Grace not under fire
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| Grace |
Former actress Navarat “Grace” Techaratanaprasert is thanking Chulalongkorn University for the chance to wear a male student uniform when she graduated with a bachelor’s degree last week.
Grace, who took a degree in communication art and design from the university’s faculty of architecture, said it was the first time a female student had dressed in male attire for graduation.
She was pictured at the ceremony with her father, Sahamongkol Film International boss Somsak.
Clutching her graduation certificate and with her short hairdo, Grace, wearing a white and gold graduation gown and white trousers, looked hard to tell apart from typical male students.
She thanked the university for the chance to wear male attire, as it was more in keeping with the person she has been since childhood.
“It might look like a small thing, but everyone should have the freedom to live their lives as they see fit,” she said. “Don’t let sexuality emerge as an issue larger than life itself. Don’t let it close off opportunities for people.
“Don’t discriminate, or hold us back from doing things to the best of our ability ... because we are people just the same.”
Grace, 21, disclosed she had worn trousers since her earliest days at the university, while trying not to breach its dress code. “In a world where I have to choose between blue for boys and pink for girls, I tend towards the blue,” she said.
“Sometimes my teacher would call me before class and look confused when he saw I was wearing trousers. But most understand me, and I think we’ve come a long way. I am proud that in today’s society plenty of people accept what I am.’’
She sought the university’s permission to wear the uni’s male student uniform for graduation.
“I had to consult the faculty dean and see a psychologist to verify that it wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing ... the whole process took seven months. It’s not the first time the university has let a student cross-dress; but it’s first time a woman has dressed as a man [usually its men dressing as women],’’ she said.
Grace, who admits to being embarrassed about her sexuality, is also proud of her father’s reaction. When Grace told Sia Jiang, as he is known, that she intended wearing male attire, he quipped: “So what will you have me wear then?”
“Dad understands me well, and has raised me to be a battler,” she said. Sia Jiang cast Grace when she was as a youngster in a handful of his movies, including A Bite of Love and Beautiful Wonderful Perfect.
“I would also like to thank Chula for letting me be the person that I am, on my proudest day,” she said, adding she hoped she would set an example for other gender-diverse students who follow her.
Presenter ‘not in hot pursuit’
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| Kwang |
TV presenter Kwang Orakarn has laid a complaint with police after a Facebook site claimed she was a mischievous third hand, helping endanger an actress’s marriage.
Kwang was attacked on social media after rumours emerged she had helped break up the marriage between actress Aff Taksaorn and her businessman husband, Songkran Techanarong.
Kwang complained to Technology Crime Suppression police last week when social media sites claimed she had pursued Songkran romantically, after he appeared on her television show.
Earlier, Aff admitted she and Songkran were now living apart. She would not specify what caused the split.
Songkran, meanwhile, lost no time in offering an apology to host Kwang, insisting she had nothing to do with his marriage problems with Aff.
The actress lives in Bangkok, where she raises the couple’s young daughter Pee Mai, while Songkran, son of Bonanza resort owner Paiwong Techanarong, helps his father run the business in Khao Yai, Nakhon Ratchasima.
Laying her complaint for defamation, Kwang said she and Songkran met only once, when he appeared on the TV show she hosts, The Attitude, on True4You. They had not kept in touch since. She apologised for causing his family embarrassment.
Songkran said he had contacted Kwang after the fuss broke to insist she had done nothing wrong.
Scouring social media, netizens gleefully pointed to similarities between a white striped bag which Aff wore, and one which Kwang likes to carry, suggesting Songkran had bought the same brand of bag for both women.
Other, more resourceful souls, found a reflection, supposedly of Songkran, in a steak knife which appears in a picture which Kwang posted of her taking a meal. They said Songkran posted a picture of him cooking about the same time.
Songkran said: “Kwang suffered damage to her reputation so I said sorry. It wasn’t me in the reflection which showed up on the knife. I know who is behind this mischief, if they don’t stop I will take legal action too.”
One of the websites named in Kwang’s complaint, Kam Kwan Chan Tai Din, apologised to the presenter. The admin denied she had encouraged followers to attack Kwang.
Songkran said the couple’s problems were a family matter. He still spoke to his daughter on social media every day, and loved his wife.
Meanwhile, the youngest daughter of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has also fallen victim to netizens who doctor her images on social media.
Paetongtarn, or “Ung Ing” was visiting her father in London as the public speculated last week over where her aunt, former prime minister Yingluck, had fled after failing to show for a court judgement in Bangkok.
The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions last Wednesday sentenced Yingluck in absentia to five years’ jail for failing to stop graft in her government’s rice scheme. On Friday, CNN said she was now in London seeking political asylum.
Ung Ing earlier last week published a picture of her and her father in a luxury car. In one version of the image, circulated widely on social media, a reflection of a smiling Yingluck can be seen in the right eye of Ung Ing’s sunglasses.
Responding on social media, Ung Ing criticised netizens for digitally altering her picture. She said a “friend” sitting opposite took the image.
“All you could see in the original was a reflection of an air con unit,” she wrote, republishing it without the Yingluck addition.
“Is it true what they say that Thais don’t read any more than three sentences ... read this well before sharing,’’ she sniffed.
That’s not my soap!
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| Lamyai |
Lamyai, 19, whose hit song Pu Sao Kha Loh propelled her to overnight fame on YouTube, last week complained to Thong Lor police over the imposter soap.
“Someone has started selling knock-off soap under my name,” she said.
Lamyai said she had started promoting her own soap but it was for sale only the internet, not on the market. She was worried the fake soap would sully her own product’s good name and hurt her bottom line.
“My soap comes in a can; the fake soap is sold in a paper box with my name on it and an image of me,” Lamyai said, saying the imposter was quick off the mark as her own, genuine soap started selling only about a month ago. Police are investigating.
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