//A third rate "independent news" website made up of a single singapore based journalist begging for attention.
I can only guess the woman journalist here doesn't like those girls in the picture. The truth is that she is no different and is as sexist as the men are in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.bikyamasr.com
Mariam Yuan | 9 December 2012 | 0 Comments
Is this the future of Singapore’s women?
SINGAPORE: For the past few months, we have been reporting regularly on women’s rights issues, doing the best to not trivialize or sexualize women in Singapore. But continued articles published by English and Chinese language websites have continued to confound the issue.
Most recently, an article by AsiaOne.com showed how high-end restaurants, clubs and other establishments are hiring “attractive” women in the city to wear little clothes in an effort to entice customers to come by.
Short skirts, lingerie-clad hostesses are now such a commonplace in the city that few think twice about seeing a little – or a lot – of leg.
But I wonder, as a journalist, if we are doing enough to ensure that women’s voices are heard in this city and across Southeast Asia. As an Asian woman, I feel that the rise of the porn industry and the overly sexual nature of women’s reporting has left us cold to the stark realities facing us women in the is part of the world.
We are often seen and written about as submissive sexual characters who want to please men. It would appear, from the articles written about women that here in Singapore, the young women on the pages of magazines, at clubs and in the business sector, use their bodies for personal gains.
At the same time there is a failure on journalists’ part to adequately report on the positives that women are contributing to society. There are a large number of female executives here who do not resort to sex to get ahead. They are the true heroes of our supposedly progressive society. But they are left aside, in favor of the bikini, or less, adorned woman.
It is a frustrating time to live in Asia as an Asian woman. The media sees our vagina as a means of reporting. What we do with our bodies seems to always be up for discussion. In effect, it is our body that gets the attention.
When we face sexual violence, too often the media views this as a positive for the men. Women are not getting a fair shake in this regard. The media push a stereotype that views women as sex objects, for men’s pleasure and gazing. It is time to change this perspective.
If a woman has had sex, that’s great, it’s her life, but for the media to continually approach the topic of women’s issues in a manner that disregards the woman and focuses only on what she has done with her body, this begs the question: is Singapore becoming anti-women?
BM
