BLs, GLs, QLs and the presence of a 'mundane' everyday living (i.e not aspirational in the grand sense but more so an embracing of life and love as it comes)
As an educator myself (on and off), A Tale of A Thousand Suns was incredibly important to me. Because a willing teacher is not often the center of the story. Especially not a queer teacher whose love story and health takes center stage to but it isn't without the students ever still. It was one of the first shows that I watched (3rd to be exact), and the way they conveyed Tian and Phupha's joy to be in Pha Pun Dao as well as the sacrifices they have done to be there warmed my heart. It made me feel that I am not wrong for wanting to chose for myself a life of slow living, of community if I am willing to adapt to it myself. To this day, the show is incredibly dear to me and one of my absolute favourites.
This streak of EarthMix being in something extremely grounded and that surrounds them with the world they want to be a part of remained in Cupid's Last Wish (where the reconciliation was best after we see that Korn has the bakery that he held dearly to add to the farm) and Moonlight Chicken. In fact, in Moonlight Chicken we see Wen actively leaving his job that has him settled, in order to enjoy the warmth he has found in being with Jim and sharing Jim's life and finding his home at the shop.
Wan's inheritance of her father's beloved shop was a struggle for her to reconcile her life in the beginning. But as she goes through taking care of it, she falls in love with the place. She falls in love with Maewnam. Most importantly she falls in love with the community surrounding her. It might not be stable, what with the big marts coming and such, but it is what gives her a break from the corporate company that was draining her soul, it was what gave her community of other older folks after losing her father, people who loved her father dearly. It was also what made her find the person she loved.
Po's struggle from ThamePo with regards to his life outside of his romance is sooo significant to me. He is dealing with a failed relationship with someone who claimed everything that Po worken an his, he was trying to recover from burn out, from being left behind, from having nothing to fall back on. We see him try to work at the suit shop, before finally landing something at Oner. As much as he lands it almost immediately, we see him struggle with it, we see him lose it, we see him settling for things and we see him still going through day by day even if he is hurt.
Currently, Love You Teacher is airing and as much as I personally don't like the premise so am not to keen on watching it, I do appreciate the visibility of that character.
Both Peak and Thanwa from Knock Knock Boys are living simple lives. Thanwa finds joy in food, finds love and finds a job that makes him happy. I don't remember what Peak does but he gets tired of holding on to this facade for his father and breaks. Latte is one of my favourite characters, the reason for it is because he focusses on real connections for himself. Maybe he should focus on education a little more as well but he refuses to make it his entire life.
Lost in the Woods, as a show might not have fully landed and I think a handful of us actually watched it. But once again, it was a show that was very intentional about the way it portrayed working in a wildlife sanctuary. Of the work you have to do and things you need to think of. The community you build and the trust that needs to be maintained and how everyone contributes a little. Irrespective of where you come from.
Sahashi and Natsume both work in a retail store in Cosmetic Playlover. There lives are simple beyond that but they find so much joyy through that. (Have only been able to watch 1st season. So I don't know what else it has)
Togawa and Nozue, as well as Adachi and Kurosawa are well settled in their corporate worlds. They are all on different levels of enjoying work or leaning towards being burnt out and it all feels soo incredibly human.
Kasuga and Nomoto, live a very simple life largely at their work, but find ways to meet and enjoy the time in each other's company and presence.
Lee Wan and Ki Tae from Our Dating Sim, work in a start up game designing company. they have coworkers who tease them, times where they worry about how to carry on this facadeof liking the other or not, and it is deeply human.
There's so many more shows in my head but if I keep writing them, I'll always find more to write about, which makes me incredibly happy.
We have seen wayyyy too many unanswered CEO characters in our shows. But the shows and characters that show us the everyday person living a day to day mundane life is incredibly important to me. This is the part that makes BLs, GLs and QLs to me. It really thrives in diversifying the story. How it lands is a discussion for another time but that such a character has been conceived is important to me.
Often times, queerness aches to be excused. One feels that being queer in life means that you have to be infallible in all other realms of society. You have to achieve greatness, so that one can say that 'oh it doesn't matter if they are queer, they are so brilliant in so and so other thing. Or that they live such an exceptional life.' By showing character living simple lives, failing in those lives just makes the show for me.
In showing the simplicity of the characters, they are showing them in regular lives, in communities that might need a nudge but are overall appreciative that the characters have each other. Sometimes I feel QLs have more diversity in terms of job opportunities than even a career page in a university.
So, if any of you have more suggestions, new or old, please feel free to add to this post. I am always looking for more to read. (Especially now)
