Personalized Muslims: Homoerotic Fantasy and Indonesian Muslim Women Fans’ Engagement with Thai Y Series
Keywords:
Indonesian Muslim women, Islamic piety, personalized Muslims, Thai Boys' Love, Y Series ConsumptionAbstract
This article explores the piety of Indonesian Muslim women fans as they engage with Thailand’s Y Series (Thai Boys’ Love, a genre that depicts homosexual relationships between male characters, which are considered forbidden in Islamic teachings. The rising popularity of Y Series has generated a remarkable phenomenon in Southeast Asia, particularly in Muslim-majority countries like Indonesia. Despite substantial criticism from societal and religious groups, Y Series has garnered significant popularity among Indonesian viewers, in particular heterosexual Muslim women. This paper examines the influence of Islamic piety on Y Series consumption. It finds that the majority of Indonesian Muslim women fans in this study engage with Y Series due to their admiration for the actors’ attractiveness. However, this paper argues that Y Series offers both sinful pleasure and a new perspective on love that transcends traditional gender norms. When watching Y Series, Indonesian Muslim women fans can distinguish between fiction and reality, viewing it as a homoerotic fantasy that offers both entertainment and escapism. While engaging with media featuring homosexual themes, Indonesian Muslim women fans often identify themselves as “Islam KTP,” implying that their Islamic identity and piety manifest only on official identification (KTP, KartuTanda Penduduk or national ID card) without comprehensive adherence to Islamic teachings.
In this context, we argue that fans negotiate their Islamic piety as personalized Muslims, defined as an interpretation of Islamic teachings shaped by personal preferences and lifestyles, allowing greater flexibility in applying their faith in daily life.
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