Dr Narupon Duangwises
– Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
2 Moons, a boys’ love story written by a female author under the pseudonym Chiffon_Cake in which the main protagonist is a man who loves another man – was first published online on the thaiboyslove website in 2014 covering 54 episodes. The story was later published by Ever Y Publishing in 2016, divided into three volumes, and produced as a digital TV series in 2017 and 2019. The main theme of this story is the relationships of male university students. There are three central couples: Phana and Wayo, Ming and Kit, and Forth and Beam. The love stories depict the bond and closeness between good looking young men who do not define themselves as “gay”, but rather show emotions, desires and affection towards people of the same gender. Boys’ love stories written as novels are very popular among female readers who call themselves “Sao Y”, women who are interested in love stories between men.
The key point of analysis is that 2 Moons represents the formation of a new meaning of “homosexual” identity that has abandoned the old image of being “gay”, which is often labeled and stigmatized as being “unmanly” with an effeminate personality and characteristics. The male characters in this novel show strong masculinity that reconciles with accepted social norms. The author of the novel has added love and affection for male same-gender eroticism to the main characters, called “Androphilia”. This is a concept that Jack Donovan describes in his book Androphilia: A Manifesto in 2006, which states that men are able to show love and sexual affection to other men without losing their macho and masculine strength. 2 Moons emphasizes and establishes a manly love that makes “masculinity” praised in terms of sexual desire and is a reproduction of the ideal masculine gender that must not be weak similar to a woman.
Although the 2 Moons opens social space for Thai people to see the “possibility” for men to love, desire and admire each other, this novel speaks only of the experiences of well-educated and good-looking young men. This implies there is still a form of discrimination and marginalization of those men who are old, poor, not handsome and effeminate. This is a construction of an implicit prejudice that instructs society to believe that only good-looking young men can love one another.
Keywords: Androphilia, Boys’ love novel, 2 Moons
(Presented in the Spectrosynthesis II : LGBTQ in Thai Literature (ความหลากหลายทางเพศในวรรณกรรมไทย), 26 January 2020, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Bangkok, organized by the Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University and the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre)