Whilst dramas about male same-sex romance (referred to as “boys’ love”, or BL) had been widespread in Asia since 2010, “girls’ love” (GL) dramas are simplest now seeing a meteoric upward thrust in recognition – and they’re popping out of Thailand.
On January 23 2025, Thailand changed into the primary nation in south-east Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Even though the rustic is frequently imagined as a “gay paradise”, Thai society stays in large part conservative and homophobia remains to be not unusual. By contrast social backdrop, the upward push of LGBTQ+ storytelling is intriguing – most likely revealing the emergence of extra tolerant and innovative attitudes.
In Thailand, those BL and GL dramas are referred to as collection “Y”, an business estimated to be value 3 billion baht (roughly £72 million) in 2024. Thailand’s GL dramas now reshaping sapphic storytelling and bringing it to the mainstream.
But even so the central romance plotline, GL tales frequently discover pertinent problems reminiscent of circle of relatives expectancies and societal drive, coming-out struggles, and age and sophistication variations. Including intensity to the narrative, those problems chime with younger queer audiences searching for extra lifelike, relatable reviews.
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A hub for BL collection for the reason that mid-2010s, Thailand simplest produced its first full-length GL collection in 2022. Regardless of investor doubts, the manufacturer of a then-small manufacturing area financed a pioneering collection known as Hole, telling the tale of an place of job romance between a royal-descendant CEO and a junior member of team of workers.
Airing on home TV and later uncut on YouTube with multilingual subtitles, Hole accrued over 850 million perspectives by means of January 2025, proving a world urge for food for queer women-oriented tales. By means of February 2025, greater than 20 GL collection had aired, with no less than 30 extra in manufacturing.
Trailer of Hole (2022), Thailand’s first full-length GL collection.
Collection like Clean, 23.5, The Secret of Us, Affair, and The Dependable Pin illustrate the style’s rising recognition, with uncut variations to be had on platforms like YouTube and Netflix, whole with subtitles in more than a few languages reminiscent of English, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish.
Thailand’s GL dramas have followed a hit practices from their BL opposite numbers: adapting novels, scouting and coaching actors, incorporating product placement, webhosting fan occasions and showing on selection displays. One notable follow is the making of khu-jin (imagined couple), the place celebrities carry out same-sex intimate moments on level or social media to serve enthusiasts’ fantasies.
“Shipping” tradition – the follow of imagining or supporting a romantic courting between fictional or actual folks – is pivotal to GL’s good fortune. The 2 Hole leads, Freen Sarocha and Becky Armstrong have created the “FreenBecky” send, and each and every have greater than 4 million Instagram fans. Actresses of different “ships” reminiscent of LingOrm, EngLot, and FayeYoko, command in a similar fashion faithful followings. Their fan conferences throughout Asia ceaselessly draw tens of 1000’s, mixing fiction and fact to create an immersive fan ecosystem.
Poster of Clean’s Asia fan match excursion.
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Celebrating Ladies Love
As we mentioned in our fresh analysis, Thai GL collection additionally emphasises pleasure and resilience, in contrast to the tragic endings frequently noticed in western LGBTQ+ narratives. US-produced content material has been criticised for the “bury your gays trope”, the place LGBTQ+ characters are steadily killed off in tragic or needless tactics.
Any other objection is “dead lesbian syndrome”, the place lesbian and bisexual characters are even much more likely to be killed on display. Infamous examples come with Killing Eve and The 100.
By contrast, Thai GL tales have fun love and acceptance, regardless of the demanding situations skilled by means of protagonists. Collection like Hole, The Secret of Us, and Mate characteristic grand wedding ceremony finales with the blessing of oldsters and buddies, portraying queer love overcoming hindrances and thriving.
GL collection additionally talk at once to the queer females’s neighborhood. Many actresses, reminiscent of Engfa Waraha in Display Me Love and Petrichor, and Faye Malisorn in Clean, are brazenly queer or vocal queer allies.
Even though many GL collection have male administrators, love scenes are respectful, specializing in sensuality and need somewhat than being graphic and exploitative. This contrasts with motion pictures reminiscent of Blue is the Warmest Color, wherein love scenes have been criticised as being exploitative, and the place actresses have reported problematic practices all through filming.
Finale wedding ceremony scene from The Secret of Us (2024).
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Alternatives and demanding situations
From their inception, Thai GL dramas have aired in the community however have briefly been made to be had on streaming platforms with multilingual subtitles for a world target market. Social media platforms enlarge their achieve, with manufacturing homes curating developments and fostering interactive fan reviews.
Recognising the possibility of cultural export, the Thai govt has partnered with BL and GL manufacturing corporations to advertise Thai tradition and merchandise. It’s atypical for governments to embody queer tradition as a car for comfortable energy, which highlights the rising cultural and financial importance of those collection. Despite the fact that this construction has sparked considerations over the intentions in the back of such strengthen, it indicators a long term the place queer narratives cling international, cultural and political relevance.
Regardless of its good fortune, GL leisure faces demanding situations. Many collection are nonetheless diversifications of novels, restricting thematic variety. Whilst topics like schoolyard dramas and candy romances reminiscent of Love Senior, Free up Your Love, and Us be successful, some collection are pushing limitations with topics like incapacity (Pluto), supernatural energy (Opposite 4 You), and crime (Petrichor).
GL romances supply an important house for queer females’s tales, connecting audiences throughout borders via international visibility and fan tradition. Maximum remarkably, this shift isn’t coming from Hollywood.
Because the style evolves, it holds the possible to proceed redefining illustration and amplifying underrepresented voices. It’s no longer simply reshaping how queer females’s tales are instructed and considered globally, it’s proving to be commercially viable and culturally transformative.
Within the face of emerging international reactionary politics and rising hatred in opposition to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood following Trump’s re-election, Thai GL collection gives no longer just a protected get away and myth, but in addition a way of team spirit via their international fandom.
