Girl-on-girl kissing at Star Awards

Posted on May 4, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Girl on girl kiss to be censored in re-run of awards show’, 4 May 2012, article in asiaone.com

A kiss between female actresses Vivian Lai and Kate Pang has sparked a furore among Singaporeans. Actress-host Lai, 36, kissed actress Kate Pang, 29, on the lips for one second when she was announced as one of the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes during Sunday’s live telecast of the Star Awards Show 2.

Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao reported that many viewers called its hotline to say they were offended by the kiss. They said that while some women may find kissing each other to be “trendy”, they were not used to it.

Some also said that it was strange to see female artistes dressed sexily and kissing each other. The Media Development Authority (MDA) said it will probe the incident to ascertain whether it has breached content guidelines of the free-to-air TV programme code.

A spokesperson for broadcaster MediaCorp told The New Paper that the “kiss” will be censored for this Sunday’s repeat telecast as some viewers may not be comfortable.

They should have won Most Favourite Couple

This will probably be the most useless snip in the history of television, regardless of what people think of two women kissing. Even if there were erotic undertones here beyond a ‘sisterly’ peck, it would have went unnoticed if the people obsessed with ‘lesbianism’ hadn’t cried foul over it. Perhaps cleavage just fails to shock anymore,  that there’s only a few ways to display one’s assets,  to the point that even the underboob has been milked dry. This Western glam concept of celebrity lip smooching has taken the attention away from boring speculations of boob jobs or waiting for wardrobe malfunctions to occur. The awards  have become secondary and our Mediacorp artistes are being ravaged on the red carpet for tasteless frocks, if not accused of aping the decadent West and turning viewers gay with their antics. People who’ve never seen a single Mediacorp drama the entire year would have at least heard of this event, but only for the wrong reasons. Soon no one will even remember or care about who won the Best Drama or Actress, nor male artistes who dress like hobos, and the Star Awards will be known just for two things: Ann Kok’s ample bosom and a hot girly kiss. Pity the former wasn’t involved in the latter, or you would have the prudes getting cardiac arrests before even writing in to complain about too much sex on TV.

This spontaneous couple seem to have taken a cue off Britney and Madonna, who locked lips on stage at the 2003 MTV awards, with a hint of tongue too. Nobody’s calling either a lesbian.

Our authorities have also banned the first hit single from Katy Perry titled ‘I Kissed a Girl’, which anyone can download off Youtube below, although no girls were actually kissing in the video. Katy went on to marry comedian Russell Brand in a rather short-lived romance, proof that she too wasn’t a lesbian.

Our censors also deleted scenes off critically acclaimed films like The Hours, and banned films like Shame altogether because of threesome scenes which I presume, would have some girly action as well. Kissing used to be a fun thing; experimental, playful and affectionate, and celebrities have the privilege of playing fast and loose with their PDA as they deem fit. Because they ARE celebrities.  Better that they engage in same-sex kissing than snort cocaine. These complainants are treating the act as if someone dropped a box full of forceps in the middle of a life-saving surgery.

Football players smooch each other all the time after scoring goals, yet no one talks about censoring matches because these contain ‘harmful’ scenes of sweaty men kissing, that boys who watch them may end up spending more time in the locker room than necessary. If two men kiss, it’s awkward or a prank, especially when presidents do it. If two ‘sexily dressed’ ladies kiss, however,  a ‘guideline’ has been breached and the innocent need to be protected.

One thing’s certain though; the kissing video would garner more hits than the  combined viewership of both live and rerun shows, even among people who have no idea who Joanne Peh is. Kate Pang may even score the Top 10 favourite artist list every year from now on, even if nobody has seen her act. Going near topless to boost a lacklustre career doesn’t work anymore, and it’s no longer peek-a-boo but ‘peck-a-(chio)bu’ that makes the Star Awards worth saving.

Filed under: 2012, Censors, Gay stuff, Local actors, Local TV shows, Sex | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Facebook pictures photojacked onto porn sites

Posted on April 30, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Facebook photo ends up on porn, dating site’, 30 April 2012, article by Irene Tham, ST

HOUSEWIFE Jules Rahim was shocked when a friend tipped her off last Wednesday that her photo was featured on a pornographic website. That was not the only unauthorised use of the picture of her in a bikini, which she had posted on her Facebook account three years ago.

Last Tuesday, another friend told her that the photo had also popped up on a dating site called sgGirls.com. It was accompanied by a caption which listed a telephone number to call and how much it cost to chat.

‘It’s embarrassing,’ said the mother of four children, aged one to 10. ‘People I know may think wrongly of me.’ Ms Rahim, 32, has filed two police reports – one about the porn site and the other about the dating site.

The Straits Times understands that at least two other Singaporean women have also discovered that their Facebook pictures have surfaced on these two websites. The three are victims of what is known as ‘photo-jacking’ – the act of stealing pictures from social media like Facebook and Twitter and exploiting them for use on, say, porn sites.

Tipping off a friend that her photo is being used in a porn site is an awkward admission of guilt that one surfs porn. If I were the victim, I wouldn’t know if I should thank him or give him a funny look. Worse things could happen if you’re a celebrity though; your pic may be photoshopped and superimposed over actual porn actors. Or you could be used as bait for ‘click-jacking’ pranks such as the Facebook ‘Fiona Xie sex video’ link which doesn’t lead you anywhere other than spreading the message to all your friends that you want to see Fiona Xie naked. Disappointment AND embarrassment.

