FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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From Michelangelo to Iron Pussy

From Michelangelo to Iron Pussy

A talk on homosexuality in art and film sheds light on Thai gay rights

Though homosexuality hasn't been categorised as a mental illness since the second world war, many gays still feel safer in the closet.

 Thai male and female gays' reluctance to declare their sexuality has various reasons, ranging from discrimination in employment to prejudice among the family or religion.

 But the doors here opened just a bit with "Homo in Art: Art of Homo", a talk hosted on Thursday by Bangkok's Reading Room, a nonprofit library aiming to shed light on contemporary art and culture.

 The event drew a packed room of more than 30 participants from Thai art circles. As an artist and writer, I joined Sanchai Chotirosseranee of National film Archives to share views on homosexuality in art and film here and abroad.

 I focused on to the visual history of samesex eroticism in two mediums - paintings and advertising. In the early 16th century Michelangelo depicted the male nude and male love in a different context. The naked men of "Doni Tondo" (Holy Family, 1503/4) exemplify the artist's nostalgia for homosexuality as it was expressed in pagan times. The group, gathered in the background as if at a Roman bathhouse, contrasts with the new biblical world represented by St John the Baptist and Christ raised by Madonna at the centre.

 In fact, male nudes are a constant feature in art right from the classical period through to the late 19th century. Photography's invention enabled better depictions of physical motion, and from the late 19th century artists such as Thomas Eakins and Joseph Christian Leyendecker adopted a new vision and admiration for the human body. Leyendecker's celebration of the male body took the form of powerfully built, welldressed characters resembling athletes from leading US universities. This new vision of athletic males began circulating to wider audiences, enchanting first art lovers and finally even shoppers.

 Sanchai explored stereotypes of male homosexuality depicted in films since the late 1970s. From the beginning, Thai popular cinema has portrayed gays as effeminate characters or "pretty boys". "Chan Poo Chai Naya", (The Boys in the Band) from 1987 is a classic example.

 Other more progressive movies, such as 1985's Pleng Sud Thai (The Last Song), remade in 2006, and Bangkok Love Story (2007) still prefer to focus on gays overshadowed by failing relationships rather than those interested in career or social responsibility. It's true that Thai homosexual characters have come a long way from the overlooked or unaccepted outsiders who used to hide in shame. But still, the positive portrayals tend to be limited to reliable friend of leading actor/actress, or comic character.

 We face a long and winding road ahead before a new generation of filmmakers reinvigorates homo characters as superheroes in the mould of Iron Pussy.

 Meanwhile the scenery is empty of vehicles to raise awareness on important issues such as Aids, employment discrimination, and prejudice in areas such as the military, blood donation, child adoption and health insurance.

 Thai gays are still ignored by the authorities, and belittled for their political motivation. And this despite their disproportionately high social contribution as consumers and taxpayers. Our civic rights are still not publicly discussed, after homosexuality's categorisation as a mental disorder was scrapped almost a century ago.

 Acceptance of homos is a hidden - or forbidden topic - topic in Thai society, and it will remain that way until gays stand up for their rights and equality. Thai homos need a stronger agenda in order to raise awareness of their potential.

 Let's remind ourselves that this is a humanitarian issue that cuts across buzzwords such as "brotherhood" or "sisterhood", which only serve to recycle the sexual clichés of the patriarchal world.

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