04.29.08
Posted in Bisexuality, Entertainment at 1:07 am by pleinelune
Guess who’s back? That’s right, bisexual bachelorette MySpace queen Tila Tequila is back for another shot at love, this time, with 15 guys and girls each. Tila and Bobby broke up barely months after the end of the first season, Bobby not being able to handle her job and its pressures, so a broken-hearted Tila is back for another season, looking for love. Still picky, still princessy, still as gorgeous as ever.
Whatever she is taking to look that good, I want it too!
For a change, you can watch this show free (and legally) online on the official MTV website, even if you are not in the United States. Thank you, MTV, for not pulling a ABC or Showtime.
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead! Do not read further if you don’t want to know what happened at all.
Rating:
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
04.28.08
Posted in LGBT Rights, Singapore Gay News at 11:38 am by sayoni
The following news story was spotted on the blog of a local gay blogger - the original newsletter that was sent out is not available for linking. Club 1-7 is a male-only sauna, and such saunas are popularly associated with cruising venues for queer men.
From 1-7 newsletter
Dear members,
Our water supply was turned off at 10pm on the 25th April 2008, Saturday. When we opened the back door to investigate and turn it back on, a few plain-clothed officers from the CID rushed in. Sam immediately tried to stop them and demanded to know what was going on. They told him that they were conducting a ’spot-check’. When asked what they were checking for, they simply repeated ’spot-check’. the officers refused to specify what they were checking for despite repeated demands. Sam also asked if they had a warrant to check the premises. They refused to reply.
At this point in time, we turned on all the lights upstairs and downstairs to alert the members that a check was going on. None of the members were stopped from dressing or leaving, nor were they searched or any particulars taken.
When a female officer tried to enter, Sam repeatedly shouted that she was not allowed to enter as we are a private men’s club and insisted that she leave. Thereupon, the supervising officer threw Sam to the ground and twisted his arms behind his back to handcuff him. Because of this, Sam sustained cuts to his wrist and bruises on his left rib, for which he was later brought to the Singapore General Hospital for treatment.
The officers only removed several DVDs and Sam was arrested and spent the night in jail. He has been charged with assaulting (pushing) the officer that handcuffed him despite never having laid hands upon him. Sam is 74 years old. The officer was about 40.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will give a free return visit to anyone who was here when the incident occurred - just tell the front desk.
We are open for business as usual for our 8TH YEAR from 11:30am to 11:30pm on weekdays and from 11:30am till 7am the following day on Fridays and Saturdays.
Club One Seven.
Editor’s Note: The above letter has been edited for minor grammar and spelling, but the content has not been altered.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Forum discussion: LGBT News & Rights
- technorati: gay, queer, singapore, sauna, s377A, police raids
Permalink
04.26.08
Posted in LGBT Rights, Singapore Gay News at 3:26 am by sayoni
Barely weeks after Starhub was fined 10,000 for showing a lesbian kissing scene, another TV station has been slapped with a fine.
TV Channel 5 has been fined by the Media Development Authority (MDA) for an episode in an acquired series, “Find and Design”. The episode normalises and promotes a gay lifestyle and was aired on Sunday, 13 January 2008 at 7.30am.
The programme “Find and Design” is a home and decor series and in the episode concerned, the host helps a gay couple to transform their game room into a new nursery for their adopted baby. The episode contained several scenes of the gay couple with their baby as well as the presenter’s congratulations and acknowledgement of them as a family unit in a way which normalises their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup. This is in breach of the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamourise gay lifestyles.
MDA also consulted the Programme Advisory Committee for English Programmes (PACE) and the Committee was also of the view that a gay relationship should not be presented as an acceptable family unit. As the programme was shown on a Sunday morning, PACE felt that this was inappropriate as such a timeslot was within family viewing hours.
Taking into account the severity of the breach, the telecast time of the programme and the fact that this was a second breach for MediaCorp TV, MDA found that a financial penalty was warranted and issued MediaCorp TV a fine of $15,000.
