“…and I finally made it now”
Thailand’s Got Talent competitor Bell Nuntita (Disclaiminer: judges’ comments, the title, and a few other elements are offensive)
Posted by XylophoneGender on April 8th, 2011 at 08:00 am
Category: video 13 comments »
April 8th, 2011 at 11:46 am |
Now THAT’S talent! Being able to sound fantastic as either gender? I’m blown away~
She’s very brave!
[Reply]
April 8th, 2011 at 1:00 pm |
I think I’ll remember this video for a very long time. She’s a hero to me.
[Reply]
April 8th, 2011 at 1:03 pm |
Wow. She’s so incredible. Her voice is absolutely stunning! Plus, she was able to stand up to her father even when he didn’t understand her. Beauty, talent, AND courage? You just don’t see things like that everyday.
[Reply]
April 9th, 2011 at 1:31 am |
This is awesome, really cool! I’ve always wanted to be able to do something like this XD I didn’t even know if it was possible.
She surely has talent!
[Reply]
April 9th, 2011 at 6:32 am |
“Please, keep deceiving.” Those judges were just awful to Bell.
[Reply]
April 9th, 2011 at 8:38 pm |
I think I will remember that for the rest of my life. As a musician, it gives me a lot of hope.
[Reply]
April 10th, 2011 at 4:34 am |
The best bit is the Thai version of Ant and Dec!
[Reply]
April 10th, 2011 at 9:05 pm |
As a Southeast Asian familiar with Thai culture, I think it’s a bit simplistic to say they’re offensive to her. You’re forgetting that Thailand is the capital of SRS surgery in Asia. Thai people recognize three genders: male, female, and kathoey. The Thai language is rich in gender when referring to oneself (for example “khab khoun khap” vs “khab khoun kha” for thank you, depending on the gender of the speaker). They recognize transgender women much earlier than Westerners, often in pre-teen years because all one has to do to come out is change from khap to kha. When they’re saying “deceive” they’re talking about deceiving others into not knowing she’s secretly a kathoey, NOT secretly a man. I promise you they’re not saying any of that out of transphobia. It just doesn’t translate into English.
[Reply]
Stuart replied:
April 11th, 2011 at 4:18 am
Thanks for this elaboration! Maybe the language incongruency explains why she didn’t seem off-put by the comments, which is something I had wondered about also.
[Reply]
April 10th, 2011 at 9:11 pm |
Oh, and also, Bell had earlier won a reality show competition in Thailand to replace members of Venus Flytrap, the first all-kathoey girl band in the world. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Venus Flytrap sort of fell under the radar though since they didn’t do well on the music charts.
[Reply]
XylophoneGender replied:
April 10th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Rich- Thanks so very much for the translating help and cultural context. Genderfork’s richness (no pun intended) comes from the multiplicity of experiences shared here. So thanks for adding yours.
[Reply]
April 11th, 2011 at 11:57 am |
That was wonderful!
[Reply]
April 13th, 2011 at 9:44 am |
Yeah- I didn’t get the impression they were being offensive to her at all.
And I choked up and teared up- incredible voice and gives the West something to strive for.
[Reply]