stats.)

Broadly, the really massive juggernauts are still going, chugging along on fanon long after their canons have ended or gone to shit. A bunch of fandoms that younger people like are huge. And a lot of older people who used to only be into Western fandoms fell for The Untamed a few years ago and are now into lots of other danmei and BL fandoms. Thai dramas seem to be really heating up lately.

--

Here's the sidebar in general:

Castiel/Dean Winchester (108832)

Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski (68896)

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter (66461)

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (66324)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (60107)

Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) (51611)

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (44020)

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin (42921)

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson (42063)

filtering those out:

Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku (39754)

Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian (37086)

Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V (36739)

Keith/Lance (Voltron) (32031)

Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester (30843)

Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood (29711)

Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin) (29591)

Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter (28681)

Jeon Jungkook/Park Jimin (28574)

Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs) (28260)

Or filtered for updating in the past year:

Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) (14878)

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin (12640)

Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson (10617)

Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs) (10353)

Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku (8964)

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter (8391)

Alhaitham/Kaveh (Genshin Impact) (8284)

Regulus Black/James Potter (7721)

filtering those out:

John "Soap" MacTavish/Simon "Ghost" Riley (6879)

Castiel/Dean Winchester (6751)

Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet (6723)

Getou Suguru/Gojo Satoru (6253)

Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian (6245)

Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV) (6228)

Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor (5725)

Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know (5632)

Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V (5201)

Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter (4199)

In general, I would look at things with canon gay and/or at big anime, c-drama, and kpop RPF fandoms.

And block dickheads liberally when you see them in the tags on tumblr.

If you want to hang out with oldschool people, you could always come to Escapade con. We should be having an online one some time in the summer. There's also a discord. We're currently doing a group watch of Mysterious Lotus Casebook among other things.

[localsimpissleepy]

I knew once i opened up Tumblr to see how everyone is doing after THAT teaser drop, everyone was gonna be upset

I'm not a big of a Wanderrose shipper, but its still upsetting to see such a popular ship (thay even the creators know btw) get turned into the messiest family drama ever

I don't think all of us asked for this, and yet here we are

WanderSara and people that believed in the Traveler being the dad theory, congrats, you're winning right now.

But just don't rub it in.

[homosexualbehaviors]

Do you think there's a real chance for Wenclair to be canon?

Hello, anon. Thank you, for your question! I would like to apologize for taking so long to answer. I have had Covid and am just now getting over it. Anyhow, I hope you find my answer adequate ^^

I truly believe there is a 50/50 chance of them happening BECAUSE they are so popular.

Wenclair has pretty heavily consumed the 'Wednesday' fandom. From fanart to fics to literally everything, majority of content related to 'Wednesday' is Wenclair.

In my opinion, there is a fighting chance for us Wenclair shippers because we dominate.

Though, I pray it is not simply fan-service if they become canon.

If 'Wednesday' were a Thai drama I would say there is a 100% chance considering the amount they play into queer fan-service but because this is a show from the US and people are homophobic little assholes, I'm not sure if it will happen.

In addition, Tim has never made a character queer. He has never created one or made an existing one queer, so there's that.

Despite the possibility of it not happening, you cannot deny the chemistry and connection between Wenclair. I personally wasn't heavy into shipping before I watched Wednesday and now, I would die for this ship. They had connection in every scene. Enid ran into the woods to save her -not knowing she would wolf out! She basically said 'I'm gonna save your life or die trying'. Did y'all see Xaiver running into those woods??? Didn't think so! AND the one she was 'falling for' was the one trying to kill her! Plus Enid could have gone running into her BOYFRIENDS arms after almost dying and wolfing out for the first time but no. She goes running into the arms of her roommate. (Yes I'm aware it is deeper than that) All I'm saying is, even WITHOUT the almost dying for each other stuff, they have had a connection since the beginning.

I also hope, IF Wenclair DOESN'T happen, they simply make Wednesday aroace/ don't put her in a relationship. (Which may be hypocritical of me, but -to me- I could never see her swooning over a man. Watching the Tyler scenes just felt so abnormal.)

(To me though, Wedns is queer and I still believe is on the ace spec (I HC her as Demi). Enid as well and I whole heartedly believe E is comphet and/ or simply pan. But I don't see Ajax as a good fit for her. He just seems too distant/ out of touch. Like he's not fully there in the relationship and I think Enid would need someone who is all in and there for her. She's had enough of being pushed to the side and coming second from her own family.)

Apologies, I got carried away haha.

