what does Muteluv mean?
It was oddly tricky for me to find good information about what Muteluv means, so I thought I'd share what I was able to find with the BL tumblr sphere. A quick disclaimer, though—I don't have any firsthand knowledge. If anybody who sees this does, I'd be thrilled to hear from you since the topic turns out to be pretty interesting.
Muteluv is a portmanteau of mutelu + luv (as in love). So what I was really interested in was what mutelu means (since I'm pretty sure I get the luv part). In my limited understanding, it refers to a modern, pop culture-minded version of certain Thai spiritual beliefs.
If you look up mutelu, you'll inevitably wind up getting served a music video by a Thai girl group called PiXXiE for a song called Mutelu which they put out in 2022. It's got a ton of views and is very catchy.
As for what I was able to find on the concept itself, there's a decent article in the Guardian from early 2024 here:
Quest for meaning in an uncertain world after the Covid crisis fuels a boom in mutelo’s good luck charms and rituals
In the Guardian piece and elsewhere you can see that the term mutelu comes partly from the Thai title of a 1979 Indonesian film—I would love to know more about how a movie from 1979 has bubbled up until it became connected to this seemingly recent cultural phenomenon, so again if anybody can tell me more I'm all ears.
There's also a 2024 journal article called "From Ong to idols: hyper-real religions, spiritual practices, and popular culture among Thai youth," which I've given a skim. Among other angles on the concept the article discusses political groups using mutelu as protest, including one "which mobilizes people and protests against the government through various spiritual practices ranging from Buddhist rituals to witchcraft." That's fascinating.
That article also talks about "the de-westernization of tarot-reading," which answers some questions I had about My Magic Prophecy—of course it makes sense that tarot could be utilized by people in non-Western cultures, but having it pop up in that series certainly made me curious about how prevalent it might be in Thailand.
I'm thinking it's not a coincidence that GMMTV made Muteluv and MMP in the same year—they seem to be capitalizing on a cultural moment that was already in full swing.
Before I posted, I looked around for anything on tumblr about this topic and I only found mentions of either the Muteluv series or the "Mutelu" pop song. So if nothing else, maybe now this post will pop up when others make the same search and it can give them some imperfect idea of the concept at hand.
Please, if you know anything I've mentioned here to be incorrect, off-base, or in any way insensitive I hope you'll let me know.