Internet privacy has been a problem since the late nineties, when a similar site to Sggirls known as JCGirls  featured candid shots of girls in public (Harmless or has it invaded privacy?19 Oct 1999, ST) . Though there wasn’t any intention to shame or outrage the modesty of schoolgirls,  nor did the creators sell soiled panties on the side, it was an unspoken fact that this site was drawing a specific audience, mainly men in the ‘old enough to be your father’ demographic. When you let ‘netizens’ take over, it’s like giving a psychotic clown an lifetime’s supply of pies. I would rather have my face on a porn ad than being caught by some busybody Stomper in an embarrassing situation taken out of context. Getting Face-Stomped (tagged and linked in both sites) is the worst fate that could befall decent human beings. It’s like getting gang-raped by Alien and Predator, with the resultant offspring gnawing its way slowly out of your insides with the aid of a laser-guided cannon throughout the  incubation. But then again, males in general don’t have much of an issue being ‘photojacked’ in sex ads. In fact, if you tag our faces with a ‘I GREW 2 INCHES in a WEEK’, it may even be taken as a compliment.

You don’t have to be in a sultry bikini pose to get spotted by porn marketeers. Even wearing a seemingly innocent Minnie Mouse hat could have you mistaken by paedophiles for a Lolita prostitute in an online sex ring. If you’re not cute, nor have the body to flaunt, you could also get targeted if someone has a bone to pick with you; an ex-lover, a jealous colleague, or a complete stranger who simply doesn’t like what you put on your Facebook wall. Or you end up as a random target for someone who needed a convenient scapegoat.

You may also misuse photos as fronts for bad behaviour. In 2007, a couple of brats created wearemean.blogspot.com, a now defunct site that mocked people caught unawares in public. Interestingly, it’s not so much their snapping of random passers-by and commenting on their ugliness or dress sense that’s illegal (people currently do that all the time on STOMP), but impersonating other people on their blog using  their photographs without permission. If you’re cowardly enough, you could troll Facebook discussions logged in as somebody else. Sometimes, even your own spouse can’t be trusted when it comes to online misrepresentation.

Vicious rumours could also get you recognised for all the wrong reasons, as what the ‘mystery woman’ angle created by the media led to, with wild guesses and snapshots of innocent parties being tossed about in forums. Ironically, in the attempt to protect a key player in a scandalous tryst,  this has resulted in  several other people, minding their own business and having absolutely nothing to do with the case, becoming unnecessarily involved and suspect. Putting our reputations on the line online is the price we have to pay for the benefits of social networking, and privacy controls alone may not be guarantee that you’re safe from harm. Even people not on Facebook get caught in ‘friendly fire’, as long as people snap, post and comment, without even having to tag you in the process. Facebook narcissists are free to exhibit and pose in whatever they want, but if you decide to wear a Playboy bunny suit, intimate lingerie or lie on the beach nude for your FB profile pic, then you should expect to draw the wrong kind of attention.  I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea provoking the culprits and going public as what Ms Rahim has done here though. It has already sparked plenty of interest in the lady herself, no thanks to ST releasing a ‘porn-worthy’ image of her with face digitally masked, and in this climate of scandal, a censored face means instant fame/notoriety as one the top 10 search hits on Google trends Singapore.

No 8 on the charts 30 April 2012, same day as article

Filed under: 1990s, 2012, Advertisements, Bloggers, Justice system/Lawsuits, Kids, Local actors, Nudity, Sex | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Toddlers in ‘preparatory’ classes

Posted on April 29, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘First to prep classes, then to Pri 1′, 29 April 2012, article by Jane Ng, Sunday Times

For some parents, kindergarten is not enough to get their children ready for primary school. They are enrolling their six-year-olds in special ‘preparatory classes’ that claim to give children a head start for going to Primary 1.

So on top of attending kindergarten classes five days a week, the six-year-olds attend English, mathematics and mother tongue classes once or twice a week. Parents are forking out $100 to $275 a month for these so-called enrichment classes provided by private centres.

Popular centres like Berries, Learning Lab and Learning Point have waiting lists of up to a year for these weekend classes. Given the growing demand, other schools, like Young Champs Eduland, have jumped on the bandwagon. Another, Enfant Educare, has nine of these programmes for everything from phonics to abacus and hanyu pinyin.

‘Enfants’, not infants

Prep class is basically TUITION for toddlers, and ‘giving a head start’ is being KIASU. It’s OK, we’re Singaporeans, no need to pussyfoot around terms like ‘enrichment’, when all this is really an arms race among parents pitting their kids against each other to the death, sometimes literally.  Tuition for pre-schoolers is almost a half-century old practice, or rather RITUAL. In other societies kids have to endure genital mutilation without anaesthetic or engage in bloody combat with the neighbours to earn their place. Here, parents chuck them into pre-school and pre-pre schools, supplementing with weekend/holiday tuition or cram school under the benevolent guise of ‘enrichment’. It also helps if you have a French name (Petite Papillon), sound like a fashion brand (Julia Gabriel) an Italian restaurant (Montesorri), or a haunted house (House on a Hill).    These are no longer ‘nurseries’; one centre even calls itself ‘Little Uni’ , making no pretense at all that they’re really gearing up children for the long and winding educational superhighway. The greatest trick these businesses have pulled  is convincing parents that children actually enjoy attending these things, rather than, you know, SLEEPING or playing with/eating sand at the beach.

