Published on July 29, 2005

Bookstores and even 7-Eleven are stocking up on titles about homosexuality, but the content can be annoyingly trite

The shelves of bookstores are looking as colourful as the gay community’s rainbow flag these days. Besides the swath of translated foreign pocketbooks that appeal to homosexuals, many popular local titles are being churned out, among them “Mae Krub, Pom Pen Gay” (“Mum, I’m Gay”), “Dokmai Yaem Kleeb” (“Blossoming Flower”) and “Kae Klong Gay” (“Gay Unpacked”).

And the market has expanded into everyone’s neighbourhood with many of the books on sale at 7-Eleven’s 3,000 branches.

“If you want to find books on gays, you go to 7-Eleven,” says Chantalak Raksayo, who owns a small publishing company and is the author of “Blossoming Flower”, a lesbian romance novel that’s being serialised in the Ploy Gam Petch women’s magazine.

“It’s gradually becoming a selling point for them too,” she says, noting that the convenience-store chain benefits economically while at the same time the books are accessible 24 hours a day and stand out more on its smaller shelves.

“Gay and lesbian books are lost among the big piles of other books in big bookshops,” says Chantalak, who estimates that titles she publishes can sell 3,000 copies in two months at 7-Eleven. It would take major bookstore chains like B2S, Se-Ed and Naiin a year or two to match that.

The bookstores and 7-Eleven, it almost goes without saying, won’t stock just any book on homosexuality. The chains and private bookshops share the same principle when it comes to screening the titles: no sexual explicitness.

But despite the jump in gay titles on the shelves, readers lament that the themes vary little. The thrills and agonies of “coming out” predominate, along with profiles of famous homosexuals, tales of traumatic childhoods and tips for matrimony-minded women on telling a gay guy from a heterosexual.

Almost invariably, there are tragic endings and disappointing love affairs.

In the June Thai edition of Esquire magazine, the newly release “Mum, I’m Gay” was criticised as having shallow content. It offers trite stories without any details on how people become gay or other information that might improve people’s understanding, the magazine’s critic wrote.

Though a fun read, the critic said, it should be re-titled “Confession of Out-of-the-Closet Gays”.

“It’s getting so boring – why can’t they be more creative and write about something like ‘gay life at work or in the city or even in the army’?” complains Game, a 25-year-old graduate student who follows the trends in gay writing.

“And there’s no analytical thinking or anything educational in these books at all,” Game says of releases like “Kratiam Rai Tiamtan” (“Queer Undefeated”), “Lang Man Nang Show” (“Behind the Showgirl’s Curtain”) and “Berk Tawan” (“Ass Exposed”).

A noteworthy example is the bestseller “Bantuek See Muang” (“The Purple Diary”) by TV emcee Sitthinee “Ing Ing” Kittisitho. She writes about life with her boyfriend of seven years – and her discovery that he’s gay.

Its sales demonstrate that plenty of people have either shared the experience or want to avoid it, but those “in the know” – trashing her book in Internet chat rooms and blogs – say she’s ignorantly “gaydar-less”. They swamped her with so many negative comments that Ing Ing cried defamation to the police.

And there remain some people who think they understand homosexuality, yet insist it’s a transient phase.

“I have a friend who loves gay guys and she believes she can turn them straight,” says Nim, referring to a female friend who most gays would call a “fag hag”.

Vittaya Saengarun, who contributes to Metro Life magazine’s “Lerk Ab Sia Tee” (“Stop Hiding”) column, wrote “Rook Rook Rub Rub, Krub Pom” (“Top Or Bottom, Sir?”) and co-wrote “Mum, I’m Gay”, says the repetitive themes in gay books don’t detract from their importance.

People encounter homosexuality or come out at different times in their lives, he notes, and need such books at the appropriate moment. Even in Western countries with established gay communities and legal same-sex marriage, he says, these seemingly redundant or outdated books are still on sale.

The main reason there’s such a lack in variety, Vittaya says, is because there’s no balance between the number of writers and readers. The few Thai gay writers can’t meet the demand for more creative stories.

And the market for gay books is meanwhile expanding to include women, academics swotting for research and parents dealing with gay children.

Viroj Tangvanich, a gay-rights activist who’s president of the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand, says Thai society, despite its relative openness, still lacks academic knowledge when it comes to homosexuality.

“You won’t see flamboyant gay figures like me or Ajarn Seree Wongmontha talking openly on free TV,” he says.

Viroj has read none of the gay pocketbooks, but has heard about the content. “If even people like us don’t like it – who else will? These books shouldn’t be just a claim to fame or self-gratification for the writers. Society might misinterpret it.”

So he’s planning a book himself, though he won’t share the details.

“Let’s say I want to know something, such as what the UN is talking about when it comes to homosexual rights,” he hints, citing this month’s Queer Studies conference in Bangkok as a great education.

Vittaya agrees with Viroj’s assessment of the current gay literature, but stresses that although the content remains limited, these books can help validate research on homosexuality that will be archived and used to make changes in society.

“I’m glad that at least the bookstores aren’t discriminatory and give us space,” he says. “I feel somehow that we have more identity this way.”

Kreangsak Suwanpantakul

The Nation

Post your comment to this story here