RESEARCH FINDINGS

After collecting data and information by interviewing and participating in activities with the sampling groups, the researcher can categorize the attitudes that adolescents have towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers into two main groups. The first group is in regards to the favor in the feminine appearance as a first impression, which later leads to others interests in the singers. The second is the more complicated favor in both feminine appearance and presentations that those singers have.

The first group sees feminine image as an outstanding appearance and first impression that draws their attention, but they only appreciate the appearance, not the behavior or some characteristics that the singers presents.

There are three among ten interviewees who were categorized in this group being Som, Ying and Ple. The three of them all agree that the first aspect that interests them in Japanese music is the good-looks of the singers. They agree that Japanese young boys look like girls and that is their charm. All of them said that, commonly, they and also many of their friends like almost everything about Japan because of its uniqueness in culture and traditions as well as the pleasant characteristics in Japanese cartoons or fashion trends. For example, Japanese cartoons are considered ‘cuter’ and more attractive among Thai teens than Western cartoons. Japanese fashion is popular and so they want to imitate the styling of Japanese girls. So, if there are a group of singers with a beautified image and are of the opposite sex like these male feminine singers, they would not hesitate to favor them.

Som saw Japanese singers for the first time in a Thai magazine. In her point of view, Japanese singers are young, the same age as her, and they are very likeable. It is different with Thai singers in that they do not look like teenagers, and she did not share any characteristics with them. After that she was interested in Japanese singers and then tried to find information about her favorite singers as well as buying photos, magazines and CDs. Her first impression is based on their faces that “look like a girl”. She thinks their feminine appearance is outstanding and attractive and only Japanese male singers possess this characteristic. However, after becoming a fan club member, she said she appreciated their performance and other skills such as dancing, singing and acrobatics.

The second interviewee is Ying. She loves to read Japanese cartoons and reads a lot. Because she was so fascinated in Japanese cartoons, it made her like everything that is Japanese. She also studies Japanese language because she wants to understand Japanese songs and movies. Therefore, everything she did about Japan, she said, was to support her study. She prefers everything that is Japanese so she did not feel opposed to or deny the coming of Japanese music and singers. Moreover, she stated that their appearance is like the Japanese cartoon main characters – tall, thin, feminine face with flowing long hair. So when she saw these singers, they are like cartoon characters come alive, and it is very easy for her to ‘fall in love’ with them.

It is nearly the same with Ple who said that she was interested in the singers before she liked Japanese music. In other words, she likes the singers, so she listens to their songs and buys their CDs, later becoming interested in Japanese music. She said they are all good-looking and that made her ‘fall in love at first sight’. The first time she saw them in a magazine and thought that they were both lovely and handsome at the same time and it is hardly found in Thai male singers. Ple is similar to Som in that she was first impressed by the appearance, and later felt more impressed with their performing skills.

Besides the appearance that was outstanding and hard to find among Thai singers, another characteristic that Japanese singers have is the skills deemed to be multi-talent. From the observation in the interview, all three samples said that Japanese singers are more than just singers. They can act in a drama, be an MC in a TV show, and have their own TV programs to show many of their skills besides singing. Moreover, they can have both comic and a handsome image. They can look like a girl sometimes, like a handsome boy sometimes, or even acting something funny in a TV show or concerts. In their opinion, this is more interesting than Thai singers who may sometimes be good looking but they have only one look, one image and are not multitalented. With this reason, Thai adolescents think that Thai male singers are sometimes boring.

Though the feminine appearance that they defined as ‘lovely’ is the first impression, this group only prefers the appearance to be like that, and they do not like the feminine characteristic and personality that were presented through the media. If their presentation is too feminine, the interviewees in this group do not like them because they think it is not the way a man should act or behave. However, they all accept that it is both a trend of Japanese men to look like a female while also being very popular among many Thai teens. They do not deny that these singers are good looking and ‘lovely’. They relish seeing them, but if they act too much like a female, they lose interest.

For example, Ple said that she used to like one band. Most of them have pretty faces like girls. But she changed her mind about them since the band started to act in a more feminine way through the dances they perform, striking feminine postures in photo shoots or making some funny love scene in their shows. She said that she did not like it and did not want to see them anymore. Even the photos in magazines, if they had too much of a feminine posture, she would avoid keeping them by selling them on to other fans who do like them.

However, Ple is quite unusual in that, although she did not like feminine presentations, she did not mind reading fan fiction. She thinks it is just a fantasy of readers and writers to satisfy their needs and fantasy. At first she felt disgusted, as many girls may think, to read the bed scenes between men. But she told the researcher that, what is needed is to replace the real picture of the singers with the imaginative picture and then everybody can enjoy. She can accept the feminine male protagonists in fan fiction, but she cannot accept these singers if they have such images in real life. In this case, Ple could distinguish between real and fantasy worlds, so she did not perceive the singers to be gay men.

This is a bit different with Som and Ying. These two girls also dislike too much feminine presentation in male singers and they do not like fan fiction at all. Because they do not want others to think that their favorite singers are homosexual men, they do not like fan fiction which encourages people more and more to believe that these male singers are not straight men.