Anyhow. thank you for your question, anon! I enjoyed answering! Please fear not to ask more, folks🖤

[scrumptiousstuffs]

yknow what i want for fk? more shows. PUT THEM IN INSANE HET SHOWS I BEG 😭 no more one bl a year i need them in a show in every part gmmtv announces shows in. i would literally pay for home school 2 for insane khao. i would pay gmmtv for insane first in a show. LET THEM PLAY INSANE CHARACTERS. FOR MY MENTAL HEALTH.

gmmtv's het shows are so underrated because those things are way more unabashedly queer even compared to a lot of bl's they produce <- preaching like im from the missionary of 'gmmtv het show are gay af' alliance

(i just love the het shows and will take any moment to talk about it. like yea ofc theres stupid ones but some of them are just so fucking good and made with so much love and passion and its so visible and it makes me so soft 🥺)

- burnsuncomet (they should really let me ask stuff from my sideblog smh 😔)

Go on. Tell me more about what het shows you like from GMMTV (and why you like them). And tell me what ideas do you want for your het shows for FK?

I personally enjoyed Home School (so I am definitely on board with Khaotung versus Gun for season 2!) , Midnight Museum, Enigma (for a horror show, this pack a lot more than just good special effects) and the currently airing Peaceful Property (which we are still debating whether it’s BL or not 😂).

And I cannot stress enough how much 55:15 Never Too Late is such an underrated gem (yes it has a side BL featuring our own Khaotung who nailed his role as SongPol/Paul) but my other fav storyline in that show was View’s character and the friendship between Paul and Piploy’s character.

I didn’t mind Summer nights but I got terribly bored by Phuwin (and whoever his love interest was) - and really just perked up when Dunk’s character White and Lookjun interacted.

And if you are asking me what het shows I’m looking forward from GMMTV - Hide & Sis (it has Jan, Piploy and Lookjun plus Chimon playing a sleaze ball? - sign me up!)

But I’m digressing - we are talking about FK hehe. I admit I was disappointed when they only have one project for 2024, which has yet to air 🥲 (especially after getting spoilt with 3 shows from them in 2023 😩).

I think FK is under utilised by GMMTV (but then again, don’t we all say the same when talking about our own bias CPs?) - I want them to be in reality show, talk shows, V-log ANYTHING really beyond just one BL cause they have so much potential (we are definitely in agreement with this. Although it’s of course not feasible to have everything for the boys cause they will burnout otherwise 🙂‍↕️). But we can all dream yeah?

Anyway, I thought this user from Twitter has the cutest idea ever for their YT content 👇🏽 (credit on the screenshot)

(Or I take the boys going camping together with us watching them cook and playing guitar and toasting marshmallows by the campsite)

In my alternate reality where FK gets to act more than one BL per year, these are my pick for hetero show/concept with FK in it:

The currently aired “The Judge from Hell”, k-drama starring Park Shin Hye and Kim Jae Young. I want a Thai remake - with Piploy as the devil in the judge’s body (she plays beautiful evil/anti-hero well! - her performance in Enigma was a good example of this) and First as our dutiful cop who joined force (literally selling his soul) to the devil after his mother figure got killed by a serial killer who also killed his birth parents. We know First can play tortured and devastation well, but truly seeing him fight to keep his morality? - 🤌 (also First already looks like a Korean movie star, so he will fit in well! Plus not going to lie - a tall First having to lean down on tiny Piploy while they bicker and fall in love 🤭 (these 2 have quite the chemistry in The Shipper)

As for Khaotung (we already mentioned Home School), but if I want to see him in a hetero couple - it will be with Ciize. These 2 were wholesome together in Tonhon Chonlatee (the show has flaws, but I still enjoyed it and Khaotung/Ciize being besties in that show was one of the highlights for me!)

And again, I’m borrowing this from one of my favourite k-drama, Happiness (2021) featuring Park Hyung-Sik and Han Hyo-Joo. Beyond just a zombie flick, it’s a commentary on social class but also the desperation and the length people go to when trapped with no where to go. Also, I won’t lie, I just want to see Khaotung (now that he is so buff!) and Ciize (despite her tiny frame) being badass with guns- it also has a sweet romance line between the main characters 😂

And bonus - if I can make my own FK-centric drama:

I want them to play cross-lovers in the past but one of them was a woman.

