Sex & Culture: Thai Lakorns & Rape

[Wisarut]

The formula of successful Thai Drama can be seen here:
http://www.manager.co.th/Entertainme...=9520000083062

[Wisarut]

Brutality in Thai Drama as usual. Nevertheless, we have spotted some changes for better in Thai TV Drama.
http://www.manager.co.th/Columnist/V...=9530000004959

[Wisarut]

Now, Thai TV Dramas have been exported to Mainland China - after being exported to Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia
http://www.manager.co.th/Entertainme...=9530000159110
http://yule.sohu.com/s2008/ctdgz/index.shtml

[Wisarut]

Doksom Si Thong (The golden Orange Flower) - the controversial drama by BEC (Channel 3) which have sparked the recent controversy of the main acress (Reya) which loves to have affairs with several men ... amost reachign the point Prime Time AV .... according to Ministry of Culture.

Now, the drama produce (Braodcast Thai Television) has to make a compromise to allow the continuation of TV braodcasting

http://breakingnews.nationchannel.co...12&lang=T&cat=

[Wisarut]

After the incident of Doksom Seethong drama, Ministry of Culture is going to slap the Nor 18+ on Soap Opera in the same way as Movie in the cinema => Nor 18 + ratign wilkl force all the Drama in such a rating to be broadcast after 10:30 PM - no right to get the air space on Prime Time at 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM

On the other hand, the drama/cinema of Chor 20 could be broadcast on TV ONLY betwene Midnight ot 5 AM.
http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detai...tid=&subcatid=

[Wisarut]

Now, the teen boy of 14 has imitated Reya of Doksom Seethong by insuting his mother to such level that it drived his mother to commit SUICIDE by drowning herself! - This is an indiction of the real failture of parents who failed to control theri children
http://www.komchadluek.net/detail/20...4;ย.html

With failture of the parents, Kroo Yui is now askign for the Censor to move those Soap Opera with the high level of sex and violence of Nor 18+ and Chor 20+ to be broadcast ONLY between 10-11 PM for Nor 18+ and Midnight to 5 AM for Chor 20+ and set uo the broadcastign center to work better thant the existign censor workgi nin each Television channel.
http://breakingnews.nationchannel.co...47&lang=T&cat=

[Wisarut]

Noo Chomphoo - the actress of Doksom Seerthong regrets that DOnksom Seethogn has driven mother to drown herself after being insulted by her teeage son who just imitated her action of insulting her mother.
http://www.thairath.co.th/content/ent/170193

The case of Doksom Seethong scandal that driving mother to commit suicide reflectiong 3 Social Failtures
1. Social failtures to know who is the real authority to deal with the inapporpirated Soap opera
2. Imperfect TV Program Rating system after ebign in used since 2006
3. Public failture know how to force those drama directors to DO THE RIGHT THINGS to the society.

Even worse, Thai TV Drama have taught young watchers how to commit murder in at least 27 ways including

1. poisoning with arsenic or so.
2. Cutting the controlling wire on the automobile brake system
3. Shooting wher for committing suicide or killign the one they hate - either deliberately or accidentally.
4. Strangulation.
5. Driving the one they hate to commit suicide.

and so on.

http://www.manager.co.th/QOL/ViewNew...=9540000057337

The case of Doksom Seethong scandal that driving mother to commit suicide has compelled TV owers, drama directors, script writers and TV Censors to have special session to prevent any other Doksom Seethong Incidents.
http://www.manager.co.th/QOL/ViewNew...=9540000057462

[Wisarut]

Shocking behavior of Thai teens. One Third of Thai Teen have experienced with Sexual Orgy!
Worse, many prefer NOT to use condoms and though t that have a sex just once will not make them pregnant
No wonder, the illegal abortion along with Teen Pregnancy and STD are now rampage!
http://news.mthai.com/headline-news/153002.html


Thai Teens (those Juvenile Delinquents) turning Memorial Bridge area into their love nests along the place to have a binge and all decadent behaviors
http://www.oknation.net/blog/sri/2012/02/09/entry-2

[Yappofloyd]

Andy Biggs with a good article in the Posts Sunday Brunch magazine on point. Note: Krabi police have reportedly taken down their Youtube response after much criticism.

'Evil man from krabi' And the culture that created him. The alleged sexual assault and beating of a Dutch tourist in Krabi wasn't rape in the eyes of the tourism minister because she knew the guy and this outlook, sadly, is not the warped view of one individual Sunday Bangkok Post 18/11/2012 Brunch

There is a popular soap opera that pops up from time to time on Thai TV called Chamloei Rak or Prisoner of Love. We call them "soap operas". The Thais call 'em "stinky water" and believe me, the water doesn't get much stinkier than in the melodramatic storylines of this TV drama.

Early on in the story the pretty female lead is captured, tortured and raped by the leading male character. So what does she do? Call the cops? Purchase some garden shears then go on a rampage that leaves the guy a lifetime member of the castrati?

