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Regarding Secret Crush on You and Jao's storyline:

Disclaimer: I'm a plus-sized American woman so I'm only offering things based on my own perspective, experience, and context from the show. I'm not an expert in Thai culture and I'm just giving my thoughts about a show I enjoy.

So I know a lot of people are a little annoyed/confused/angered/pick your poison by the whole "Jao is being bullied for being fat" storyline, especially because when we look at Jao we don't see someone most people would consider fat. (I'm on mobile so I can't really add images but imagine Jao's smiling little angel face here)

I don't look at Jao and consider him fat, not even close. But based on my experience with Japanese and Korean media (I'm very new to Thai media so I don't know if it's similar in this regard) I can definitely imagine if SCOY were set in Korea or Japan that, based on their beauty standards, Jao would be considered at least chubby if not fat. The storyline he has would definitely be something I could see being in a K-drama. It also looks like Surprise did gain a little weight for the role, if you compare what he looked like before filming and what he looks like now to his appearance in the show. Might also just be movie magic though! Just an observation on my end.

It's also possible that they needed to do this storyline but already committed to casting Surprise and didn't want to force him to gain a lot of weight and hurt his chances at other shows or something. (based on some YT videos I watched, it looks like the cast of SCOY was at least partially done around the end of 2020. Sky was originally going to be played by someone else but it looks like Surprise was going to be Jao since the beginning)

Since it's a tv show that's also a factor, and there are some limitations that can't really be avoided and you just have to use your suspension of disbelief. (Like every time I notice a continuity error 🤣) Sometimes outside factors affect the storyline.

One thing I really love about SCOY is that everyone loves Jao just the way he is (especially Sky) and no one feels like he should change (especially Sky). Are they a little insensitive sometimes? Sure. I think about the breakfast scene before Jao goes for that walk on the beach where the Engineering gang is bestowing compliments on the Comm Arts gang and excludes complimenting Jao. I don't think they were trying to be malicious, they were just thoughtless. And that's very human and very real. I've had smaller people make thoughtless comments around me that made me feel bad but I didn't feel like they were trying to hurt my feelings, more like they may have been so comfortable with me they didn't even think or consider that it could be bad. But it still hurts! Plus Sky from the very beginning never wants Jao to change, loves him as he is, but is very supportive and offers to help Jao make changes IF and ONLY IF that's what Jao wants. Sky is very aware of how Jao's size is a huge insecurity for him, and does his best to assure Jao that he is very into him exactly the way he is. Insecurity manifests in everyone differently and since we learned that Jao used to be bigger in ep 12, it's possible when he looks in the mirror he still sees that bigger person as opposed to the smaller one he is today.

Plus I can say from personal experience, I have someone very much like Sky that loves me at my current size and doesn't think I need to change in any way but is supportive if I want to make a change. And as wonderful as that is, sometimes past experiences and your insecurities make it very hard to believe that person is telling the truth.

So while I wouldn't consider Jao fat in any way, your culture and the world around you may make you feel that you are regardless of your size. (The average size for a woman in America is roughly a size 12 and that is often considered plus size despite not being plus size at all for example. Unrealistic beauty standards are everywhere yo 😔)

Another thing I love is how it's super common for Jao's storyline to be played out with a female, but we almost never see a male in it. It's nice to see that yes guys go through these kinds of insecurities too.

As far as the bullying plotline goes, I feel like it's really important to remember that these are shitty people on the internet. These types of people, especially when they don't actually know you or anything about you, love to go for the low-hanging fruit. They love "you're ugly" or "you're fat" as hate comments because they're easy and most importantly, they work. Also consider that Toh and Jao are the unpopular kids, the nerds, the outcasts, the invisibles, and are sudden thrust into the spotlight simply because they fell in love with and are dating two of the most popular people on campus. Both of them actually try really hard to dissuade and discourage Nuea and Sky from pursuing them because they both know they are not the "main characters" and that they aren't supposed to end up with the handsome and popular boys. (Remember the rules of having a secret crush 😢)

Thankfully neither Nuea or Sky give up and help Toh and Jao see that they're serious about them and they'll shout it from the rooftops if they have to.

