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SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
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Thai developer makes bold choice in reaching out to same-sex couples in condo ad campaign.

MAKING CHOICES

Motorists passing downtown must have spotted it -- the billboard featuring two men in a pose of romantic suggestion. Online, the campaign goes further with a wedding celebration of the same two men.

Plugging new luxury condominium 28 Chidlom, this is probably one of the first high-profile advertisements with a prominent gay element, and one that's highly visible among city people.

28 Chidlom, developed by SC Asset, occupies a super-expensive location worth 350,000 baht per square metre. In the pre-sale ads, the gay couple is one part of the larger campaign. The other two characters are a senior lady who defies her age by running and an aspiring ballet dancer. Still, it looks like the gay part is the most recognisable.

An SC Asset marketing executive told us that the gay couple emphasises the key idea of the campaign, that life is about choosing what's best for you.

"If we use a man-woman couple, it won't feel special. A gay couple shows that they have made their choice, and the choice doesn't have to be based on reason. It's love, it's instinct. Maybe that applies to the property we're selling as well."

The marketer said the company isn't trying to target the gay demographic, because the other two characters -- both women -- in the ads suggest the broader theme of making decisive, broad choices in life.

"And we don't think the gay element would put off man-woman couples," she said. "We're modern people and I think we all understand that love has nothing to do with gender."

-- Kong Rithdee

Club Friday The Series starring Paula Taylor and Virithipa 'Woonsen' Pakdeeprasong.

SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING

 

"Why can't two women get a happy ending all by themselves with no third man involved?"

That was one question asked by a viewer after the trailer of Club Friday The Series' latest episode in True Love, Does It Exist Or Not?, which stars Paula Taylor and Virithipa "Woonsen" Pakdeeprasong as a lesbian couple, was released 10 days ago. The mini series will start its run on Sunday at 8.30pm on GMM25.

Two women meet and fall in love, but don't expect them to have a happy ending. At least, that's not how most fictional stories end for them. In the series trailer, we see a growing attraction between two gorgeous women, their romance, their touched lips. Not before long, we start to see their tears. Then, a fight. A shout. One wants a baby and plans a one-night-stand with a man to achieve her dream of motherhood. The other relents and later finds herself trying to commit suicide from supposed heartbreak.

While many are excited to see real-life besties like Paula and Virithipa in their first lesbian roles, others have already expressed their dismay at the series' most likely unhappy ending. They believe the series does nothing but provide entertainment at the expense of continually reproducing the same old idea that a same-sex relationship is always lacking, incomplete and short-lived.

"Even gay films get a happy ending. It's quite sad to think about it, really. This is why some men would insult lesbian love because they think that women will eventually just go back to men," said one commentator on YouTube.

Why does a lesbian story -- or actually many LGBTI stories -- have to end on a sad note? Why can't there be a third woman in the picture, too, instead of a man? That would be an interesting change. The questions have been repeatedly asked, but it seems there's no answer to be found.

It's a curious case why we rarely have a lesbian story with a happy ending. Or perhaps, don't even think so far as to how it ends. It's hard enough to find a lesbian story. Period.

If we don't venture into the "tom-dy" genre, the only recent Thai lesbian story (categorised as per Thai people's understanding as a love story between two "femme" women) to come to mind is the 2014 film 1448 Love Among Us, starring Apinya "Saiparn" Sakuljaroensuk and Isabella Lete. Another would be Club Friday's previous take with lesbian love in 2013 with Sarunrat "Lydia" Deane and Rachwin "Koy" Wongviriya in the leading roles. And, yes, there's no happy ending for both stories.

It seems a trend. Brutal and heartbreaking. A happy ending is denied. Some may consider fiction a place to seek shelter from our daily predicament, but where can people escape when a fictionalised world is nothing different than the world of unjust discrimination we are living in right now? Sometimes, it's even worse than reality. Is there a happily-ever-after waiting for LGBTI, too? We only wish we knew the answer.

THE ROARING OF THE BEAST

Be our guest and feast on this tale as old as time, well, unless you can't handle some gay moments.

Disney's live-action Beauty And The Beast, now showing in movie theatres, has set some people's tempers flying with its gay moments. A drive-in cinema in the US has refused to show the film. On a bigger scale, countries that are against homosexual activities like Malaysia and Russia are taking measures to limit the same-sex love -- however tiny it is -- the film has to offer.

While Russia has since approved of the screening for those over 16, the drama took on a higher note in Malaysia. Initially, it was reported that the film was pulled from the country's release after Disney refused to axe its problematic scenes as per the censorship board's request. But a recent update said the screening -- with no cuts -- would be postponed to Thursday instead.

It's 2017, people. Witnessing men having a fling in a musical shouldn't have anyone throwing a hissy fit, seriously. It is almost unfathomable how some could think it would corrupt the young minds to watch two men showing interest and attraction towards one another. That was pretty much what caused this worldwide debate. For now, at least, it's a happy ending until further notice.

As a somewhat counter reaction from the crowd, some who have already watched the film are criticising that the moment wasn't gay enough, and that perhaps Hollywood received too-generous acclaim for such one-minute moment of inclusion in its film.

Well, aren't tiny steps better than nothing at all?

Contact melalinm@bangkokpost.co.th for news and views about LGBTI.

UPCOMING TITBITS

March 29, 9am

Head to Sukosol Hotel to join the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission and several LGBTI organisations in the discussion of transgender women and conscription, and how the story has been treated in the Thai media.

March 31, 6pm

To commemorate the International Transgender Day of Visibility 2017, visit Museum Siam for a show of music and arts by transgender artists. Performers include Sillapin "Zymone" Gill (from The Voice Thailand Season 5) and Phattarapakorn "Chinz" Chinaksorn (I Can See Your Voice). Event starts at 6pm. Entry is free.

April 3, 9pm

Tune in to Workpoint 23 at 9pm to feast on the epitome of Thai transgender beauty Treechada "Poyd" Petcharat in her first leading role in a Thai drama Nang Khaen (The Scarlet Night) — a crime thriller that revolves around a murder at a cabaret.

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