A Qualitative Study on the Gaze of Indonesian Female Fans of Thai BL Media

This study was written by Dwi Masrina, focusing on popular culture studies, fan studies, and gender studies. The research, titled “Exploring Indonesian Female Viewers’ Identity Projection in Thai BL Series,” was published on December 27, 2024, in the Sinta 3-accredited Wacana Journal. 

In this study, data was collected using an online qualitative survey instrument. By using the instrument, it potentially ‘gives voice’ to people who might choose to abstain from face-to-face research due to the nature of the topic or ‘might not otherwise be able to participate in qualitative research’. The BL topics are considering taboo in Indonesia because it talks about the story of boys-boys love relationship. 

This research highlights that by watching Thai BL series, Indonesian women reverse their roles from being initially seen as objects by men to becoming subjects to men. Women break free from the gaze that views them solely as objects, replacing it with a gaze that infuses homosocial male relationships with sexual meaning. By placing men as the focus of female desire, such practices can be interpreted as a form of the “female gaze. It is a kind of subversion of the male gaze articulated in Laura Mulvey’s classic essay, in which women become the agents of spectatorship, redirecting the objectifying gaze toward male protagonists. 

The phenomenon of Thai BL series in Indonesia is quite significant, especially considering that Indonesian women often have fears about discussing their sexuality. This research supports Nagakubo’s claim that BL media offers a means of liberation from gender oppression. Indonesian female fans can choose their point of view, facilitated through the female gaze. With an emphasis on the context of media consumption, this research is in line with SDG 5 Gender Equality. (mdr)

Full article available at: https://doi.org/10.32509/wacana.v23i2.3840