So the cyber-bullying comes from 1) a place of jealousy and 2) a place of anger at them for upsetting the status quo. Especially when we learn who's behind the posts (Prao and her gang, because I don't know if I believe that Peach would act alone). Prao and Peach were rejected by Nuea and Sky respectively and neither, especially Prao, can accept it. Especially in the case of Prao who is the hot popular girl, people take her picture wherever she goes, and who believes that of course as the most popular girl she deserves to be with the most popular guy. Being rejected and having Nuea choose nerdy, "ugly" Toh over her is something she literally cannot comprehend or accept. Same with Peach (both of them clearly do not take no for an answer 😬) but I feel like Peach probably needed a push in order to act but definitely was all aboard the "humiliate Toh and Jao until they break up with Nuea and Sky or until Nuea and Sky are so embarrassed they do the breaking up whichever comes first" train. She doesn't see it as wrong, or maybe she does and doesn't care, because she feels like doing this will re-establish the status quo and put everything back the way it should be. With Toh and Jao back to being unknown losers and her and Prao by Sky and Nuea's sides. (Interesting to note is how blatantly they ignore, disrespect, and try to invalidate Nuea and Sky's choices.)

And, as with a lot of things on the internet, it blows up because people love joining the bandwagon. People love having an excuse to be mean to make themselves feel better and they're probably relieved that this is happening to someone else and not them. They're going with the popular opinion because maybe they are upset and jealous that it's someone else and not them but chances are they just wanna be apart of the thing taking over campus. They wanna feel included even if it's at the cost of someone else. It's so totally wrong and bad obviously and Som does such a good job calling these people out, but the thing that sucks is a lot of the time people need one person in power (or popularity) to openly say the things they're thinking and they take it as a sign that it's okay to share their (usually trash) opinion. And as we see during the basketball game in ep 12, the IG account they were checking was called tj.go to.heaven which was a IG making positive posts about them to combat or offset tj.go to.hell which is the negative account. So popular opinion basically seems to sway depending on which account is more popular at the time. (I'd love to know who's behind the tj.go to.heaven account)

Also I know people probably find it a bit weird that students were taking pictures of Nuea and Toh at the basketball game, but just like people were taking pics of Prao when she came to visit the Engineering cafeteria apparently that's like a thing? From what I understand it's pretty common in some Asian countries to take pictures of people that they find pretty or interesting or popular.

Last thing I wanted to point out because I didn't see anyone mention this, but in the scene where Fon and Touch are reassuring Jao that everyone has a belly, the blonde girl that stops and makes a comment about Jao being fat/obese is the same girl that Jao shoo'd away when he and Sky were jogging. Now it could be that they just needed an actor and didn't think much of it, but I personally love the idea that she's salty and being mean because her attempt to flirt with Sky was shut down by Jao. I'm not saying I love that people are being mean to sweet angel Jao but I love the thought that they brought her back intentionally as almost like a callback to show how people and moments really exist in this world. Sometimes SCOY feels like it moves a little fast at times so I liked how that moment felt real. Like yeah this girl is being mean to Jao because he stood up to her and shut down her shot with Sky and she's bitter about it. I'm not condoning bullying in real life obviously, but I like the subtle world building.

Anyway this is just my thoughts on the past few episodes and how I think there maybe a few things that may play a part in why they're going with a "fat" storyline with Jao when he's clearly not fat.

Ultimately as long as you're enjoying the show I think that's really what matters. It's clearly got a lot of positive messages about love and acceptance wrapped up in absolutely unhinged horniness, camp, cringe, and fabulousness, and I for one didn't think I'd be as in love with this show as I am when I started.

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