Nothing of the sort. With violins rising in the background, and the actress gazing out into the night sky, she resolves to work hard to change him. Make him a better man. At this early point in my column we must leave Prisoner of Love, but fear not. We shall return to it by the last paragraph, because I am sure you are dying to know what happened in the end.

I am writing this from Krabi in the south of Thailand where the Andaman Festival, the official start of peak season, kicked off last Tuesday night. Amid the fireworks and grilled chicken stands, however, a cloud has descended upon the Krabi tourism industry in the form of the alleged rape of a 19-year-old Dutch tourist in July. If you thought the futsal stadium was bad for Thailand's reputation, wait till you hear this.

The woman was celebrating her birthday at the Chang Beer Bar at Ao Nang with her boyfriend and a Thai man. The boyfriend went home early. The Thai man offered to drive her back. The woman ended up in a local hospital saying she'd been raped. The Thai man fled the scene, as Thai men are wont to do when they do something wrong. He finally showed up and was charged, went to court and was released on bail.

This release enraged the girl's father, who made a music video called Evil Man From Krabi. In it, he stomps around the countryside in trench coat, rifle and hat to a reggae beat. His fury is as manic as it is understandable. Krabi police counteracted with their own video called The Truth From Krabi. To date Evil Man From Krabi has garnered nearly 500,000 hits on YouTube. The Truth From Krabi has clocked up 984. The father is winning.

What followed was, to many, as shocking as the crime itself. Tourism Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa made an outrageous comment that ricocheted around the world. There was more to this crime than met the eye, he said knowingly. This girl knew the guy and even had dinner with him on the night of the attack. It couldn't, therefore, be rape.

How can somebody make such an official comment? Is Mr Chumpol in chauvinistic dreamland? Or is something else going on here? In the West we have "consensual sex" and "rape". You either agree to it or you don't. If only things were so black and white in Thai culture. Because somewhere in the middle of those two is plum, pronounced like the fruit. I first heard this word 15 years ago as a work colleague explained the story of a soap opera to me, though not Prisoner of Love.

Just about every TV drama in Thailand has a plum scene, since it contains all the ingredients necessary to a soap _ shock, violence, screaming, glimpses of naked flesh and, of course, sex. "The man wants to set up a business with the woman, so he plums her," I was told. I had no idea what my work colleague was taking about. "Plum," he reiterated, frowning a little. "It means, like, like he takes the girl and sleeps with her." "It means having sex?" I asked. "Well yes and no. But plum ... it's more than that. He forces her to have sex with him." "So it's rape?" "'Oh no, that's khom kheun," he replied with a smile. "But this is ... well, plum and plum is, well ..."

"Stop repeating the word. You're telling me he forces her to sleep with him, yet it's not rape? Is he offering her money?" "Oh no, that's prostitution," he answered sternly. "Of course, and we can't have that. And what happens after he plums her?" "Well, she's tied to him, isn't she?" "She is?" "Now that she has slept with him, she has to do business with him. She is bound to the guy." It took me a while to figure out that plum is forceful seduction. A woman makes it known she likes a guy, but social mores make it difficult for her to take it a step further.

A romantic Thai man thus takes the only recourse possible _ he forces himself on the woman. The deed having been done, they can get on with having a relationship. So is it consensual? Now that's a hard question. The woman may not be consenting, but once it is over, she has a bond or relationship with that man which is something she may have wanted from the start.

Thus we have the outrageous soap opera situation of a woman being forced to do business with the man who raped _ plummed? _ her for the sake of saving face. Oh, did you hear that just then? That was the echoing sound of the gaping chasm between Thai and Western culture creaking, as the two cliffs shift even further apart, and the chasm plunges deeper.

To summarise: There are two separate verbs in the Thai language _ if you know the guy, then he will plum you. If he is a total stranger, then he will khom kheun you. That second word has a dark, foreboding meaning as nasty as "rape" in English. It is an all-out assault on a helpless woman, often ending in murder in this country in order for the man to escape detection.

There's nothing cute about rape, and the act is rarely seen in Thai soapies. In the eyes of Thais, this is the deranged sex fiend jumping out from behind the bushes. This is why Chumpol Silpa-archa and others can make comments like: "She went to dinner with him so it can't be rape." He's not being a total fool. As odious as that line of thinking may appear, he is making it from the context of a society that separates the act based on familiarity of the assailant.

I'm not even touching the logical progression of this line of thought; that it's OK for a man to force his way onto a woman who flutters her eyelashes at him. This is an age-old patriarchal culture where a flirtatious woman can still pay a terrible price. Thais are getting educated, though, and it won't be long before the concept of plum goes the way of other Thai customs such as slavery, torture devices outside parliament and a wife praying to her husband each night before getting into bed with him.

And what of that poor woman in Prisoner of Love? The one who resolved to change the man for the better after she had been plummed (the past participle of plum for all you grammar aficionados)? She did change him. He realised the error of his ways. He realised what a good woman she was and fell in love. And they lived happily ever after. I was right. Water doesn't stink much more than that.

