My Secret Love (2022) is a Thai BL like any other. The plot, the setting, the theme, the characters all are familiar to the audience who is used to watching this genre. But some of the behaviors of these characters are very different from the those from other BL series.
In most BLs, the characters are pretty similar. Since these series are made for females as the target audience, the male characters in BLs are mostly very feminine in their sexual behaviors, which makes them very different from real gay men.
BL boys are mostly cute and innocent looking. They usually don't have any sexual experience even when they are in college. BL writers downplay the characters' sexual feelings and activities in order to make them likable for the women who watch the series. In a BL, when two boys are attracted to each other they always take a long time going on romantic dates together, they show cute little gestures of affection for each other to develop trust between them. The character development for these stories follows a cliché pattern. The boy who is supposed to be the Top, starts touching the other one. But he is almost always rejected over and over. Rejection never stops him though, and he eventually kisses his lover which is guaranteed to earn him a surprised reaction from the other party. For two boys in a typical BL, it takes very long between the time they realize they have mutual feelings, and the time they actually have sex.
All these behaviors, though, are totally unrealistic. Because most of the time women are the ones who hesitate so long before they have sex with their lover. The way men react to sexual desire is different from women. When men realize their crush likes them back, sex is on top of the list of the things they want to do with him/her. This fact determines the dynamics of all relationships between men and women. For straight men, they usually have to wait before their girlfriend is ready to go all the way with them. but that is not the case for gay men. When two gay men find out their attraction is mutual, they don't wait for another month before they have sex. Of course this is not the case for all men and women, but it is the typical behavior for most of them. Men don't need to trust someone before they have sex with them, the way women do. The reason behind it is our evolutional background of course which I won't go further into detail to explain.
In BL stories, the writers who are most of the time female themselves, write boys with extremely feminine behavior and mindset to the point that it feels like these are girls with only a boy's name on them. The audience who are mostly female as well enjoy this fantasy world where boys behave like girls so much, but we shouldn't forget that these stories are far removed from the reality of LGBTQ+ life.
Now, My Secret Love has adjusted this cliché, which is a welcome change of pace for me. In this series, while the main couple go through the same enemy to lovers trope, once they realize there is a mutual attraction between them, they don't act like unexperienced teenage girls who cry after their first kiss. Kimham, who is supposedly the more submissive one between the two, actually makes the first move, and Mek doesn't look appalled by the idea of kissing him. Them having sex right after is a fresh change from the usual BL plot. And having sex doesn't mean that they are official either. This is much closer to the dynamics of real gay relationships than the typical BL, and it was nice to see it. I hope as the BL industry expands, more writers dare to write more believable gay characters who are not ashamed of living their truth.