Bad Girl

OFF THE BENCH
A BAD GIRL DESERVES BAD THINGS, DOESN'T SHE?
By JEERAWAT NA THALANG
jeerawat@nationgroup.com
The Nation
Published on June 14, 2008


Rinlada is a female character in a soap opera titled "Dao Puan Din", which is unofficially translated as "Tainted Star".

Audiences, adults and children alike, are glued to this most-talked-about prime-time drama on Channel 7 from Friday to Sunday. Rinlada is a stereotypical character who does not hesitate to do bad, bad things to her nemesis, Uamdao, the protagonist of the story.

Rinlada obviously has an inferiority complex. She was raised by Uamdao's father as a stepdaugther. She grew up with a devious desire to compete with Uamdao, including trying to steal her boyfriends - the superficial plot in almost every Thai soap and film.

This weekend, Rinlada's fate will be decided. The producer has decided to punish this bad girl by having her raped by 12 men. Women's groups are furious. Palakorn Somsuwan, the producer, defended the decision to honour the original plot, but the most revealing comment comes from Araya A Hargett, the actress who plays this part. She was quoted by Khao Sod as saying: "The soap ends in the way it should. A bad girl deserves bad things." Rinlada will face gang rape to ensure a "happy ending" to this soap.

In fact, the production crew was trying to convince the audience that Rindala "deserves" her fate. Rindala is portrayed as bad. Her father went to jail, and she was brought into a family in which everybody loves Uamdao. Rinlada took at least two of Uamdao's boyfriends and would kill anyone who got in her way. "Tainted Star" is a combination of Hollywood's "Fatal Attraction" and "The Assassin".

The episode in which Rindala successfully seduced one of Uamdao's boyfriends before his wedding to Uamdao saw ratings go through the roof. Audiences were convulsed with anger as they rooted for Uamdao. Rinlada had committed an unforgivable sin. Thus millions are anxious to see how Rinlada will be punished this weekend for her past deeds.

When rumours began spreading that the producers would hand down justice to Rinlada by having her gang-raped, the women's groups asked the producers to change the ending of the story to give the right message to society that rape and sexual assault are serious crimes. The problem, the women say, is that TV producers are suggesting to the audience that crime is acceptable in certain circumstances.

I raised this issue with one of my colleagues, asking whether the fate of Rinlada, albeit fictitious, should be considered a happy ending.

"If so, then there must be something wrong with this society," he replied.

Thais are acting as if they are highly sensitive to anything that affects their "social values", but are we that thin-skinned?

Some conservatives cried out when the Culture Ministry chose the scantily dressed "Girly-Berry" girl group as presenters for the Songkran Festival, but aren't the girls entitled to wear whatever they want as long as they don't break the law? Chotiros Suriyawong, a young actress, had to apologise to the public for wearing too revealing a dress to a Thai awards ceremony equivalent to Hollywood's Oscars, this despite the fact that her dress would pale in comparison to Jennifer Lopez's low-slung V neckline Versace outfit.

The argument from "sensitive" quarters is that "inappropriate" behaviour by young women could increase the number of sexual assaults or rapes. The simplistic rhetoric is that girls should be partly or wholly blamed for acts of aggression against them because of their poor choice of dress, that they are responsible for the circumstances that they put themselves in.

But we haven't heard any argument from these conservative quarters when TV producers try to suggest that sexual assault is acceptable. Such scenes are increasingly shown on TV, even when many young children are still awake and watching. The rating system which appears on the bottom right of the TV screen is a joke.

What is equally sad is that the TV rapists are not branded as bad guys. In "Sawan Beang", a popular TV drama also aired during prime time, the male lead character, played by heart-throb Theeradej Wongpuapan, the Thai version of Brad Pitt, committed rape. In "Sawan Beang" 's final scene, the rapist married his victim and everything was happy-ever-after. I don't know whether it was supposed to be a happy ending or a tragedy that the rapist was not prosecuted for the crime he committed.

The old adage, what comes around goes around, is a popular concept in soap operas. In "Tainted Star", the producers expect that the audience will rise to its feet when the bad girl gets her just deserts and the curtain falls.

But no sane viewer would mind if Rinlada had to go through the legal process and be jailed for some of the acts she committed. The ideal ending would show that there is still justice and redemption. Otherwise no female victim will have any choice but to turn into a bad girl with no opportunity for redemption, just like the protagonist in another classic TV drama, "Hunt".