We didn\u2019t want another article about Lisa Blackpink, really.
But then again, even our first two articles this week weren\u2019t really about Lisa.
As per usual, they are a critique of Thailand\u2019s cultural mindset.
The Facebook Page \u201c\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e23\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2a\u0e39\u0e49\u0e42\u0e04\u0e27\u0e34\u0e14\u201d (literal translation: Thais know\/fight COVID) has 3.4 million followers. The page belongs to the Ministry of Health, and we Thais rely on it for \u201cfactual\u201d updates of the COVID-19 situation.
The Department of Health and the Health Literacy and Communication Promotion Division is also under the Health Ministry and among those producing content for the page, including the one we are discussing.
Catching the Lisa fever, they thought it prudent that a sexualized cartoon is the best way to promote \u201cUniversal Prevention\u201d in light of Thailand\u2019s plan to open the country in the coming months.
A split-second glance at the female character, and you know who it represents.
She carries the sign: \u201cAllow me to rely on you for the strictest level of COVID-19 prevention, na ka.\u201d
The elderly man leering at her thinks: \u201cSo cute, uncle likes likes…phew…\u201d
As per usual, social media went nuts, and the post was deleted.
But the post echoes the misogynistic mindset.
In the year 2021, the government (in regards to something as serious as a virus that has taken 14,765 Thai lives as of yesterday) thought it prudent that an old man leering at a young woman as a sex object is the best way to communicate to 66 million Thais about the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only upside is, there are enough forward-thinking people in Thai society to call out, causing the Page to delete the post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We didn\u2019t want another article about Lisa Blackpink, really. But then again, even our first two articles this week weren\u2019t really about Lisa. As per usual, they are a critique of Thailand\u2019s cultural mindset. The Facebook Page \u201c\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e23\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2a\u0e39\u0e49\u0e42\u0e04\u0e27\u0e34\u0e14\u201d (literal translation: Thais know\/fight COVID) has 3.4 million followers. The page belongs to the Ministry of Health, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,12,14,13,26],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thisurpt","tag-covid","tag-thailand","tag-thisrupt","tag-whatshappeninginthailand","tag-26"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}