“Nainai” is a popular Thai history book that has been adapted from the academic thesis of Chanun Yodhong under the title of “Gentlemen-in-waiting: homosocial life and gender in King Vajiravudh’s court”. This book presents the idea of homosexuality and monarchy, which is a huge taboo to discuss in public. I, personally, do not like this book because it leads the readers to the idea that King Rama VI was homosexual by his personal interests, the ambiguous evidence, and his relationship with the royal guards.
Firstly, the book discusses King Rama VI’s personal interests toward the kingship. It is well known that the arts reached its highest point in Thai history during his period. People who worked within these areas have been promoted and received acceptance from society. While other rulers before him focused their time in creating a nation, protecting the country, and supporting Buddhism, King Rama XI spent his time in music, plays, and literature. Some academics explained that the country was already in a good shape with the system his father, or King Rama V, had implemented, therefore, he had a lot of time to contribute to the arts.
Next, the author cites sources from King Rama VI’s personal archives which could be ambiguous. For example, there is a portrait of him in female clothes taken when he performed in a court play. Originally, only females were allowed to perform in the court; they later changed the rule; males could perform both male and female characters. Moreover, the author only chooses the evidence that supports his idea and disregards the rest. He does this to make his statement stronger and trustworthy which has a conflict to research methodology in history; evidence should be compared.
Lastly, the court of King Rama VI consisted of mainly male royal guards. Normally, only females are allowed to work in the inner site of the court where the king spends his personal time and sleeps. King Rama VI had a different system as many of his staff were royal guards. A few royal guards are well known to have been his favorite and to have had influence on the king. There are alternative theories that could explain the relationship between him and his royal guards. This could be the idea of companionship from the ancient Greek and Roman times, where the emperor had a very close relationship with his favorite soldier. This could be the influence of the scout system in Oxford University which King Rama VI attended. Students were typically from royal and noble families, so they were allowed to have a male personal servant.
In conclusion, a person’s sexual preference should be personal. We should embrace people for who they really are. We do not know whether King Rama XI was homosexual, therefore, we cannot judge him by his interests, vague evidence, and his relationship to others.
Hi Beer, I like what you mentioned that 'evidence should be compared.' Many times I believe in what others said without comparing evidence or considering as many aspects as I can. I've found it is difficult for me to withhold my judgments once I hear or absorb information. I mean when I hear or know information, I automatically recall and associate it with my previous knowledge. If what they said seems familiar to me or make me feel good, then I believe in that completely. For example, when I watch or read advertisements on skin care products, I automatically believe in the potential benefits that they offer without finding another evidence to compare. Another example is when I read self-help books. If advises that are presented in the books sound good to me, then I immediately believe in that without comparing that with another sources. For me, it is hard works to considering and checking and cross-checking evidences and information. The most importantly, my brain loves thinking and jumping into conclusion fast--I know this kind of cognitive thinking is not good, but I can't help myself to slow it. That doesn't help me think clearly and many times I make wrong decisions and do wrong things. However, I am working on getting myself in a habit of thinking critically.
ReplyDeleteI like Emma's point, quoting from Beer, that "evidence should be compared." And if there is no evidence, that makes a claim suspicious. Beer's chosen topic is a useful example: the monarchies of many countries are traditionally protected from open discussion by harsh law that severely punished anything offensive – Henry VIII in England was a vicious man who had people killed for offending him by being honest, or for getting in the way of his marital affairs – but the effect of such laws means that any opinion about the topic so heavily censored must be worthless and lacking sound support: if you want to have strong, well-supported ideas about any topic, it's necessary that opposing evidence and ideas have been considered and openly, freely discussed, which is what makes science so successful.
DeleteWhen I was growing up in Australia, for example, no one would say anything negative about the European conquest, by my ancestors, of Australia. We had all these ideas of bringing civilization to the natives; and much of what we learned, whilst not actually false, was so unbalanced as to be deeply dishonest. Thankfully, the law did not ban saying things that upset people, so historians were able to get a more accurate message out so that today, young Australians learn both the good and the bad about our country's history. I think that's a good thing: fairy tales are fine, but teaching fake claims as history is not: it's lying, perhaps to yourself as much as to everyone else.
Same here, Emma, i'm also working on the critical thinking. Another observation from me is sharing articles on social media. People have good intention and want to share useful information, but they forget to check the fact or evidence. Sadly, many articles are just hoax or fake news.
ReplyDeleteOne of my American friends regularly shares things on FB that drive me nutty. When I read them, I'm thinking, "How could you believe that?" or "Is that really true?" It almost never is true when I do a quick Google. What annoys me is that it's so easy to do some quick research these days - we're all sitting in front of Google when we're using Facebook or similar apps, and yet many people don't check things that are just amazing.
DeleteReading my comment again, I should have written that my friends, and many others, share things that are literally incredible. When something is amazing or incredible, it often isn't credible when thought about more carefully.
DeleteBut sometimes I'm wrong: recently a friend shared something about menthol shaving cream being a cure for sunburn. That sounded very unlikely to me. But when I Googled, I discovered that the oils in shaving cream can in fact help to soothe sunburn — but preparations designed for soothing sunburn are certainly better than shaving cream designed to help men cut through their facial hair.