The Thai Girls' Love (GL) entertainment genre is gaining global traction, but the lack of commercial interest reflects sexual and gender inequalities, according to new research.
An article titled "Queer Media From The Global South: The Emerging Girls Love (GL) Media Industry Of Southeast Asia" has been published in Feminist Media Studies. It is authored by Eva Cheuk-Yin Li, lecturer in sociology at Lancaster University, and Ka-Wei Pang, lecturer in cultural studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
While Boys Love (BL) media has grown exponentially since the mid-2010s, with over 200 series produced in Thailand so far, GL is emerging and charting its own course with the first of its kind, GAP (Pink Theory in Thai), premiered only in 2022. After two GL series in 2023, eight full-length series and two mini-series had aired by August 2024, with several more currently ongoing.
According to research, the lack of commercial interest shows sexual and gender inequalities. While BL targets heterosexual female audiences, GL mainly attracts queer women. Still, the rapport between producers and the queer community has the potential to advance LGBTI activism. Its success has inspired other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia, to produce their own GL series.
"We also see increased visibility of GL productions in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, which have previously produced queer media content," according to the article. "Although Thailand's GL industry is still developing, it is premature to label it as inherently queerbaiting or exploitative."
Further research is needed to assess how collaborations between Thailand's GL industry and its government, which has recently enacted the Marriage Equality Law, impact the commercialisation of queer media and its engagement with global audiences.
Read the full research at www.tandfonline.com.
Pluto.