They both reincarnated - the woman’s soul now in one of the boys (I haven’t quite figure out who I want to play this role between them 🤣). This soul remembers his previous life and lover but avoids trying to look for him (cause you know, she is now a he and thought his previous lover is straight)

While the other person - knows he is missing someone, he has a deep yearning for this one person. However, he can’t remember the face or really anything beyond vague flashbacks except he knows it is a she. So he keeps looking at girls of course not finding the one. Meanwhile, fate (of course) made them meet and they keep avoiding trying to not fall in love but fail 🤷🏽‍♀️. I have even thought of what jobs these boys could have, the side characters 🤣…but alas, this will stay in delulu land (and yes, if you think the plot sounds vaguely familiar, it likely is! Cause I just pick all the plots/tropes I like and meshed it up!)

[absolutebl]

Hi, I recently discovered BL and have been very interested in reading about it. And even if I don't agree with every one of your takes, you seem very knowledgeable, so I've been reading your blog on and off since yesterday.

Anyway, I was curious about your opinion on The Shipper, but I looked at the tags, and it seems like you didn't watch it. May I ask why? I get it's not quite BL, instead being BL adjacent, but I think it's one of GMMTV's best productions, so I'm really curious about what made you avoid it.

The Shipper

I did end up watching some of it (which in me terms means I skipped through it to the BL bits and then watched the last few eps to find out how they landed the damn ship).

Ultimately, I simply don't consider The Shipper BL. I try to stay on target with this blog. So while I may watch other QL, GL, Kdramas, survivor shows, Kpop thingies, and so forth, 90% of the time I stick to BL here.

Other more personal reasons?

I also hugely dislike shipping culture. Too close to stalker and parasocial relationships. It's not something I was ever into, even as a teen. Taking on reality with fanfic wigs me tf out. I have close friends who have had stalker issues both as "normal" people and as the quasi-famous.

It's one of the reasons I rarely report on actor news or relationships or drama here. Unless it directly impacts production, it's none of my damn business. If I did so, this could probubly become a much bigger blog, but also a much more toxic one. I do this for fun, not profit.

The branding of pairs interests me intellectually, from a marketing and publicity perspective, but nothing beyond that.

You may note, if you delve further into this blog, that I lurch hard away from JBL in particular when it dabbles in idolatry, sasang, and stalker behaviors (unless it's playing in the dirt with them, like My Beautiful Man did). Even if done gently and comedically, I tend to get switched off from the whole show. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a trigger, but I am viscerally upset by it, not entertained.

IMHO BL is for entertainment first. The only thing worse than being upset by a show is being bored with it.

The way Thai BL represents female shippers in particular, especially in the context of a BL (which tend to have very few positively represented women on the main), often smacks of misogyny and punching down humor. I simply don't enjoy that. Feminist critical theory from my uni days always bubbles up in my head and won't be put aside.

And finally... I pretty much loathe the body swap trope. It is probably one of my least favorite fiction tropes. I have no idea why, I just really don't like it.

I make an exception for Great Men Academy but even that I have only watch once with no plans for a rewatch, and it's another one that I would hesitate to call BL.

Still, if you love The Shipper I would HIGHLY recommend tracking down Great Men Academy, I think you would find it well worth your time.

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: TharnType and Gray Areas Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I’ll cover the very controversial TharnType, Asian stereotypes towards queerness, and the very difficult gray areas on how this show has been interpreted by various populations over the last few years.]

TW: homophobic and derogatory ideas and language against the queer community. Critical commentary on TharnType and MAME. This review is NOT for you if you are a TharnType or MAME Big Fan.

(I want to give very special thanks to @so-much-yet-to-learn and @lurkingshan for reviewing previous versions of this post and offering the most insightful feedback I could ask for. Thank you both so much.)

Alright. Deep breaths.

TharnType was a necessary addition to the Old GMMTV watchlist. It was. I had to watch it, for:

- the tremendous IMPACT this show has had on BL culture, along with MAME’s continued influence on the genre;  - how this show affected shipper culture, and the rippling effects it’s had since then vis à vis MewGulf; - how this show continued to define “high heat” and “chemistry” in BL, and -- at least for me, possibly the most interesting point to needle on -- - what fans, ESPECIALLY the majority cishet fandom, are willing to compromise and/or equivocate on in regards to our values towards the queer community regarding what we consume in media, and how safe or unsafe it is for our queer family that this content exists in the first place.

I gotta say some stuff first before I get into this review. This is the worst show I’ve ever watched, in my own opinion. I offer this flag for MAME and TharnType fans in advance, as I get quite critical down below.

