On '100% Thai manliness' and the reality of LBGT in Thailand
By Siam Voices Jun 07, 2012 10:30AM UTC
By Saksith Saiyasombut
http://asiancorrespondent.com/83829/on-100-thai-manliness-and-the-real-social-perceptions-of-lbgt-in-thailand/ (http://asiancorrespondent.com/83829/on-100-thai-manliness-and-the-real-social-perceptions-of-lbgt-in-thailand/)
On Wednesday, a rather confusing headline made the rounds when a Thai actor told that the country's Ministry of Culture (or as we call it here "ThaiMiniCult") ordered TV executives to ensure that "100 per cent male" actors should not play transgender roles on TV. Naturally, such a bold statement caused at least befuddlement and at most outrage among many people, given their track record in the past especially when it comes to the bare naked truth of sexuality.
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Although there isn't really a need to protect Thai manliness, I think we can guess a little at the rationale of the pooyai who asked the actor not to play the katoey role. He is said to have given the reason that he wished the real katoeys to play the roles, which is really thoughtful, if true. A few questions arise, however. Does the pooyai want to save the job opportunity for the real transgender/transsexual people? Or does he want to preserve the purity of Thai manliness? Or a bit of both? We don't know enough about the pooyai to speculate whether he's a liberal progressive or a conservative by making such a request to the actor. But in general, a liberal progressive person is unlikely to intervene in other people's affairs, but there's no hard and fast rule on that either. My guess would be that he's more likely a conservative.