Some centres, like Del Care Edu Centre, even provide lessons for 2 to 18 MONTH old BABIES. Which means we have children among us who recognise flashcards before their own uncles’ faces. Did I say ‘children’? I meant zombies brain-harvested to battle it out in primary school who can speak Japanese and French before crafting a proper Knock-Knock joke, or even walk. Before you know it, our kids would have evolved with brains bigger than their gastrointestinal systems and instead of ‘playing’ with them you are compelled to engage in a lively dialogue about phonics. No more trading goos and ga’s, funny faces or catching ball anymore. ‘Play’ has to be ‘purposeful’, ‘sensorial’ and ‘exploratory’ and they have to ‘self-discover’ or ‘self-actualise’ while at it. They no longer just read or write or doodle, but must nurture ‘creative thinking’. Nothing so useless as a tickle should deter a child from ‘achieving their fullest potential’. It’s politically incorrect to call your boy a ‘little monster’, he’s just ‘over-expressing his self-worth’. What these centres have successfully done is turn the wild manic beast that is childhood into a lab rat with electrodes and meters strapped to its brain. Which explains The Learning ‘Lab’, though another has the audacity to call itself the ‘Playground Preschool’, both an insult  to actual playgrounds and an oxymoron too. You probably have to do mental sums while going down the slide, or discuss Newton’s Law of Motion on the see-saws. In the Little Gym, parent-bonding physical activities are outsourced to the professionals, where you have pay a fee just to let your baby ‘tumble’.

Thank god we still have pets for what’s left of the fun things in life. With all the spatial skills and street smarts sapped in exchange for preparatory ‘knowledge’ and ‘grooming’, I’ll be amazed if our kids today can even pass a marble through a hoop, or even tell their parents apart from PRC kidnappers for that matter. I wonder just how ‘prepared’ these kids are for the REAL world, where you have this thing called PEOPLE to deal with; bullies, bosses, customers, friends, family, strangers etc, not just caged up kids grilled in the latest scientific educational methods. Just browsing through the various ‘philosophies’ of these centres reveals an unsettling trend, the premature quest to turn our kids into tiny, confident adults, all this in the constraints of a controlled facility which purveyors of patented techniques and ‘programs’ like to call a ‘creative environment’. Mandarin educators Berries refer to kids as ‘the most important people in the world’. Young Champs Eduland submits their clients to ‘leadership training, complete with character building skills to create individuals with a difference’. You see the same objectives for adult business courses. Why are these parents in such a hurry to see their babies turn into typical rat-racers, and why are these tuition centres inflating the child’s ego to the moon, fostering a sense of bloated entitlement that they are natural born champions, leaders or abacus wizards? Our kids want to be astronauts, pilots and ninjas, not business negotiators or politicians. Let them live already, just for once.

Filed under: 1960s, 2012, Babies, Kids, Money, Parenting, Teachers | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Transsexuals in Miss Universe Singapore

Posted on April 28, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Beauty contests’, 28 April 2012, ST Forum

(MR ACE KINDRED CHEONG): ‘Transgender participants should not be allowed to participate in beauty pageants meant for women (‘Miss Universe Singapore: Could the next one be originally male?’; Wednesday). They will have an advantage over biological women as some, if not all, will have undergone cosmetic surgery. Instead, why not have beauty pageants meant solely for transgender participants?

Transsexualism has been discussed rather openly in Singapore since the early 80′s, where attempts have been made to distinguish the terms ‘transvestite’ from ‘transsexual’, as well as define the colloquial ‘ah kuas’, the latter often used interchangeably between a transsexual, an ‘effeminate’ man or  ‘sissy’ or a ‘male prostitute’, yet SBC deemed it ‘appropriate‘ for use in drama serials.’Transgender’ was coined as recently as the 1990′s, as in LGBT, a term that may be preferred when addressing the community as a whole as it seems to take the ‘surgical knife’ undertones off ‘transsexual’, though both are still commonly used in the media today. ‘Ladyboy’ and ‘bapok’, however, have become derogatory, though ‘bapok’ in Malay literally means ‘effeminate’ (like the equally offensive catch-all that is ‘ah kua’), while ‘Tranny’ and ‘shemale’ are reserved for porn genres. When it comes to transsexualism, even quotation marks can be highly offensive, as in ‘woman’, ‘sister’ or ‘queen’ to describe transwomen (men who became women).  The Malaysian press has even hidden the full word behind an acronym, TS.

Even the same act of ‘going under the knife’ has been euphemised over the years. Today it’s called SRS or ‘sex reassignment surgery ‘, when we used to call it a ‘sex change operation’. The Miss Canada Universe who started it all, Jenna Talackova, herself underwent ‘GENDER reassignment surgery’, the term ‘assignment’ making the procedure as innocuous as amending one’s birth certificate. Like most behavioral deviations, transsexualism has also become medicalised;  if you’re born a man and feel like a woman you have a ‘gender identity disorder (GID)’, which implies that ‘feeling like a woman’ when you’re a man is a form of ‘sickness’. The term ‘intersex’ has been proposed as the ‘third gender’ for official purposes, though being ‘intersexed’ could also refer to a sex development disorder in which one was born with ‘ambiguous’ genitalia i.e hermaphrodites, a term used to describe flowers and worms other than human beings.  Hermaphrodites, other than getting embroiled in sporting arena controversies, also have their own problems dealing with transsexual beauty contestants who were born 100% male.

Allowing transsexuals in pageants puts judges in a spot, even if it may well boost up ratings. You don’t want to appear to cast a sympathy vote nor do you want the LGBT community to complain about discrimination if their representative fails to even make the top 15. Cosmetic surgery also may not give that desired edge over female participants (unless the writer was thinking of shocking beauties like Thailand’s Nong Poy below). But perhaps this is more a victory for ‘medical science’ than anything else. Or rather medical science AND make-up. But wait a minute, since when was Miss Universe JUST about LOOKS (or femininity for that matter) anyway? Didn’t ‘masculine’ Tania Lim take the crown in 2010?

For every Nong Poy...

...There's this.

