Aware but Unchanged:

Indonesian Audiences’ Perceptions of LGBTQIA+ Representations in GMMTV Boys’ Love Series

Abstract

            This study examines how Indonesian audiences perceive LGBTQIA+ representations in GMMTV Boys' Love series and to what extent such exposure produces attitudinal change toward LGBTQIA+ communities. A quantitative descriptive survey of 333 respondents, analyzed through Finnemore and Sikkink's (1998) norm diffusion theory, Acharya's (2004) localization framework, and Hall's (1980) encoding/decoding model, reveals a consistent pattern of reception-level acceptance alongside limited internalization. At the reception stage, large majorities acknowledge that GMMTV BL series influence their general perspective (78.0%), endorse the quality of its LGBTQIA+ representations (77.8%), and credit it with enhancing their understanding of LGBTQIA+ issues (67.5%). However, far fewer report meaningful attitudinal change toward LGBTQIA+ communities at the individual level (22.8%) or attribute tolerance-building capacity to BL at the societal level (31.5%). This sharp divergence between reception-level acceptance and internalization-level change constitutes the study's principal finding: Indonesian audiences are broadly receptive to LGBTQIA+ representations in GMMTV BL series but do not translate that receptivity into substantive normative revision. The findings contribute empirical evidence that media exposure and norm internalization operate as separable processes in transnational popular culture reception, consistent with localization dynamics in conservative cultural contexts.