I am angry at this show, at MAME, at the BL industry for allowing this show to exist, and I unfortunately hold anger against Tee Bundit, who I know has since made shows, like Lovely Writer, that deeply criticized the BL industry (and I am enjoying his work now in Step By Step, even while I don’t hesitate to criticize it). ANYONE INVOLVED in the making of TharnType needs to hold personal and professional accountability for this show even existing. And I also think that fans need to hold THEMSELVES accountable if they defend it WITHOUT thinking about the long-term social implications of the existence of this show.

I want to also say that I need to check myself, OFTEN, as I write this, because I don’t want to be some fucking loudmouth, self-righteous ally-savior. I don’t. [My AMAZING drama friends, @lurkingshan​ and @bengiyo​, have held me down during this watch. (Friends. Thank you. Good LORD.)]

I want this review to be as fair as possible to the nostalgia of the moment that this show aired; to note that this show gave high heat, which fans clearly demanded, and IS a worthy component of some dramas if it works with the rest of what the show has to offer by way of writing; and to note that many fans saw a chemistry in MewGulf that they hadn’t seen previously. I especially note that there may be survivors of sexual assault who related to certain pieces of this show, particularly through Type’s lens and his own anger.

With that very long introduction, I will note that I’m not going to talk too much about the show details itself. I don’t need to unwind on plot. For me -- FOR ME -- the show’s plot was problematic. 

2019: earlier that year, before TT aired, you had He’s Coming To Me, which was BURIED by GMMTV, and was a TOUR DE FORCE of intricate storytelling and queer revelation. According to this amazing reblog by @so-much-yet-to-learn​ (another longtime BL observer who UTTERLY held me down during my TT watch, friend, I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR THE HOURS you spent me with talking about TT and other issues), shipper fans angry at Ohm and Singto went so far as to SHOW UP TO THE GMMTV BUILDING IN BANGKOK and PROTEST against the split of the KristSingto ship. This is why, in this TT review, I talk about fans needing to take responsibility and accountability for the media we consume. I believe TT exists in part because fans have allowed it to continue to exist in the universe of BL, and many even celebrate TT’s existence -- all while, in my own opinion -- much more compelling art existed before TT (Make It Right, He’s Coming To Me) and certainly after its airing.

In discussion with @absolutebl (yet another drama expert who held me down during my TT watch, THANK YOU, SENSEI), ABL Sensei brings up that, besides a natural tendency to criticize and blame MAME for our needing to have conversations about safety towards queer family, that TT does deserve to be criticized as a standalone piece of content.

I honestly don’t know, Sensei, if I’m mature enough to make that separation, but I will try. MAME herself doesn’t exist in a vacuum: she has an industry, from producers, to showrunners, to actors, to editors, to networks -- that join her in the making of her work. I’ll do my best to separate everything, but.

I noted in my review of Love By Chance that MAME traffics in common Asian stereotypes against the queer community. At the same time, I know that often, we talk about the yaoi origins of BL in Thailand. I think, over time, the explanation of the yaoi origination has been used as a means of explaining WHY certain tropes exist, such as abuse of a partner, bullying, etc. I want to note that while I acknowledge those origins, I also strongly note (as I did in the comments of my LBC review) that yaoi origins are themselves problematic, as created by a majority cishet female artist base, and thus I question the accurate representation of queer themes both in yaoi and in early and/or questionable Thai BL that lean into common stereotypes held by Asian nations. (That being said, I do DEEPLY ACKNOWLEDGE @so-much-yet-to-learn‘s point to me that many in the queer community still consumed this media, as the West was producing next-to-nothing by way of queer love and/or queer perspectives.)

Much of what I saw in LBC and TT -- gang rape, cheating, revenge, derogatory language, hurtful stereotypes of top/bottom and husband/wife -- are repeat, word-for-word stereotypes that I heard from my Asian family growing up. Examples of what I saw by way of problematic stereotypes in TharnType include:

- Tharn repeatedly and casually calling Type “his bitch,” - The use of the F word, repeatedly, by Type, - Type attacking his out classmates, and indirectly attacking his friend, Tum, - The assumption that because Tharn and Tar are gay, that they are promiscuous (even Techno assumes this while leaving Type alone with Tharn early in the series), - Techno himself not calling out Type for his homophobia throughout the series, - The use of gang rape as a means of revenge by Lhong to Tar,

and many more. I will also note that I was incredibly uncomfortable by Lhong’s redemption at the end, as if the story demanded that Lhong’s own actions that drove him to order grievous sexual violence against another man needed to be forgiven. That was a paradigm that seemed apologetic to his actions and did not sit well with me.