There are already transgender Miss Universe-ish pageants as we speak, such as the Miss International Queen pageant (which allows transvestites as well), not to be confused with Miss Tourism Queen, Miss Global Beauty Queen and Miss QUEEN OF THE WORLD. Still, this is a vast improvement from our stigmatisation of transsexuals in the 80′s, when they were barred from such contests because it was seen as an ‘embarrassment’ and  a ‘big joke to organisers’. It would be a while before we see transsexuals or transvestites in high-flying positions such as doctors, lawyers or politicians (though some may be closest cross-dressers…there’s a difference!), but pitting them in competition against natural-born females could be symbolic of this social ‘inclusiveness’ that the PAP has been bragging about, even if the platform is as superficial as a beauty contest, or in the promotion of ‘cabaret’ shows (Does that mean our pageants need to be R18 as well?)

Audiences are suckers for underdogs, and since the Miss Universe franchise here needs saving, a transgender Miss Universe Singapore hopeful could very well be a Beautiful Boxer in the making. But first, we’ll have to lift the bar on transsexuals into certain clubs, and that includes Ladies’ Night, to show that we really mean it. Still, it’s hard not to be hypocritical when advocating equality for transsexuals as a heterosexual man. Some would rather be seen in public with an openly gay man than a transsexual, and I for one have reservations about getting a hot oil massage from either.

Filed under: 1980s, 2012, Beauty pageants, Cross dressing, Ms Singapore Universe, Names, Sex, Transsexuals | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Richmonds telling Grandfather stories on radio

Posted on April 25, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Trend of multiple radio DJs sacrifices that old personal touch’ 24 April 2012 and ‘More on what’s wrong with morning radio’ 25 April 2012, ST Forum.

(Victor Khoo): WHY does a person listen to the radio? Apart from getting information, news and music, a radio listener wants someone to keep him company; a proxy for personal, warm and friendly one-to-one companionship.

For the radio listener, that companion is the deejay on air. So the test of a good radio deejay is to be able to communicate with his listeners in a manner that replicates a personal, face-to-face encounter via the restricted confines of audio contact. This is not easy.

…Unfortunately, the new trend among local radio stations is to have two or more deejays hosting one show for reasons fathomable only to these broadcasting stations. I say unfortunately because this trend robs the station of that personal touch.

More often than not, the listener ends up literally as a passive eavesdropper on a bunch of men and women talking and joking among themselves in a cacophony of chatter.

(Chow Hon Meng):…I have concerns as well about radio stations, particularly the morning show on Gold 90FM, hosted by Brian Richmond and his son Mark, who have been joined by MediaCorp actor Gurmit Singh.

Why must the peak-hour morning time slot have an advisory warning that parental guidance is needed for listeners? Isn’t it obvious that a morning show covers the period when families are having breakfast together before leaving for school and work?

I am no prude, but should we ‘licence’ radio deejays who wish to swop raunchy jokes at 9am? Surely, there are more appropriate time slots for a round-the-clock medium like radio?

Gold 90FM’s tripartite father-son-actor deejay format makes listeners like me feel like eavesdroppers because of the family-show slant. The Richmonds try to regale listeners with grandfather stories, literally at times; there are also occasions when a grandson or son calls in or one of the three is busy reading a personal SMS from his wife.

Three's a crowd

I’ve ever only heard the Richmonds hosting a show together a few times and though not exactly a hoot, it was amusing to have the younger Richmond tease the elder veteran with the latter lacking any sort of comeback whatsoever. Brian’s velvety baritone doesn’t seem appropriate for the sort of wacky humour you would want to wake up to or end the day with. It’s like laughing at Barry White or the Pope and I suspect the old man would be overwhelmed by Phua Chu Kang joining in the fray. Perhaps this a desperate plea for ratings, and it’s a shame that the homely, orange-juice and cereal vibe of the Richmonds show has to resort to cheap morning antics by adding an obvious comedian in. It’s like lathering waffles with condensed milk. Over the top.

Trios in  shows mean more banter, less music, as each presenter tends to wrestle for attention, and to me, three’s a definite crowd. But somehow it’s the duos that crank up the sleaze, especially around the time when the kids are packing their school bags.  You also don’t hear of all female DJ teams because you always need a male to bear the brunt of jokes or dispense toilet humour. Morning shows are notorious for bawdiness and DJs getting fined or sacked  for it, whether it’s  asking boys about white panties, getting people to moan like they’re having sex on air, mocking Indian accents or getting beauty contestants to strip off their bras without exposing themselves. Even the titles of such shows are dead giveaways for the kind of ‘no holds barred’ content that attract listeners: Morning Glory, Five Guys and a Girl, Rude Awakening etc, which all sound like titles of 90′s porn VCDs. But put a couple of men or opposite sexes together long enough and eventually you’ll have to stumble on a sexual topic somehow or other. Or at least a fart joke, or politically incorrect discussions on male-female stereotypes. Otherwise it’s traffic on the PIE and headlines of the day. You might as well tune in to a recording of yesterday’s Toto result announcements.

There could be a few explanations as to why Mediacorp is dropping the ‘personal touch’. Jokes and anecdotes are always funnier shared, and a DJ unleashing those while alone in the studio, without the satisfaction of a human response, is like a stand up comedian trying to tickle a wall. It also helps that laughter is contagious, and we’re more likely to laugh along if another DJ laughs at his partner’s joke than if the latter cracks one alone, or if he/she does at all. When someone else laughs, we acknowledge that a joke has been made. When someone laughs at his own joke, we wonder what’s so funny. We’re no longer the lonely souls who want Brian Richmond or William Xavier to coddle us with their rich, chocolately voices and tuck us into bed anymore. We don’t  need the ‘company’ (the Internet provides too much of that already), we just want to be entertained. Sometimes it’s not so much the content of the banter, but the power plays lurking within that’s captivating, like how one DJ tends to dominate another, or trying to tease apart the rapport from the filler. In a way it is indeed like eavesdropping on a couple of roommates bitching, and trying to guess who wears the pants in the relationship. But what’s wrong with that?

