<
https://theconversation.com/how-thailands-tv-lesbian-romances-captured-a-global-audience-248261>
"While dramas about male same-sex romance (known as “boys’ love”, or BL) have
been popular in Asia since 2010, “girls’ love” (GL) dramas are only now seeing
a meteoric rise in popularity – and they are coming out of Thailand.
On January 23 2025, Thailand became the first country in south-east Asia to
legalise same-sex marriage. Although the country is often imagined as a “gay
paradise”, Thai society remains largely conservative and homophobia is still
commonplace. Against this social backdrop, the rise of LGBTQ+ storytelling is
intriguing – perhaps revealing the emergence of more tolerant and progressive
attitudes.
In Thailand, these BL and GL dramas are known as series “Y”, an industry
estimated to be worth 3 billion baht (approximately £72 million) in 2024.
Thailand’s GL dramas now reshaping sapphic storytelling and bringing it to the
mainstream.
Besides the central romance plotline, GL stories often explore pertinent issues
such as family expectations and societal pressure, coming-out struggles, and
age and class differences. Adding depth to the narrative, these issues chime
with young queer audiences seeking more realistic, relatable experiences.
A hub for BL series since the mid-2010s, Thailand only produced its first
full-length GL series in 2022. Despite investor doubts, the producer of a
then-small production house financed a pioneering series called
Gap, telling
the story of an office romance between a royal-descendant CEO and a junior
member of staff.
Airing on domestic TV and later uncut on YouTube with multilingual subtitles,
Gap amassed over 850 million views by January 2025, proving a global appetite
for queer women-oriented stories. By February 2025, more than 20 GL series had
aired, with at least 30 more in production."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