So, just showing that gay people exist, and can be happy, is such an anathema that it has to be regulated by repeated stiff-upper-lip fines and threats, in this sunny island of Singapore. Once again, the authorities fail to recognise that there can be no “promotion” of homosexuality - people are either queer or they are not.
What is this harm that they are bending over backwards to protect the people from? Because, the only thing that will result from watching the program is that maybe more people will be more accepting of homosexuality and learn that it is possible to have a happy gay family, that we are not all drug-using promiscuous unhappy people. Once again, this change in attitude, the acknowledgment that gay people are human, does not mean that they are going to BE gay. We are normal people living normal lives, paying our mortgages and taxes, going to work, contributing to society.
The authorities are trying hard, very very hard, to make sure there is no way that attitudes can be changed in any way. What they are protecting is not families, but the shell that people live in, to make sure there is absolutely no possibility intolerant attitudes can change, because that would really mean the end of the world, if there was a little less hate in our hearts for people who are different from us.
Protecting hate can be a tough job, and we extend our congratulations to the authorities for doing a fine job of it.
- technorati: gay, queer, singapore, gay rights, media, ban, mda
Permalink
04.23.08
Posted in Art, Entertainment, Feminism at 6:50 pm by pleinelune
Shvarts in her Studio
Or when abortion becomes art.
Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process. [Read the full article]
Shocked? Disgusted? Fascinated? Whatever your reaction is, you are probably not alone - thousands of people in Yale and in the bloggosphere have been actively voicing their views on Shvarts’ “artwork”. I put those in quotation marks, because like the (badly written) “artwork” Jodie chooses to display at the end of Season 5 of The L Word, this didn’t really make all that sense to me. But then, I was never a fan of abstract art. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
04.20.08
Posted in Announcements, Lesbian Scene, Singapore Gay News at 10:57 pm by sayoni
Sayoni commemorated our 2nd Anniversary in style on 12th April, at a rustic world-war-II bunker-like space in Food#03, a rising social entrepreneurship cafe. The party was the culmination of months of planning and preparation, from the drinks to the decorations.
We were hosted by O’Ren Ishii, a new-found MCing talent within Sayoni who entertained the crowd with her wicked sense of humour and presentation.
The highlight of the party was the Sayoni Awards 2008, where a series of fun titles were handed out to our beloved members, such as Drama Queen of the Year, Sticky Rice Couple of the Year etc.
But apart from poking harmless fun at our members, we also know how to honour the outstanding women in our community. Ms Yong Meiling was awarded the prestigious Sayoni Woman of the Year 2008 title, with a beautiful crystal trophy.
This is what Jean had to say when she honoured Ms Yong Meiling with the trophy.
I first got to know Meiling in 2005, hoping to meet the leaders who are in charge of OC Women. We met up, I remember Meiling said she was ‘just helping out’ and nothing more. Over the years, it became, ‘helping out’, to ‘contributing’ to Program Director of OC women. And maybe boss now.
Empathetic, Street smart and certainly no push over, Meiling has shown a remarkable willingness to make a step back for others to lead, change her mind over issues and stand up for those she believes in. We have all seen how OC women’s support group changed people’s lives. Always wanting to ignore our presence, society and gay men alike, it has been the ‘hope in the dark’ when all else is bleak in the society we live in now. Without demanding for hope, we would not have struggled, and without struggle we would not have been here. Virginia Woolf wrote in her journal, “The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing the future can be, I think.” Dark, she seems to say, not as in terrible. We often mistake the one for the other. To me, dark as in the familiar female womb where we all come from ready to burst forward to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, we honor Yong Meiling, helper to program director of OC Women.
We hope to celebrate many many more anniversaries with you, and continue honouring women in our community.
Permalink
04.18.08
Posted in Announcements at 2:19 am by sayoni
We would like to remind all our readers to take this survey. Even if you have taken the survey in 2006, you are encouraged the take it again this year.
