'I'm saving Thailand's gay history'

[Hmmm]

An interesting read, although strangely written ... no where does it mention who the article is about. It is attributed simply as "As told to Isabel Berwick." I assume it is Peter Jackson, whose interesting works about Thai gay and gender issues are readily available in English bookstores in Thailand.

Re the snippet about the current government ...
"The previous political regime of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had conservative moral policies, and magazines and other gay businesses were often raided. Somewhat ironically, since the military coup that overthrew Thaksin in September 2006, the climate for homosexual people has improved markedly. There's been a boom in gay businesses, including new gay magazines."

* Is Thailand's current regime really the first "gay friendly" military government ?

"We have put ads in the gay press and on gay websites, asking people to donate magazines to our archive, and we have used the network of people working in gay rights and HIV prevention NGOs (non governmental organisations) in Thailand to get the message out. I have been stunned by the positive response, and by the sense of community history they have. So far we haven't had to pay for any of the several hundred magazines that have been donated.
There are many people in Bangkok who collect gay magazines. One man rolled up in a taxi with three huge boxes - he had kept them in a storeroom for years. One closeted man e-mailed, saying he lived with his parents in the suburbs and they had no idea he was gay. He said it was fine to go and pick up his collection, but asked that nobody came in drag, which would have given the game away."

* I am not aware of any such advertisements on 'our' boards. But perhaps it's only Thai language material that is of interest. But surely there are expat readers here who have built up collections of Thai gay magazines that they did not buy "just for the articles".

[PeterUK]

Okay, let's cut to the chase here. Who's the sexiest guy in that splendid picture? Well, most of them are quite old, of course (that's a bit of Pattaya relativism for you) but for me it's a no-brainer. Of the four guys up to their thighs in the water, it's the one second from the right.

"The magazines are a unique record of how gay culture has developed in Thailand"

"I am developing an archive in Bangkok of gay culture and literature".

Has anyone seen a Thai Gay magazine containing gay history, culture and literature? I am not aware of any other than ones designed to inform about gay services ( bars, discos, karaoke,hotels etc and tittilation. Where does one find these treasures?

Yes it reads much like Peter Jackson - over erudite. How very odd that a distinguished newspaper does not name any source or comment on why not.[/i]

[netrix]

that's what i was thinking exactly! for me it's him or the one standing/leaning against the lifeguard stand. not many of them i'd chase out of bed tho.

Peter wins the boy as he did select the correct Number 1.

Netrix is correct with Number 2 as the boy on right leaning against lifeguard stand.
Number 3 is second from left standing between letters L and U. Needs better shorts for next picture.
Number 4 and perhaps a tie for 3rd place is the boy kneeling directly behind number 1
Number 5 is also behind Number 1 but standing with the yellow shorts.

Only three were kicked out of bed. Two in the water (right with raised arm holding ladder and the one in water on the left with blue goggles. The third looser is standing next to the M with the blue hat and long hair. They could gain admittance if they demonstrate special talents.

Photographer that set this picture up was phenomenal. To get so many casual poses and appeal with that many to manage was quite a feat.

How can the forum sponsor this team and properly complete their training.

[Marsilius]

This post had a familiar ring...

See http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/fo ... tml#115173 (http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/the-thai-queer-resources-centre-needs-old-gay-magazines-and-t12236.html#115173)

Some of us were quite dubious about it last time, too.

For the myopics

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1609/8571041/15911717/293275331.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1609/8571041/15911717/293275330.jpg

Nothing there less than 7/10

Men do not make passes
at boys with slack *****


anyone think of a rhyme?

[Hmmm]

Thanks Marsilius for pointing out that there HAD been a request for material by this group. Although given the less-than-enthusiastic response from readers here - meandering into a discussion of Smile's "throbbing teenage engorgement" - it's not surprising that that was the last we heard from the group.

There is an interesting piece in Fridae that actually outlines some of the history of Thai gay publications:
http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/arti ... warticle=1 (http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=1953&viewarticle=1)

In contrast to some posters in the earlier thread, I think the importance and urgency of such efforts to preserve these documents is obvious - people die and the material gets destroyed.

