I went to watch this last night with a few of the Sayoni girls. It would be a crime for me to miss this when it is finally playing in Singapore. Eve Ensler’s celebrated groundbreaking play was given a local flavour by director Loretta Chen, produced by Zebra Crossing.
Ms. Constance Singam, current president of AWARE, Singapore’s leading advocacy group for gender equality, will shed some light on the place of queer women within the feminist movement. Where have we been?
She will speak about political and historical context, difficulties negotiating for respect and diversity, her personal experiences and the future.
Find out more about the feminist movement in Singapore and our part in it.
About Constance Singam
Constance is well-known for being an active and vocal social activist and feminist. She has two degrees in Literature, including an MA.
Her recent publications include “A History of the TWC: Building Social Space in Singapore” and the essay “Quietly Resisting; Silently Subverting: The Wayward Ways of Singapore Women” (Postmodern Singapore, Select Publishing). She was a co-editor of the book “Re-Presenting Singapore Women” (Landmark Publications).
Her social contributions were as Founding Member of TWC1, TWC2, and MediaWatch and as the Past President of SCWO.
Constance was a Columnist in several publications, including “Her World” and “Today” and held AWARE presidency for two terms prior to the present one: 1987-1989, 1994-1996, 2007-present.
About AWARE
AWARE is Singapore’s leading advocacy group dedicated to promoting gender equality and understanding. Since its inception in 1985, AWARE has brought women’s perspectives to national issues and has focused on Research & Advocacy, Educational Programs, and Direct Services.
AWARE seeks to identify areas for improvement in gender equality, encourage positive change and support women in realising their highest potential. It believes that gains made by women are not gains made at the expense of men. Rather, they are gains which benefit families and society as a whole.
AWARE is a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation and is funded solely by donations, grants, and member subscriptions.
Date: Saturday, 16 August 2008
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: 72-13
This article is written by our guest writer, Ho Chi Sam.
Image taken from aboutleap.com
The world is so much easily understood if we saw and believed in everything in binary opposites, and ideally, both ends/poles function in tandem, in contrast, interdependently, symbiotically, and eventually contribute to a whole, a stable system, a status quo.
Where does the woman stand in the world of binary opposites? For millennia, literature, rhetoric and discourses have by default refer to “humanity” as “man”, “humankind” as “mankind”, most random persons as “he” (Freudian slip any one?). This whole, stable system and status quo privileges a dominant kind – the male-oriented. It is gendered and sexed accordingly to toe the line of the androcentric, patriarchal and heterosexist establishment.
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 »
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 »
This is a poem written by Alan Ardy, for the Millenium issue of AWARE, who has kindly allowed us to republish this. Alan has a upcoming poetry book, Champagne & Handcuffs.
Image from the documentary The Aggressives
For a woman
For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.
For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of “knowing everything.”
For every woman who is tired of being called “an emotional female,” there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle.
For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity.
For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency.
For every woman who feels “tied down” by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood.
For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being.
For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking.
For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.
– Nancy R. Smith
A friend of mine did a simple survey for his Sociology assignment. He asked many friends (about 20 of them) this question, “Would you feel more comfortable with a butch in your presence, or with an effeminate gay man?”
When he asked me this question, I replied, “Oh the gay man, of course.”
He was astonished to hear my response. Apparently, an overwhelming majority of the people he surveyed indicated that they would feel more comfortable hanging out with a butch. Most of the surveyees are straight men and women, and all of them felt more at ease with the idea of a woman behaving in a masculine way, than vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »
Make-up
So, now that I had bought a dress, I had to face the issue of make-up (no pun intended). I actually had already started thinking about make-up months before. At first, I had thought I could get away with not wearing any make-up to the wedding. But then various people started telling me that I had to. OK, they didn’t say it was compulsory, but the person who managed to convince me was my colleague (different from the dress-shopping one, but also another straight female one) who told me “If you are not wearing make-up, and when you take photos with your sister or the others who are wearing make-up, then you will look like a ghost in contrast to them.” No, my colleagues are not big on subtlety.
Before I continue, I should perhaps explain that I have a love-hate relationship with make-up. It goes beyond mere unfamiliarity due to never wearing any. I actually do believe that make-up is a form of oppression. Why do women have to go through so much effort just to look natural ? Don’t they look natural to begin with, the way they were created? Why is it normal for a man to spend just 5 minutes getting ready to leave the house, but unheard of for a woman? And obscene amounts of women’s salaries go to keeping the cosmetics industry probably the largest industry in the world.
I am waging a war. And I am losing, badly. My defences are being torn down by the battering ram of a heaving cleavage, tightly wrapped in a V-neck blouse. I can’t take my eyes off, and I don’t quite want to either. A fighter cannot be distracted. Yet distraction walks in the form of a pair of sexy, tanned legs in a short skirt and high heels. My guard is down, and I pay for the lapse in attention badly, when a beautiful face leads a cavalry charge against me.
