{"id":4775,"date":"2017-07-02T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T06:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/new-eng\/?p=4775"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:59:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:29:57","slug":"humiliating-myanmar-film-industry-mocks-lgbt-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/?p=4775","title":{"rendered":"Humiliating\u2019: Myanmar film industry mocks LGBT community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every few weeks, Thamada Cinema in Yangon displays grand new billboards to promote the latest Myanmar film on offer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larger-than-life characters strike larger-than-life poses. There\u2019s the young male hero, the innocent girl, the brooding matriarch and \u2013 almost without fail \u2013 the bumbling LGBT character.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s usually an effeminate gay man or transgender woman, lost in silliness or a cringeworthy, semi-sexual position.<\/p>\n

In many local films screened inside Thamada and around the country, this is the only way LGBT people are portrayed: jesters, there for a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese characters in the movies wear funny clothes and act in exaggerated ways for comedic effect. They are often portrayed as incompetent, wacky characters,\u201d U Aung Myo Min from LGBT rights group Equality Myanmar told Weekend.<\/p>\n

As the country lurches forward through rapid social and economic changes, the dominant representation of the LGBT community in film remains stubbornly backward.<\/p>\n

Co-director of &PROUD and program director for Colors Rainbow LGBT Network Ko Hla Myat Tun bluntly said that the portrayal of LGBT characters in Myanmar films was \u201call negative\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Filmmakers] are humiliating the LGBT community,\u201d he said, adding that these portrayals make it difficult to promote \u201cequality and non-discrimination\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe censorship board of the Myanmar Motion Picture Organisation does not understand the concept of human rights for LGBT people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weekend reached out to director of Myanmar Motion Picture Organisation Panchi Soe Moe who said that \u201cdue to the country\u2019s political, economic, social and educational situations, people like to watch comedy movies which can entertain them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say the censorship board usually goes with what the public and producers want.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, U Aung Myo Min stressed that these representations have a major effect on\u00a0public understanding of the LGBT community<\/a>: \u201cIt encourages the public to\u00a0bully and mock LGBT people<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most worrying element is how LGBT characters often end up disavowing their sexuality \u2013 to the delight of audience members.<\/p>\n

U Aung Myo Min said that LGBT men and women are \u201cmiraculously cured\u201d and \u201cturn straight at the end of the movies\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said sometimes a gay or transgender person would simply touch a woman\u2019s body and suddenly change their mind about their sexuality.<\/p>\n

One recent example stands out: Kyi Kyi Kyal Kyal. Here, a transgender woman moves from the country to the city \u2013 only to \u2018turn back\u2019 into a heterosexual man and live happily ever after.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany movies promote the misconception that homosexuality can be cured \u2026 It\u2019s like being LGBT is a disease,\u201d U Aung Myo Min said.<\/p>\n

Weekend also talked to well-respected local filmmakers and film experts to get their opinion of more mainstream Myanmar offerings.<\/p>\n

Co-founder of the Wathann Film Festival \u2013 one of the country\u2019s more renowned film events \u2013 Thaiddhi said LGBT people are usually portrayed as either \u201ccomic characters\u201d or \u201csexual predators\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said this was especially the case in slapstick comedy films where \u201cyou can even see Myanmar Academy Award-winning actors and other leading actors portraying these stereotyped characters\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd these films are usually blockbusters so they have a big impact on our society. The way we see LGBT people is distorted because of these films.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Lamin Oo, who was mentioned by President Barack Obama during a 2014 speech in Yangon, said he was disappointed that LGBT content here primarily consists of \u201cmale characters dressing up as women as a trick to get cheap laughs from the audience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[There\u2019s] zero understanding of the nature of their sexuality \u2026 I believe these films help to legitimise the stereotypes about LGBT people that are already prevalent in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamin Oo cited progress in other national film markets around LGBT content, citing the recent \u201cnuanced and touching\u201d The Danish Girl and the \u201cbrilliant and funny\u201d Filipino film Anita\u2019s Last Cha Cha.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s [such]a missed opportunity here because the stories of LGBT lives can become wonderful films,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyanmar has a long way to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

Myanmar Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every few weeks, Thamada Cinema in Yangon displays grand new billboards to promote the latest Myanmar film on offer. Larger-than-life characters strike larger-than-life poses. There\u2019s the young male hero, the innocent girl, the brooding matriarch and \u2013 almost without fail \u2013 the bumbling LGBT character. It\u2019s usually an effeminate gay man or transgender woman, lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5614,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775\/revisions\/5614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}