Contact details for the group are in the link given by Marsilius. The group also has a website:
http://www.tqrc.org/data/index_En1.html

You have correctly rated the boys 1 to 5.

I hope you don't exercise similar taste when in GoGo bars. Much better to experiment & leave the cuties for me.....

J

Hmmm. I want to feel positive about this venture to record Thai Gay history by collecting magazines but I can't see it. Help me please! Are there magazines around that are less than frivolous?

In terms of Life, The Universe, Everything, Death, War, George Bush, Global Warming ,Poverty, Child Death, HIV/AIDS where would one rank it?

Also in all honesty I cannot see Thai universities lining up to own such material.

[dave_tf-old]

Once again, I'm late and PeterUK and Netrix have snatched up my #1 and #2. Splash4 is either dithering or dickering, leaving me the chance to snap up the one in glasses on the back row.

I'm quite excited. He can't seem to hide his extreme disappointment, however. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have no magazines.

[Hmmm]

Hmmm. I want to feel positive about this venture to record Thai Gay history by collecting magazines but I can't see it. Help me please! Are there magazines around that are less than frivolous?

In terms of Life, The Universe, Everything, Death, War, George Bush, Global Warming ,Poverty, Child Death, HIV/AIDS where would one rank it?

Also in all honesty I cannot see Thai universities lining up to own such material.

Frivolous is perhaps the wrong word. But we can perhaps question whether it is 'inconsequential' or 'unimportant'.

Firstly, it's not just magazines full of cute guys with no clothes on that we're talking about. Peter Jackson and others have also written about the origins of notions of gender and gay sexuality in ancient and more recent Thai literature. I assume that sort of material is also being sought for the collection.

The fact that our personal knowledge of Thai gay literature doesn't extend beyond Thai Guys and Door doesn't mean that there isn't more important stuff out there.

And porn is important ! As the potted history in Fridae indicates, the presence of gay porn on the streets was indicative of the prevailing moral climate in Thailand in recent decades. That is important. Similarly, Playboy and Hustler are important historical documents in the study of American (hetero)sexual politics in the last half century.

The history of gay bars in Thailand - that you are obviously interested in - is similarly important in the gay history of Thailand. Hopefully someone will document that one day.

And even if it were all frivolous, that in itself is still important to know - that the early history of Thai gay literature may well have been primarily magazines of naked men. Otherwise that history is lost. If no one documents it, who will remember that was how it was ? If no one wrote about Stonewall it would just be, as someone mentioned in a thread this week, a tranny bar.

I suspect that gay literature has progressed in the same way in many countries. More 'substantial' gay literature probably is a later development in most societies. I was certainly jacking off to gay porn long before I found Edmund White. If nothing else this thread shows that at least some of us here are stuck at the jack off stage and totally uninterested in anything more cerebral !

Those posters would I'm sure object to your implication that their activities are 'frivolous'. :-)

Finally, the reasons that Thai universities seem less than interested in the collection has little to do with exactly what might be in it, but with prejudice or misplaced notions of academic propriety. The fact that it is basically impossible to do a PhD in Thailand in the area of gay and lesbian studies is indicative of that.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

"Has anyone seen a Thai Gay magazine containing gay history, culture and literature"

it's really a secret history or like one of the great secret truths handed down from generation by word of mouth only.

It can only be discovered by sitting with a group of farangs in a Boyztown or Sunnee Plaza cafe and gossiping over a few drinks..and the history of gay Thailand unfolds before your eyes and after each drink-you will find out each person's story of how they were the first one to discover the place .

It's a wonderfully evolving history that invents itself over dinner. It often re-invents itself the following evening with entirely different happenings-according to the amount of alcohol consumed.

It's a religion, not a history.

NB: No 1 in that pic has just been made a God in our religion.

[TrongpaiExpat]

"Has anyone seen a Thai Gay magazine containing gay history, culture and literature"

The November issue of Spice had 3 pages titled, 'Soi 4 From The Beginning" It was not very detailed but was a history of sorts of the venues that came and went on Soi 4 since the 60's.

These Thai Gay Magazines are really just advertising vehicles, nothing more, nothing less. The few articles between all the adds are either fluff, promotional or fillers. No current events, no critical analysis and even the above history article could be construed as just a promotional on the present venues of Soi 4.