As I noted to @bengiyo: us international fans may be lulled to think that Thailand is majority progressive and accepting of the queer community based off of the BLs that we watch. It IS a much more progressive culture in SE Asia in supporting the queer community, and I would assume that gay culture is able to flourish in city centers, as opposed to rural areas. 

But Thailand has NOT legalized same-sex marriage. And I posit that we in the West don’t actually realize that harmful stereotypes against the queer community absolutely still exist and flourish in Thailand, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia -- countries that certainly leverage BL as soft power, but nations in which familial or cultural expectations may STILL make ACTUAL coming out and public existence a dangerous or risky proposition. THIS SHIT IS GRAY. BL is fiction -- it is not reality. It is still dangerous -- YES, INCLUDING HERE IN THE STATES -- to be out in very many towns, cities, and communities around the world.

Now. When I went into TT, I understood, AS ASSUMED FACT, that MAME was a sexual assault survivor, who used this style of writing about queerness and queer love to process her own SA experiences. That equivocation gave me the serious jibbles, which I’ll talk about in a second, but I understood it to be the line that most BL observers have made about her work, and/or justification or explanation for her work existing.

I’ve since learned that this is not necessarily fact: that it is not known if MAME is an SA survivor, and that she is notoriously private and has not revealed much, if anything, about her own past.

So, from there, how do I process this? How do I process that it’s FANON -- NOT FACT -- that MAME may or may not write from a survivor’s perspective?

I also note here, thanks to the wonderful @so-much-yet-to-learn​, that many fans who are SA survivors have written in the past about how they related to Type’s anger and/or homophobia after his own assault experience. I also understand that SA survivors have, in the past, had difficulty with strong rejections of TharnType, like the one I have composed here, in reaction to the fear that they cannot tell their own stories of internal anger against their perpetrators and the communities from which their attackers come from.

Thus, I want to note a VERY DIFFICULT PROPOSITION TO WORK THROUGH. What we’re facing here is that there may be people, SA survivors in particular, who related to Type’s homophobia. This is Type’s fictional homophobia -- as written by a very real, assumed-to-be female author. At the same time, I myself very much acknowledge that I still see stereotypes against the queer community, in a very Asian voice that I am familiar with, in MAME’s shows.

Let me tell you why this gives me, personally, the jibbles. Let’s assume that MAME is an SA survivor. As someone trained in the social services, I am not sure that I would advise a potential client to create very public content that is potentially harmful towards a minority community, as a means of their own personal processing. MAME is FAMOUS. Her work is POPULAR. Can we justify the dangers that her work poses -- the stereotypes and assumptions she traffics in against our queer family -- for her own psychological processing?

If I am her therapist, I am guiding her to instead journey map, to meditate, to advise her of HUNDREDS of other therapeutic psychological modalities to process her pain -- all modalities that do not set up a minority community to be stereotyped through very publicly consumed content. 

I posit here -- MY OPINION, FAM -- that MAME has leveraged her own personal bigotry against the queer community in her shows for clout with Asian and international audiences that would not quibble about the harmfulness of the stereotypes that the show portrayed. And she’s gotten away with it for the utter control she has over her own content. AND SHE KNOWS THERE’S AN AUDIENCE FOR IT, so she keeps making what I call bigoted content.

I thought TT was a DANGEROUS show for perpetuating harmful stereotypes about queer family. And I am distraught at the BL industry for seeing dollar signs against that clout and investing in it. 

The equivocating in support of TharnType certainly exists. There are people who view this show with nostalgia, as there still wasn’t the volume of BL content, with heat, in 2019 as we have today. There are people out there who may very well openly relate to Type’s homophobia as a character, and MAME’s homophobia as an author and as a human. Hell, Foei Patara, who we see in everything these days, shared a very anti-LGBTQ+ video on his Instagram just recently.

I DO have to give a nod to nostalgia. I have to try to be fair here. This is the ENTIRE POINT of the OGMMTVC. BL fans in 2019 wanted a thing. High heat, high chemistry. I know that there are fans that are AWARE of these high-level issues of MAME’s work. And yet, there are many that still look back on TharnType with fondness, because it brought something new to the field. 

What I’m suffering from here is the equivocation of MAME’s work by way of analysis against a presumed opinion -- NOT fact -- that MAME is an SA survivor. That seems to open some sort of door to allow us to watch her work, despite the dangers of the stereotypes contained within her work.