Today’s listeners crave for gossip, weird news and quirky facts, not just because they’re light-hearted and entertaining, but because they feed our cries for attention whenever we relay such information to our friends, family and co-workers. Radio gossip and jokes empower us socially by enhancing our watercooler small-talk skills. It weathers those awkward silences during those long drives in your boss’s car. Not that a solo DJ can’t deliver these with aplomb (it takes great talent and charisma), but humans are more attuned to heated conversations than a lone ranger telling us which important person’s birthday it is today or asking us whether we’ve had breakfast or not, even if he or she has the perkiest, rosiest, maple-syrupy, dewiest, morning sunshine voice in the history of radio.

Filed under: 2000s, 2012, Local radio DJs, Sex | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

‘Shame’ banned over a threesome scene

Posted on April 23, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘What a Shame about no-show’, 21 April 2012, article by Annabeth Leow, Life!

…The critically acclaimed British film Shame, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, will not play in Singapore cinemas – all because of a sex scene involving one man and two women. Cathay-Keris Films had tried to bring in the movie for local distribution.

The Media Development Authority’s (MDA) Board of Film Censors gave it an R21 rating and, additionally, asked for a group sex scene to be trimmed. Despite an appeal from Cathay, MDA remained firm on the snip needed. Since McQueen did not allow any changes to be made to his film, Cathay had no choice but to abort its distribution plans.

…In a statement, an MDA spokesman said: ‘After consulting the Films Consultative Panel on the film Shame, we are of the view that the prolonged and explicit threesome sex sequence has exceeded our classification guidelines.’

How everyone feels about the Shame ban

Despite relenting on films depicting gay marriage such as last year’s The Kids are Alright, the Board of Censors are still queasy when it comes to group sex and orgies. According to the guidelines, orgies are considered ‘deviant’ activities, along the lines of BDSM and bestiality. In 1999, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut required a cut for an orgy scene which featured Hindu scripture chanting in the background. The opening scene in the 2008 Jason Statham vehicle The Bank Job was snipped as it featured a princess in a sweaty threesome. In ‘Watchmen’, a nude Dr Manhattan cloned himself to pleasure Silk Spectre, yet that scene was passed with an M18 rating. Apparently it’s not considered group sex if one partner is multiplied many times over.

Are orgies, which are probably as ancient as gay sex, deemed such ‘unnatural’ acts that they deserve to be banned from our cinemas? Is having sex with more than one person simultaneously more depraved than say,  violent anal sex (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)? Isn’t a playful orgy less discomfiting to the viewer than a brutal gang rape (The Accused, Boys Don’t Cry)?  In ‘Shoot Em Up’, Monica Belluci’s character is a LACTATING prostitute and the movie was passed with an NC16/M18 rating. In Splice (NC16/M18), Adrian Brody’s scientist has sex with a mutant female species he created from animal/human DNA, which later  transforms into an aggressive male form that ends up  raping and inseminating his female partner. In the classic horror flick the Fly, a man-fly hybrid makes a normal female pregnant with his offspring. The list of ‘deviant’  abominations that defile the sacred union between one man and one woman is endless, whether it’s man-insect, man-alien, or man-pie intercourse.

Would screening images of a writhing mass of naked bodies in an erotic scrum trigger a wave of promiscuity and STDs among Singaporeans? Perhaps ‘group sex’, in the eyes of the censors, differentiates an ‘erotic’ movie from a ‘pornographic’ one, or has lurid suggestions of satanic cult behaviour based on the ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ experience. It’s been more than a dozen years of the censors slapping bans on such scenes, while we allow ultraviolence to fester to more extreme depths of depravity. If Singaporeans no longer shudder at the thought of pre-pubescent girls plying the flesh trade or even incest,  I doubt they would bat an eyelid at a menage a trois. In fact, seeing a bunch of kids slaughter each other in the Hunger Games is more chilling to me than them huddling naked in a bathtub and scrubbing each other suggestively with sponges.

In fact, groupies already exist, with or without MDA’s interventions. A China Daily report in 2006 exposed local swinger clubs which engage in partner swapping and group sex. The timing of this decision to ban Shame is worth scoffing at too, considering how we’ve been hit lately by a spate of sex scandals involving underaged prostitutes and women who sleep with high ranking officials, and here we are getting all worked up over a flesh sandwich when escorts here are paid according to specific, often demeaning, acts defined only by acronyms. I doubt the scene in Shame would be classified, in porn parlance, as a ‘gangbang’, and as expected this ban has intensified my interest in watching it, or at least trying to download the film online, something that everyone else who knows about the ban WILL do, and the same people who decimate great films like these talk about combating movie piracy…

But here’s the next best thing for the rest of us who refuse to download Shame because we value the film-maker’s work, even if our censors entice us to do so by blasting a cold shower on this steamy film: A banned poster of the movie itself.

I wonder who shot this

Filed under: 2000s, 2011, 2012, Censors, Film, Nudity, Sex, Violence | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Miss XXX who is under 18 years of age

Posted on April 22, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Underage prostitute is now Miss XXX?’, 22 April 2012, article by Shaffiq Alkhatib, TNP

Five days ago, lawyer Subhas Anandan disputed the charges his clients were slapped with as he felt the charges were “flawed because they lacked essential particulars”. Mr Anandan represents 10 of the 44 men who were charged on Monday with engaging the services of an underage prostitute. He said: “They don’t have the name of the girl, her date of birth. How do you expect my clients to plead guilty?”

Another lawyer, Mr Luke Lee, who represents two of the 44 men, agreed. “The charges are defective because the name of the victim and her date of birth are missing. We’re in the position of having the charges amended,” said Mr Lee.