Khun Arglit's article on the Krabi case, http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/o...man-from-krabi

[Yappofloyd]

Very rare for an editorial to be done on a tacky soap series, particularly for the high brow nation editor!

EDITORIAL: Popular soap defies Thailand's social reality, The Nation November 24, 2012
Female viewers may admire the attitude and methods of the heroine, but such attitudes off-screen may still be a long way from being the norm

Take away the likes of chainsaw murderers and man-eating aliens, and it's probably fair to say that most movies and TV dramas reflect lives or societies as they are and as we accept them, and even as we want them to be. How else can we explain the abundance of cinematic love stories between those at extreme ends of the wealth gap in countries like India, or the frequent portrayal of the CIA and FBI as complete idiots? In our imagination, we want to break through the barriers many of us abhor, subconsciously at least.

What does the immense popularity of "Raeng Ngao" tell us? As it approaches its climax, the Thai TV soap opera has attracted a massive following that includes both admirers and haters. The plot is about a beautiful woman hell-bent on taking a revenge for the suicide death of her broken-hearted twin sister. The premise is not that revolutionary, but mixed audience reactions are intriguing.

This is another "bad girl" drama that has taken Thai audiences' breath away. Thai soap fans are no strangers to revenge-turning-into-love plots, but it's not every day that they are able to watch a sexy female avenger on a no-holds-barred mission. Admirers cheer and critics cringe. But both groups have been glued to the tube all the same. A "Re-ya phenomenon" has come back, and the Thai audience can't get enough of an "un-Thai" heroine who many love to hate.

Maybe these viewers have been unknowingly fascinated by the hidden feminism in the plot, whether or not it was there intentionally. The character Muta represents the kind of women who punish themselves for failed romances or blatant exploitation. Munin is a more extraordinary kind of woman, holding men responsible for disastrous relationship.

The drama features typical male chauvinism, and how female characters cope with it in their own ways. There is no doubt why "Raeng Ngao" is very popular with Thai women, although opinions are split over whether Munin goes too far in search of revenge.

We don't want to be thrilled by Munin. We know her motives and how she will go about carrying out her plan. We want to follow an unorthodox character all the way to her destiny. This is a moral tightrope drama featuring a heroine who keeps pushing the sexual, romantic and social limits. She keeps telling the hero that he doesn't exactly know her. In a way, the audience is represented by the hero, whose key role is to try to second guess her. As the plot thickens, the hero's conventional thinking gives way to reluctant acceptance of her actions.

The production is fine, with - despite this being an old fiction - modern lifestyle elements thrown in, like the use of smart phones to advance key sub-plots. Various actors and actresses have been acclaimed, and the adapted screenplay reflects Thai soap opera at its tongue-lashing best. All the ingredients are there for "Raeng Ngao" to be up there with the top-rated Thai dramas. Only ratings do not quite tell if the Thai female audience wants to be like Munin or just wishes they could be like her.

If the predominantly female watchers of "Raeng Ngao" are craving social changes deep down in their hearts, records are not in favour of an upheaval in female attitudes. This is the third time in 24 years that Munin has exacted her revenge on Thai TV, and her every appearance has been mightily popular. Having monitored the "Raeng Ngao" phenomenon, social experts say the continued popularity of Munin means two things - that Thai society is still fantasising about changes but it needs something far stronger than a fantasy to really enforce the characters principles, though not her methods. In other words, life still finds it difficult to imitate art on this one. To be more specific, the much-maligned Director Jenpop character can jump off screen and live safe and sound in Thai society.

We can call it a dramatic cliche if or when the heroine and her hero somehow find a way to live happily ever after. It's a real-life cliche when what has driven her character to fascinate viewers so much remains strictly on the screen.

[Wisarut]

^^^
That because this Rae Ngao and Qi Pao drama have become a talk of the town - not to mention about the case of committing suicide by imitating a charactor of Rae Ngao. Therefore, Editors of the Nation Multimedia have to pay attention on these 2 TV dramas (AKA Telenovella since both are TV Adaption of novels) - Clear and Simple.

[Wisarut]

Raeng Ngao has become the real big hit without any doubt left - Here is the testimony
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...&type=1&ref=nf


Another testimony of Raeng Ngao - Menu of the stuff from Raeng Ngao
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...&type=1&ref=nf

[Wisarut]

The ending of Raeng Ngao at the night of 4 Dec 2012 has effectively emptied the streets around BKK
http://www.manager.co.th/Pjkkuan/Vie...=9550000148147


No More Raeng Ngao status on FaceBook
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...&type=1&ref=nf


Karmic Retribution is the real justice that nobody can escape
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...&type=1&ref=nf

[Wisarut]

Raeng Ngao phenomena: it it caused GDP to be down 2 hours a week ...
http://www.prachachat.net/news_detai...&subcatid=0200

[Wisarut]

Need to deal with our own authoritarian mindsets to end domestic violence
http://www.thaipost.net/x-cite/141212/66597