The ethics of this. I’m not a strong enough person to go near that equivocation. Because I am not a survivor. I’m an Asian. In MAME’s voice, I hear the stereotypes against the queer community that I grew up with. And that’s where I’m writing this review. I’m hurt and appalled by her proliferating what I term to be dangerous viewpoints against my queer sisters and brothers -- assumptions that I heard growing up in my Indian community.

Fuck. Am I ever glad that I DIDN’T watch this show in 2019. I’m protected by a fortress of past and present works that I can rely on that proves that there are other arenas in which BL is being leveraged for good, for progressive art, for the introduction of ideas that support our queer family, AND that might also offer critical commentary on issues that affect other minority or vulnerable corners of society, à la Moonlight Chicken. 

I haven’t even gotten to the MewArt scandal and the problematic nature of the MewGulf ship. All of those are also very important issues, but I can’t bring myself to get deep about them, because just talking about the show itself is a lot. But Mew Suppasit’s past alleged behavior is certainly problematic, and is worth considering if folks were to think about watching this show.

In any case: I’m never watching another MAME show again, ever. And as a side note, MewGulf didn’t do it for me. At this point in 2019, I feel like we’d seen ships with much better chemistry and even heat, like PerthSaint (a MAME ship, actually), OhmToey, MaxTul, and even OhmSingto and their utterly brilliant acting. @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle noted in the comments of one of my TT late-night posts that they didn’t see the MewGulf chemistry, and frankly, I didn’t either -- I didn’t see that these guys, as the acted characters of Tharn and Type, bodily and ferally WANTED AND VISCERALLY LOVED each other in fiction, the way that actor pairs like EarthMix, OhmNanon, FirstKhao, and others have since perfected in their work as their respective characters.

This post is about the responsibility that so-called “artists” bear when taking up the mantle of created content about a minority community, as well as the responsibility that we bear, as fans, as the majority cishet female fanbase, to consume this content. MAME and the slices of the BL industry that support her MUST understand that perpetuating stereotypes about a minority community WILL HAVE VISCERAL SOCIAL IMPACTS in REINFORCING THOSE STEREOTYPES, among a majority cishet fanbase and across society, to the danger of the existence of our queer family. 

THIS IS WHY WE NEED MORE QUEER CONTENT BY QUEER FILMMAKERS.

That is the way in which this paradigm will be broken over time. And us in the cishet fanbase MUST STAND READY to support art -- in the words of dear friend @wen-kexing-apologist -- by queer family, for queer family, about queer family. We in the cishet majority bear a responsibility to break the paradigm of dangerous stereotypes, perpetrated by who create content through their own bigotry, either consciously or unconsciously -- or both.

[I finished TharnType in record time. I needed to get it out of my system. And now I’m fully invested in OffGun and having a DELIGHTFUL time with Theory of Love: I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS SUBVERSIVE, MINDBENDING SHOW. Ooooooooooooooooooh. Right up my alley! Hopefully I can muster my usual Monday review for ToL -- let’s see. I still feel somewhat broken by TT, but ToL and OffGun have been SUCH a salve.

Here’s the list as it stands currently. We have two changes! First, thanks to a suggestion by @wen-kexing-apologist and @lurkingshan, I’m adding a non-BL (!!!!) to the list in 3 Will Be Free. I have a number of separate Jojo Tichakorn priorities to achieve before Only Friends airs, and this is a big one; as this is a show from 2019, I want to see where GMMTV was willing to go in pushing queer content in non-BLs, and this is the perfect time to watch it. I’ll still include a review in this space! 

And, per @absolutebl Sensei’s suggestion, I’ve added YYY (2020) to this, to enjoy Cheewin unhinged in what seems to be a disaster of a show -- but an important one for real queer representation (THANK YOU, SENSEI!). I’m excited for chaos. I’m watching it out of chronology with ITSAY and planning it as a mental break. As always, I’ll take any feedback on the list as it stands!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 11) TharnType (2019)  12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (I’m watching this out of order just to get familiar with OffGun before Theory of Love -- will likely not review)  13) Theory of Love (2019) (watching) 14) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (not a BL or an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn including queer content in non-BLs) 15) Dew the Movie (2019) (not an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but I want to watch this in chronological order with everything else) 16) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) 17) 2gether (2020) 18) Still 2gether (2020) 19) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 20) YYY (2020, out of chronology) 21) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 22) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 23) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS 24) Lovely Writer (2021) 25) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 26) Not Me (2021-2022) 27) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 28) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 29) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 30) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 31) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 32) GAP the Series (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 33) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 34) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 35) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]