On Wednesday, four more men were charged with having paid sex with the same girl. But their charge sheets are different. Lawyer Wendell Wong, who represents Howard Shaw Chai Li, 41, one of yesterday’s four accused, told The New Paper that the charge sheet he received includes the girl’s name and date of birth. But reporters in court yesterday were given a different set of charge sheets. In theirs, the girl is identified as “XXX who is under 18 years of age”.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers said yesterday evening that the charges against the 44 men will be amended to include the girl’s name. It will also apply for a gag order to protect her identity.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, a woman is branded with a symbol of her sin of Adultery (the uppercase letter ‘A’) and publicly shamed by town elders.  In this media hoo-ha that involves more than 48 men who willingly, or unwittingly, had sex with a girl at least half their age, it appears that it’s not the female at the centre of the scandal being paraded around for all to see (although internet leaks have long revealed her identity, whether true or not), but the men who are being punished and shamed, short of being labelled as sick pedophiles, their reputations ripped to shreds. Some have to resort to dressing like the Unabomber just to avoid recognition. But we can’t resist running through the list still, the media sating our gossipy appetites for scandal and the human tendency of lapping up anything bad that happens, as long as they happen to other people.

By now, most of us should be familiar but not exactly understand the various sex laws that deal with minors 14, 16 and 18 years of age which are complicated by foggy terms like ‘rape’, ‘consent’ and ‘commercial sex’. Section 376B of the Penal Code, under which these men were charged, was intended to protect a higher proportion of minors, defined by Ho Peng Kee in 2008 as ‘young persons, because they are immature and vulnerable and can be exploited and, therefore, should be protected from providing sexual services’.  You don’t even need to have actual foreplay with a minor below 16 years to be charged for ‘sexual grooming’, as long as you  (or the girl) have the ‘intention’ of doing so, though I wonder if that covers innuendos like ‘inviting a girl up to view my vintage Hello Kitty collection’. An undercover job by the New Paper in 2010 set up a potential ‘sex predator’ with one of their own reporters posing as a girl responding to an online ad, which shows how easy it is to bait horny men. If a man has sexual intentions and is willing to pay money for it, he’s a sexual predator if the girl’s barely 17, but not if they had sex on her 18th birthday. If a barely legal girl dupes a man into sex or subsequently blackmails him with such ‘protective’ laws as backing, it implies calculation and motive, and you’d have to wonder who’s ‘vulnerable’, ‘immature’ and being ‘exploited’ in this instance. Such a scenario of a scheming minor was dramatised to balls-cringing extremes in the movie ‘Hard Candy’.

Of course, a girl of XXX’s age couldn’t possibly have the wiles to ensnare unsuspecting men, a presumption that puts men entirely at the mercy of laws that persist in regarding minors as blank slates who can’t act responsibly by themselves. One doesn’t have to think too far back when it comes to celebrity ‘mystery women’ who were granted immunity from media shaming. Just a few months ago, the whole of Singapore was kept in the dark over who Yaw Shin Leong was cheating with, or the ‘IT exec’ who was sleeping around with SCDF and CNB chiefs. In 2004, ex CNA presenter Vidya Shankar was charged for ‘molest’ of a ’30 year old female colleague’ after the latter ended up in his room in a drunken state. Yet, if the objective of such laws and their gag order tools are to ‘protect’ minors/victims, no secrecy is spared if you’re talking about sex tape leaks, like the Tammy NYP case in 2006. So, if a 17 year old sleeps around with men of her own free will, films it and the video is leaked, the media will pounce on it and not only hint at where to find such videos but reveal her name and school as well, nevermind how she was ‘victimised’ in this blatant invasion of privacy. If the same 17 year old solicits for sex, there’s immediately ‘a kind of hush ‘all over the world and the girl becomes ‘She who shall not be named’.  The men she sleep with are branded as lonely, repressed, cheating sex maniac monsters and are cursed with this ‘scarlet letter’ (P for paedophile) for the rest of their lives. Even ‘sexual grooming’ may involve some form of transaction before actual sex (expensive dinners, luxury goods, ‘allowances’), but a manipulative ‘sugar daddy’ gets 3 years jail for even trying, while a man who thinks nothing of emotionally tormenting little girls but conned into underaged ‘commercial’ sex faces 7 years. I’m not saying these men are innocent, but in all the encounters, XXX knew exactly what she was doing, while her clients were mostly clueless, or had their ability to think diminished by a surge of testosterone.

In a recent train sex orgy scandal in Taiwan, the 17 year old in the thick of it was given the nickname ‘Xiao Yu’ by Taiwanese media. Here, 18 men were set up by a sex party organiser to frolic with a willing youth in a train carriage, having paid some ‘admission fee’ for the train.The ‘pimp’ equivalent was arrested for ‘violating public decency’, with no news I could uncover on the other men being jailed or exposed. How would Singapore courts handle such a case, I wonder. Technically, the host wasn’t running a vice ring, the girl wasn’t a hooker, and the men were just treating her as part of the entertainment for the 800 NT party package ($27, a bargain really). The outcome here is likely to be equally ‘Y-chromosome’-unfriendly.

‘XXX’ used to be an anonymous moniker people use to sign off ransom letters, lovers signing off kisses, or to classify what we now call ‘adult films’.  Instead of using ‘underaged prostitute’ or the very telling ‘XXX’ in subsequent coverage couldn’t the courts and media come up with something more imaginative? Something more befitting of a ‘clueless, vulnerable, Chinese’ girl than ‘Miss XXX’ which is more suited for a boudoir-owning nymphomaniac hostess with dominatrix tendencies ? A few things won’t change even if all 80 men are nabbed. Some men will still want sex with young virgins and pay hundreds of dollars if they could afford it. Some girls will still sell their bodies though ‘escort services’ or to sugar daddies if it gets them what other part-time jobs can’t provide. The Internet will still exist and people will continue to blame it for AIDS and the decline of all our morals. And if all vice sites are shut down because of XXX, there’s always Batam.