Sayoni is proud to present the Sayoni Queer Women Survey, 2008. This survey is aimed at queer, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women living in Singapore, to gather essential information about the community, in terms of…
1. Age, racial and religious composition
2. Educational and career background, and financial status
3. Social framework, in relation to their sexual orientation
4. Personal/Emotional status, in relation to their sexual orientation
5. Feedback, on Sayoni and on the community
We appeal you to take this survey, if you happen to belong to the target group. Just five minutes of your time can help us learn how to better help you and the community as a whole, as well as serve as a record of progress throughout the years.
All information, once collected and analysed, will be made publicly available.
Please be reassured that this survey is completely anonymous. Individual responses will not be revealed, and will not be traceable to the individual user.
Please help spread the word around, to your queer female friends. We aim to capture people from all social strata in this survey.
If you wish to see the reports from last year, please click here.
If you wish to the survey with an image, you can use the following code.
<a href=”http://www.sayoni.com/surveyphp/index.php?sid=7″><img src=”http://www.sayoni.com/surveyreport/sayonisurveylogo.jpg”></a></br>
Take the Sayoni Queer Women Survey 2008!
Thank you for your time!
Permalink
04.16.08
Posted in Entertainment, Singapore Gay News at 2:50 pm by sayoni
We at Sayoni are appalled by this decision, which we consider not only a slap in the face of the gay community, but also yet another example of contravening freedom of speech.
The video in question can be viewed here. We invite the viewers to judge whether the content was graphic enough to invite the fine.
Newreport from TODAYonline.
The Media Development Authority has fined StarHub Cable Vision $10,000 for airing a commercial that depicted “lesbian kissing scenes”.
The MDA posted a statement yesterday on its website about the cable operator’s breach of TV advertising guidelines, “which disallows advertisements that condone homosexuality”.
The commercial, which aired over two days in November on MTV’s Mandarin-language channel, was to promote a song by pop singer Olivia Yan.
Her music video from the album Silly Child featured two scenes of herself and Taiwanese actress Pei Lin in a “passionate embrace”, as described last November in the Taipei Times.
The portrayal of a lesbian in a music video was supposedly a first for Taiwan, the paper reported.
According to the MDA, in the commercial, “romanticised scenes of two girls kissing were shown and it portrayed the relationship as acceptable”.
The MDA had consulted the Advisory Committee for Chinese Programmes, which concurred that the commercial had “promoted lesbianism as acceptable and romantic, especially when shown together with the lyrics featured”.
The MDA said it had taken into account the “severity” of the breach and that the commercial was aired on a youth-oriented TV channel, as well as SCV’s explanation on the matter before deciding “a financial penalty was warranted”.
StarHub expressed disappointment at the authority’s decision to impose a fine but said it would follow broadcasting rules. “We understand the authority’s concern, and will continue to work closely with our regional and international content partners to ensure that the local broadcasting guidelines are fully adhered to,” said StarHub spokesperson Caitlin Fua.
- technorati: singapore, lesbian, queer, starhub
Permalink
04.14.08
Posted in Fashion & Beauty, Feminism, Women's Health at 8:56 pm by jin
Image from signaturehealthsystems.com
Yesterday I went for my first facial treatment. For the past few months I have been thinking about starting to have them. I have been told that they are supposed to make you look more beautiful. I have also heard that they are painful, which has been the main reason for my hesitation. Plus I’ve never paid much attention to the way I look; I mean, I wash my face every day, mask it and moisturise it now and then, but not much else. Read the rest of this entry »
- About: Jin believes that the cliche "True beauty lies within" does hold true and was not invented merely as a consolation prize.
- Forum discussion: Fashion & Beauty
Permalink
04.10.08
Posted in Coming out, General, Minority, Queer literature, Religion at 10:40 pm by sayoni
To commemorate our 2nd Anniversary, we go back to our roots and have a heart-to-heart with the author of the book that inspired us - Giti Thadani, author of Sakhiyani.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
04.06.08
Posted in Entertainment at 11:31 am by pleinelune
Warning: MAJOR spoilers below, revealing almost the entire plot. Read Part 1 if you want a spoiler-free review of the season.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
« Previous entries
