SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
“Why can’t two women get a happy ending all by themselves with no third man involved?”
That was one question asked by a viewer after the trailer of Club Friday The Series’ latest episode in True Love, Does It Exist Or Not?, which stars Paula Taylor and Virithipa “Woonsen” Pakdeeprasong as a lesbian couple, was released 10 days ago. The mini series will start its run on Sunday at 8.30pm on GMM25.
Two women meet and fall in love, but don’t expect them to have a happy ending. At least, that’s not how most fictional stories end for them. In the series trailer, we see a growing attraction between two gorgeous women, their romance, their touched lips. Not before long, we start to see their tears. Then, a fight. A shout. One wants a baby and plans a one-night-stand with a man to achieve her dream of motherhood. The other relents and later finds herself trying to commit suicide from supposed heartbreak.
While many are excited to see real-life besties like Paula and Virithipa in their first lesbian roles, others have already expressed their dismay at the series’ most likely unhappy ending. They believe the series does nothing but provide entertainment at the expense of continually reproducing the same old idea that a same-sex relationship is always lacking, incomplete and short-lived.
“Even gay films get a happy ending. It’s quite sad to think about it, really. This is why some men would insult lesbian love because they think that women will eventually just go back to men,” said one commentator on YouTube.
Why does a lesbian story — or actually many LGBTI stories — have to end on a sad note? Why can’t there be a third woman in the picture, too, instead of a man? That would be an interesting change. The questions have been repeatedly asked, but it seems there’s no answer to be found.
It’s a curious case why we rarely have a lesbian story with a happy ending. Or perhaps, don’t even think so far as to how it ends. It’s hard enough to find a lesbian story. Period.
If we don’t venture into the “tom-dy” genre, the only recent Thai lesbian story (categorised as per Thai people’s understanding as a love story between two “femme” women) to come to mind is the 2014 film 1448 Love Among Us, starring Apinya “Saiparn” Sakuljaroensuk and Isabella Lete. Another would be Club Friday’s previous take with lesbian love in 2013 with Sarunrat “Lydia” Deane and Rachwin “Koy” Wongviriya in the leading roles. And, yes, there’s no happy ending for both stories.
It seems a trend. Brutal and heartbreaking. A happy ending is denied. Some may consider fiction a place to seek shelter from our daily predicament, but where can people escape when a fictionalised world is nothing different than the world of unjust discrimination we are living in right now? Sometimes, it’s even worse than reality. Is there a happily-ever-after waiting for LGBTI, too? We only wish we knew the answer.