XXX is a new breed of SECRET 'agent'

Filed under: 2012, Justice system/Lawsuits, Kids, Sex, Singaporean men, Singaporean women | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Lee Wei Ling doing burpees on planes

Posted on April 22, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘B747 days of flying, keeping fit’, 22 April 2012, article by Lee Wei Ling, Think, Sunday Times

…When I returned to Boston, I would fly from Singapore to Hong Kong, where I would have a layover of about an hour. I would always head for the staircases upon disembarkation, and walk up and down the stairs for as long as I could before I had to re-embark. I would get back into the plane all hot and sweaty, and quickly head for the toilet on board to wash up.

The next sector, Hong Kong to San Francisco, was long. I would usually wake up well before we arrived, and if I felt energetic enough, would do step aerobics on the narrow staircase connecting the lower and upper decks. If I went up and down just one step of the staircase, I would not get an adequate workout. But if I took two steps with each stride, the height was more than 25cm, it would be physically challenging, especially if I used only my legs to power me.

…The San Francisco to Chicago sector is one of those medium-distance flights, long enough to make one tired and bored, but too short for sleeping. Chicago Airport is a huge sprawling affair where one has to often walk a long distance from the arrival to the departure gates. At that point, I would often be too tired to look for a staircase.

Instead, I would get to the boarding area as quickly as I could and simply lie on the carpeted floor. The carpet was invariably thin and the floor hard, but I had no choice. The chairs in boarding areas are often designed with arm-rests, specifically to prevent people from stretching out on them.

…SIA now has all-business class Airbus A-345 flights that go direct from Singapore to Los Angeles or Newark. But alas, these airplanes have only one level and no stairs. And since these non-stop flights seem to go on forever, I would often find myself pacing the aisles or doing burpees at the spaces separating one section of the plane from the other. But burpees involve very unnatural movements and are very exhausting, so I cannot continue the exercise for more than five minutes, leaving me a lot of time to kill but mentally too tired to read.

The retirement of the Boeing 747 in SIA’s fleet reminds me of an earlier period in my life when I was fighting fit. I had an obsession with exercise that enabled my mind to overcome the fatigue my body felt and to push myself to the limit and beyond. Ten years on, SIA has upgraded its airplanes, but my physical fitness has deteriorated. I look back with nostalgia to the days of the 747s, more because of what my body could do rather than for the 747s themselves. I know that ageing is inevitable, but I resent it nevertheless.

I didn’t think it was possible to do burpees on a plane, but with the aid of a little alcohol, it seems you can, according to this ‘burpee’ blog. No doubt the humble burpee is a great cardio workout, but perhaps not so ‘on-the-go’ or discreet like climbing stairs.  With a little luck, the burpee could be the next planking, if only it wasn’t so damn exhausting. It sounds like a great idea for a flash mob, but wouldn’t last a minute to be of any impact. One burpee probably burns as many calories as the entire sequence of the Great Singapore Workout.

Other than on the aisles of planes, some burpee fans have tried to make the routine viral, like doing a few in front of a really old building.

Or EVERYWHERE.

Experts would tell you it’s not a proper burpee unless you end the sequence with a jump and hands raised, and I’m not sure what airline safety rules say on jumping on a plane. Overcoming stares to get the blood flowing on a long-haul flight is admirable, as most passengers, myself included, are inclined to just stand around, get stuff from overhead compartments unnecessarily, or wiggle their toes while watching 3 inflight movies in a row. If I ever saw the urgent need to do at least one burpee, I would pretend to drop a plastic spoon under my seat, get onto the aisle and burpee while retrieving it, with a valid excuse to raise my arms (in victory) too.

Lee Wei Ling’s behaviour around planes and airports may come across as eccentric, to put it nicely, even if for whatever medical reason step aerobics and lying on the floor are as essential for her as eating, though the underlying reason seems to be a ‘resentment’ (a euphemism for ‘fear’ perhaps) towards ageing; something that fellow columnist Sumiko Tan could relate to very well. I don’t know what the latter has been doing to stay in the pink of health, but it can’t be as remotely interesting as a member of a very prominent family in Singapore advocating squat-thrusting exercises in the weirdest places to stave off physical deterioration.

Hell, I feel like doing one now myself.

'Enough is enough! I've had it with these #&!* burpees on this @#%! plane!

Filed under: 2012, Fun and games | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

PM Lee on Facebook is cute

Posted on April 21, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘PM Lee starts Facebook page and it already has thousands of ‘likes’, 21 April 2012, article in Today online.

Some eight hours after launching his official Facebook page and Twitter account yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s site… attracted over 17,000 “likes” as of 11.45pm yesterday.

…The Prime Minister said “many” of his colleagues have been using social media, including Facebook, and had encouraged him to start his own Facebook page. “Having watched them, I have decided to join the fun,” said Mr Lee.

…Mr Lee’s staff will help him maintain his page but the Prime Minister said he will try to post as often as he can and sign off his own posts with his initials. “As a Facebook newbie, I would appreciate your advice, suggestions and, most of all, your patience,” said Mr Lee. “I hope you like (and Like) what you read.”

Where's the sheep?

It’s probably a wise move by our PM to delay entry to Facebook/Twitter, judging by the number of politicians learning the hard way after being flamed online, who would beg to differ that social media is any ‘FUN’ at all.  As much as social media can be a politician’s best friend, it can also destroy your entire career. Some uvuncular levity and ice-breaking emoticons are always good for a start as a FB newbie, but here’s a few lessons for PM Lee to ponder upon whenever he decides to share insights other than what he ‘just had for dinner’.

