“You are flirtatious?" "Are you one-way or two-way?": Negotiating the Sexuality of Thai Toms on the YouTube Interview Show “Talk with Betty”
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Abstract
The visibility of Thai toms—a Thai term that is widely used to denote persons who are biologically female but express masculine identities and same-sex attractions toward women—has been increased in the past few years due to the emergence of new media that offer online space for them to articulate their identities or sexuality. This research paper aims to investigate how Thai toms’ sexuality is discursively negotiated in interactions between Thai toms in “Talk with Betty,” the interview-based show on YouTube, using Conversation Analysis (CA) as an analytical framework. The data is drawn from selected 14 video clips of Talk with Betty interview show from 2020–2023. The findings reveal that a broad spectrum of Thai toms’ sexuality, as evidenced by various conversational features. Thai tom’s flirtatiousness is considered as a norm within the community, which is associated with stereotypical masculine expressions. Thai toms’ sexual practices are more fluid and diverse as their sexual roles are not exclusively tied to active sexual roles, but can be both active and passive sexual roles, resulting in more versatile sexual roles. Moreover, sex is considered as a taboo topic among Thai toms since they avoid openly discussing sexual experiences in interactions. For instance, they may respond to sex-specific questions with vague answers such as “ปกติพื้้นฐาน” (“Basic”), which can be seen as a form of adherence to femininity traits. The findings highlight diverse toms’ sexual practices that challenge the stereotypical expectations of Thai toms.
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