I surrender, but not before artillery in the form of a smoky glance in my direction sends me running for cover.
This is a guest-post by Loverbunny, from The Lesbian Lifestyle
When I was a kid I always thought feminists and lesbians were the same. When I discovered my own sexuality and finally, at 15, began the grueling process of coming out, I realized how wrong I was as a kid. To gain a little more perspective on the subject, I did search the net for some resources. I took a women’s studies course about a year ago and loved every minute of it. When I was younger I assumed that all women in women’s studies courses were lesbians and all girls who went to all girl’s schools were lesbians as well. I was SO wrong. My freshman year of college, I only met ONE lesbian from the all girl’s school across town from my school. And in my women’s studies class, I was the only lesbian.
When I did the internet search, I found a page on Lesbian Feminism at Wikipedia. I got a hit for “Lesbian Feminism.” Here are the 7 key themes of lesbian feminism as defined by Sheila Jeffreys.
1. An emphasis on women’s love for one another.
2. Seperatist organizations.
3. Community and ideas.
4. Idea that lesbianism is about choice and resistance.
5. Idea that the personal is the political.
6. A rejection of heirarchy in the form of role-playing and sado-masochism.
7. A critique of male supremacy which eroticises inequality.
While a few of those are great like numbers 1 and 3…there is a big problem with others, especially number 4. In this view, homosexuality is a choice or conscious response to man-made organizations. I completely disagree. While some girls may choose it because it’s in the media and it’s “cool” to be bi…I can’t understand why someone would consider sexuality a choice. My sisters did not choose to be straight. They just are. I did not choose to be a lesbian. I just am. Why would I choose such a hard path in life if I could just choose to love men instead?
I see feminism as a movement that seeks to create equality between genders, stop sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, and discrimination based on sex. I also can see a problem with gender-roles. As children we are socialized to fit into one specfic role, either man or woman. Even in lesbian relationships people ask, “Who is the man?” Why does someone have to be the man? When we were little, I played army and Power Rangers with my brother and he played house and barbies with me. I played baseball and football with the boys, but I also did ballet, tap, and jazz until I was 11. In my last relationship (we just broke up), I dressed more like a boi, but she drove everywhere, she paid most times, and she was the more dominant person. In bed though, I was more dominant. I considered us equal partners.
So it isn’t that lesbians and feminists are worlds apart. More often than not, we have the same goals. But there is a distinct line between the two groups. A lot of feminists would not agree with gender roles in lesbian relationships, or one of the women dressing more masculine and acting more masculine. While it isn’t the social gender role the butch lesbian fell into, she still is conforming to a gender role.
I have a hat that I like to wear that says “I <3 Bikinis.” I think it’s funny. Plus, I get some weird looks when I wear it. I love it. I love that it defies social norms and upsets people. One person it upsets is my middle sister. She says the hat “objectifies women.” Yeah, it does. But men wear hats and even shirts like that with little or no objection from the general public. Some would say that by wearing that hat, I am rejecting feminism. Maybe I am. So what? Other ways I defy feminism are: shaving my legs and wearing a bra. Not all feminists refuse to shave or wear bras. But those two things are classic examples of oppression by men. A man invented the bra. We shave our legs to be attractive, most of the time, to men. I, however, do not. I don’t like body hair at all–on anyone. That is why I shave, to be more comfortable in my own body. Is that unfeminist of me?
90% of the time I completely defy social norms and pre-set gender roles. When I have children, I will not force my son to play with boy toys if he wants a doll. I won’t force my daughter to be a princess for halloween if she wants to be Batman. I want a son named Shannon and a daughter named James. I completely respect the feminist movement. I respect activist lesbians. I, however, am content just to be me. I don’t have to go out and fight for legal abortion, birth control, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, or many of the other feminist causes. I do have strong opinions on all of those issues, as well as strong opinions on lesbian issues like gay marriage/civil unions, adoption, sexual orientation based discrimination, and the general lack of education about gay/lesbian issues.
I don’t think that marriage should be defined by the government. I don’t believe that it should only be reserved for heterosexual couples. Marriage is about love, not gender. Love is the same between two women as it is between a man and a woman. I don’t think that there should be a glass ceiling in some industries to stop women from advancing. I don’t believe that some fields are more suited for men. A woman can do anything a man can. We are all created equal. No man, or woman, has the right to tell me who I can or cannot love, whether or not I can get an abortion if I want, whether or not birth control is available to me, how I should dress, act, or think. So yes, most of the time lesbian issues and feminist issues go hand in hand. But both movements are completely seperate.
Results for the Sayoni Hot 20 List 2008 are out!
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