1. Don’t Facebook or Tweet  while the National Anthem is playing

2. Don’t make jokes at Tin Pei Ling’s expense.

3. Make disclaimers and references upfront when posting ideas that are not entirely yours.

4. Don’t ask Singaporeans to ‘reflect on their actions’.

6. This.

It’s unlikely that trolls would try anything funny on PM’s page, judging by how netizens are being lynch-mobbed, sued or  reported to the police for clicking ‘Post’ or typing ‘LOL’ a bit too hastily. Somewhat of an about-turn by the man, who not so long ago referred to social media as a ‘cowboy town’, and this cautious debut is like a stranger in the ‘Wild West’ stepping into the salon and asking politely for the beverages menu. But as someone who cites ‘tinkering with computers’ as a hobby, Facebook/Twitter was only a matter of time since he last whipped out a handphone to stream video live using a program called Qik during the 2008 National Day Rally.

Savvy. Here’s what people from the Twitterverse think of PM Lee on Facebook/Twitter. Not even Kumar got this kind of wild adulation.

CUTE..with exclamation marks

FUNNY

EXCITING..AND CUTE

To me,  PM Lee’s bringing online intimacy to the next level is neither surprising, cool or cute, though it smacks of an goofy earnestness which may endear to most people (In last year’s GE Facebook chat, he signed off with a TTFN) . Starting a tumblr blog like Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether.

Filed under: 2000s, 2012, Bloggers, Politicians | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Singapore Day an expensive exercise in futility

Posted on April 14, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Thanks, but spending $4m for S’pore Day is too much’, 14 April 2012, ST Forum

(Liang Kaicheng): I AM one of thousands of happy Singaporeans based in the United States who will be making their way by plane, car or bus to New York City today for Singapore Day. But I am also embarrassed to discover that the event will cost $4 million (‘New York to draw 4,000 on S’pore Day’; last Saturday).

Much as I am looking forward to stuffing my face with chicken rice at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, I find it bewildering that the Government is prepared to spend such a considerable sum to woo overseas Singaporeans home and boost the local talent pool.

There may be far better ways to spend $4 million of taxpayers’ money than on a bunch of Singaporeans living abroad, many of whom have their eye on lucrative, prestigious opportunities in their adopted countries and have no plans to return to Singapore in the foreseeable future.

No amount of fried carrot cake, 1980s music or (local TV show character) Barbarella’s preening can pull people away from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, top university professorships, or the myriad other reasons why some Singaporeans choose to live abroad.

If the aim of the event is merely to remind overseas Singaporeans of their home, it may be even more overpriced. I am grateful that the Government has me in its thoughts, but I am also uncomfortable that Singapore Day may inevitably be an expensive exercise in futility.

A similar piece was written on Singapore Day being more of a showcase of local gluttony by Siew Kum Hong in 2007. According to the ex-NMP, National Day Songs were played at the inaugural event in New York, with a ‘singular emphasis on food’, although another Overseas Singaporean (OS) Colin Goh commented that the local fare flown over could already be sampled in New York except for ‘chwee kueh’. With more than a million PRCs living here, I’m surprised no one has thought of a ‘China Day’ in Singapore yet, though it would probably feel just like   ‘Any Other Day’ to most of us.

This year, Zouk’s ‘Mambo night’ is being marketed as something of a uniquely Singaporean past-time, though synchronised gesturing to cheesy 80′s retro music is not that far off from sending in a Great Singapore Workout contingent. It’s like reminding the Spanish about Macarena, though one must admit it’s at least better than launching a mobile National Day Parade at Singapore Day like we used to.

In 2011′s event, Kit Chan was flown to Shanghai to sing ‘Home’ (truly, where know I MUST be). It also featured kampong games like chapteh and five stones, which comes across as an propagandist exercise in inaccuracy rather than ‘futility’ since our kids are too busy swiping iPads or attending weekend enrichment classes to play pick up sticks anymore. In 2008, Melbourne, a NATIONAL SERVICE showcase was presented, featuring ‘various simulators and high-tech training equipment to display the prowess of the armed forces’. Reminding our boys of what they moved overseas to escape from, or what some may be forced to face if they ever return, is a terrible idea regardless of how advanced our laser weaponry is, painting the event with the sour, parasitic tone of a ‘recruitment drive’ rather than a nostalgic funfair. Covert enlistment aside, perhaps the festival is also an annual million-dollar, grovelling, elaborate apology for Goh Chok Tong’s  ‘quitter’ label some years back.

You don’t need to fly the Noose team or Phua Chu Kang to major cities to help Singaporeans ‘RE-CONNECT’ with the local scene. Thanks to the Internet and social media, if I want to see Kit Chan sing ‘Home’ I’ll just Youtube it. If I want to preserve my Singlish I’ll view Mrbrown podcasts or Dr Jia Jia. If I’m the sort who can’t wait to serve NS, I’ll Google Mindef. If I want to keep in touch with friends back home, I’ll Skype, Facebook or Tweet.    Still, the fact that tens of thousands of OS have flocked to Singapore Days suggests that there’ s more to it than just hawker food or multimedia history lessons plucked out of recycled NDP montage video clips. Maybe it’s simply hanging out with people who speak your lingo, with whom you’re guaranteed something common to talk about (lah punctuated no less), nevermind if you’ve never Mambo-Jamboed in your life, or haven’t the faintest inclination to pack your bags. If anything, this annual diaspora bonding may even deter OS from ever returning, given that Singapore Day always seems to oversell itself as a fun, vibrant, dare I say more ‘Singaporean’ , jamboree than the actual Singapore itself.

In my opinion, the OSU should keep it subtle and simple, ditch the NDP songs and ridiculous dancing, the vain attempts to make Singapore or its SAF attractive again, and just rename the awful sounding Singapore Day to ‘Shiok (Food) Festival’. Don’t even attempt to sell Merlion keychains.

Filed under: 2000s, 2011, 2012, Festivals, Hawkers, Local actors, Local food, Money | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

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