The researcher also questioned their attitudes towards some Thai and Korean male singers who, in the past few years, seemed to imitate Japanese trends such as in their dressing style, hair styles, music or even dancing styles. Three of them agree that the feminine appearance that Thai and Korean entertainers try to present may interest them at first, but they have to consider other factors before becoming a fan club member. For example, Som and Ple like Korean male singers because they are good-looking, have ‘lovely’ faces like Japanese singers, but they regard Japanese singers as the highest priority. For Thai singers, the feminine appearance is attractive but what Thai singers lack is the unique characteristic. All Thai bands are nearly the same and sometimes they copy Japanese style. The three samples all said that if they had to be in the fan club of Thai singers who look like Japanese, they’d be better of in the fan club of an actual Japanese singer instead.

The researcher asked if these feminine Thai singers did not imitate Japanese songs and style, would they be in their fan club. The answer is yes. They agree that Thai men are also good looking and most of all they speak Thai language. What Thai singers need to do is to have their own style and to develop their skills. It is true that feminine faces could make teenagers ‘fall in love’, but more important are the singing and dancing skills which Japanese singers have far more developed than Thai singers.

The second group of interviewees favors the feminine image of Japanese male singers from the appearance to their presentation and characteristic of the singers. There are seven of the interviewees in this group; Pink, Koi, Lek, Tarn, Joy, Dao and Noi. This group has the starting point of becoming a fan club quite similar to the first group. They were first impressed by the appearance of Japanese male singers and then became interested in Japanese music. Six of them, except Pink, were firstly impressed by the appearance, dancing and performance on stage respectively. Pink is the only one that was first interested because she read fan fiction which made her like the feminine males who are the inspiration of fan fiction.

The factor that pushes these girls to like Japanese male singers could be the unique characteristics and styles that they presented as well. They said that Thai boy bands are similar to each other and nothing new. So when they saw Japanese boy bands with some outstanding image and character, in this case meaning the feminine image also, they would feel interested because it is new and never existed before.

The interviewees in this groups said that they did not mind if they look like girls for they think it is ‘cute’ and attractive. They like men to be white, thin with pretty faces, but it does not mean that they are attracted to what maybe perceived as gay men as they do not consider these male singers as not being straight men. They believe that these singers are men, not gay, but they also want their favorite singers to have a feminized image as well. From the observation, these girls want their singers to be both handsome and beautiful all rolled into one person. In other words, their favorite can look like a handsome man sometimes and be pretty and ‘lovely’ sometimes, depending on the occasion.

Besides the appearance, this group also likes their singers to show feminine characteristics sometimes. If a magazine has a picture of two male singers kissing one’s cheek (for fun) or something that signifies feminine feelings or postures, they said they like it and want to keep it. Some ‘sexy’ photos are always required for girls in this group. Also in TV shows or concerts if there are some funny love scenes between male singers, this group seems to like to watch a lot. However, these girls said they just watch it for fun. They thought it was enjoyable and never believed those male singers to be homosexual.

Nevertheless, there is one unusual point that the researcher found out. This group never thinks that their favorite singers are gay, but they like to watch love scenes between men, and more importantly, they like to match two male singers together. The researcher found that almost all of them, and many who are not in the interview group, love to match two male singers together to be lovers in their imagination. The pair differs depending on each person’s favor, but one thing is the same, they imagine that two male singers are lovers.

The favor in reading fan fiction is similar to their behavior when they like to watch funny romantic or love scenes between boys. It does not show that these girls have special or strange sexual interests. They all insist that they like men, straight men, but it is their pleasure and happiness to read and watch anything about feminine men.

This group agrees that the feminine image of male singers is becoming more and more popular which can be seen through many male singers from different countries such as Korea and Thailand. The interviewees in this group agree that both Thai and Korean singers are good looking and attractive. They are white, thin and have pretty faces like Japanese male singers and made them feel interested at first sight. However, not all of them like Korean or Thai singers. There are many reasons in each different person. Though they like Thai and Korean feminine males, they said Japanese entertainers are still what they like the most.

The researcher has categorized the main reasons why this group prefers Japanese male singers to others:
- Japanese music and singers were popular among Thai teens before other countries, so they are pioneers of this trend. Accordingly, Thai adolescents regard any singers in the later period as an ‘imitation’ which makes them less popular and not equal in popularity to the Japanese male singers they like. (All)
- Korean male singers sometimes have too strong figure and body, not slim and thin like Japanese male singers.(Lek, Koi, Tarn)
- Thai male singers lack skills and abilities as well as their own unique style. (All)
- Feminine males are not considered suitable within Thai society. (Pink, Tarn, Dao)

From the interview with this group, it could be said that the feminine appearance of male singers is the outstanding character that first draws their attention, before they evaluate the other abilities of the singers. They like to see their favorite singers have female characteristic and they enjoy creating imaginative worlds, like fan fiction, or matching lovers between singers just for fun and pleasure. However, the feminine image and characteristic is not the only one factor to persuade adolescents to like or not to like a singer. It is a first impression that draws the attention of Thai adolescents and it has more supporting factors to influence Thai adolescents.