Showing 1 - 10 of 26
Anime embraces Boys' Love, highlights queerphobia
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 04/10/2025
» A rural village in Kubitachi, Japan, is humming with the sound of summer. Cicadas sing in deafening chorus. Sweat drips in the sweltering heat. Against this backdrop, two young lads savour melting ice cream on carefree days.
Girls gone bad
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 18/07/2025
» Remember the popular HBO series Girls from over a decade ago? The show was widely recognised for its postfeminist commentary on female sexuality and millennial angst and it ran for a surprisingly long six seasons. To this day, I still don't really understand the rave reviews. I only watched a few episodes here and there, so I won't pretend to be an expert on it, but what I saw never quite resonated with me.
K-pop's rollercoaster year
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 24/12/2024
» The biggest news in the K-pop industry in 2024 was the conflict between Min Hee-jin, the former CEO of Ador, and Hybe executives. Min was credited for creating visual branding for SM Entertainment's renowned groups such as Exo, Shinee and Girls' Generation. She is also renowned as a former executive producer behind the success of NewJeans, who stood out for their girl next door image and retro sound.
YouTube hypocrisy deserves flagging
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/09/2023
» YouTube is behaving badly again. A prominent presenter I occasionally watch, who has millions of subscribers, has been demonetised, for some possible actions 20 years ago. This is not a commentary on potential innocence or guilt, but on YouTube's processes. There are people whose lives are supported by revenue from their presentations on YouTube. This ranges from small fries all the way up to the big fish like the one here. When an individual is demonetised they can lose the ability to support themselves. In this case allegations were made by the media, not the police or authorities, and at the time of writing there have been zero charges made. YouTube is essentially saying, bring us all your viewers so we can hit them with ads and we can make lots of money, but you will be getting nothing for your work.
Very soft Thai power in the making
Life, Apinan Poshyananda, Published on 20/09/2023
» Since the recent return of Thaksin Shinawatra after 15 years of self-exile to Bangkok and the parliamentary selection of Srettha Thavisin as Thailand's 30th prime minister on the same day, politics and culture have unfolded with drama and excitement.
Nothing glorious about bullying
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 16/01/2023
» After Netflix K-drama The Glory, which was about school bullying, was launched at the end of 2022, it raised awareness about the problem and many Thai netizens often discussed it. In The Glory, the female protagonist was beaten and her body was burned in several places with a hair curler by a gang of teenagers. It was a shock to know that the case was inspired by a true event.
The best pop culture moments of the year
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 28/12/2022
» While 2021 was a little dull, 2022 blessed us with some pretty big pop culture moments. Now 2023 is just around the corner, but before we take a step into the future, we need to review all that has happened and recap the highs and lows for the year. In pop culture, it seemed like every month there was something new and crazy happening. Here are the biggest moments from 2022 we couldn't stop thinking about.
Leave race out of it
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 26/09/2022
» It's easy to get upset when the movie you've paid tickets for turns out to be not as good as you expected. It's also common to see people get mad when a film adaptation of their favourite novel doesn't do it justice, whether due to plot changes or miscast roles. I mean it's OK if you aren't happy and complain about it to your friends and family. However, don't you think it's a little overboard to go online and slam the movie on social media, or even join in with other angry netizens and start mocking and bullying the actor who portrays the role that you don't approve of?
Women aren't objects
Life, Yvonne Bohwongprasert, Published on 09/05/2022
» In Thailand's social hierarchy, women are considered lower than men. Should it then come as a surprise when an elderly rector of a leading university with a fetish for snapping photos of pretty air hostesses while they work -- without their consent -- decides to post the pictures on his Facebook for his male followers to drool over?
Elon's Twitter bid reopens censorship debate
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/04/2022
» Without a doubt, the biggest news of the last couple of weeks has centred around Elon Musk. It started with a tweet where he asked his followers if they thought that Twitter followed free speech principles. Over 2 million responded, with 70% indicating it didn't, and some asked him to buy Twitter. A week or so later he purchased 9.2% of Twitter. This triggered a swathe of wild speculation. Elon then rejected an offer to sit on the board because this would limit his ability to purchase more stock. A week or so later he offered to buy all of the remaining Twitter shares for US$54.20 (1,840 baht) a share, above the current market price and well above pundits' sell price only a little while earlier. The Left went crazy. The board started talking about introducing a financial "poison pill" share approach to both increase the number of and dilute the value of Twitter shares to make it more difficult for Musk to purchase more than 15% of Twitter.