Our
Singapore Happenings
Saturday,
23rd November 2013
The Purple Light
Saga: The Dark Reality and the Work Ahead
Singapore’s gender equality advocacy
group for women – AWARE recently raised their concerns with a marching song,
“Purple Light” that is sung by NS men which contained the verse:
"Booking
out, see my girlfriend
Saw
her with another man
Kill
the man, rape my girlfriend
With
my rifle and my buddy and me."
According
to their Facebook post, AWARE was “troubled that NSmen were bonding over
misogynist lyrics about committing sexual violence against women.” This led to
MINDEF and the SAF halting the singing of the above lyrics though the song is
not banned as the original lyrics do not contain any element of misogyny. This
drew heated views from both camps with some strongly opposing and others
applauding the decision.
Some may argue that it is merely a song
to lift the spirit of soldiers during trying times or that these are merely
words to a song and that soldiers would be able to differentiate right from
wrong in real-life situations. But the fact remains that if our society can
treat something as serious as rape so lightly, I think there is something
seriously wrong with our social and moral values. If anything, this reflection
of public sentiments shows how deeply entrenched sexism and misogyny is in
Singapore. One may write it off as merely a song, but it is a known fact that
mindless repetition of an idea in a song may subconsciously desensitize us to
the concept of rape and misogyny. Thus, it shouldn’t be taken lightly in any
way.
In addition, if these lyrics were not
banned and allowed to be sung by NSmen and NSFs alike, we are essentially normalizing
misogyny in our society, which is an extremely dangerous line to thread on. If
we as a society can normalise such immoral behaviour it shows our foundation
for what we stand for as a society is shaky or that we are uncritical and
unthinking. This creates a slippery slope where we take such discrimination
towards women as a norm and condone more of such behaviours.
Really
a victory?
AWARE may have perceived MINDEF’s ban
on the lyrics a win for them but have they really furthered their cause for
gender equality for women? I don’t think so.
Firstly and most importantly, by
banning the lyrics to the song, it does nothing to solve the root cause of the
issue: The inherent misogyny mind-set of these individuals. By banning the
song, these individuals would be unhappy with the way AWARE has forced their
agenda upon NSmen and may even ignite more misogyny sentiments and behaviours
than before. Servicemen may even out rightly sing the now-banned lyrics to
prove their point that a women advocacy group has no right to meddle with the
affairs of the SAF – a mainly male dominated force.
Secondly, the way AWARE has phrased
their Facebook message about the announcement of the ban led people to wonder
their main motive for raising the concern.
As
quoted from their message: “And now we have excellent news: MINDEF and SAF have
confirmed that they took steps to investigate. They will "immediately
halt" the singing of these lyrics, which they describe as "contrary to
the values of [their] organisation".It's really encouraging that MINDEF
and SAF are prepared to listen to feedback, recognise this as an issue and take
action on it. Thumbs up!”
The
message came across nothing less than “gloating” which led to many to question
if AWARE is really committed to making progress on gender equality or more
concerned with generating headlines and advancing their public position on
issues.
A
Bottom-up Approach
Instead of being so caught-up over
this trivial issue of banning the lyrics to the song, AWARE could have taken a
step back and look at the big picture. Instead of using a top down approach (as
in this case) of promoting gender equality, which obviously back-fired, could
they have taken a bottom up approach instead?
For one, AWARE could have easily
started a study to understand the root cause of such misogyny mind-set present
in Singapore and organise open dialogues and discussions on how to move forward
with such issues. Such open engagements are healthy as it invites the
population to question and assess their views on women equality which they may
have never thought about. But with the above actions, they may have well closed
the door for discussions with these hard-core critics.
In addition, AWARE could partner up
with schools to explore how they could include character building and moral
education to inculcate the right values to our next generation. Educating our
next generation is the way to go if we want to nip the problem in the bud. In
fact, if AWARE can change the mind-set of the public to see the importance of
gender equality, then we don’t even have to worry about the alteration of
lyrics to songs like “Purple Light”. The change would then be organic; truly
from the bottom up.
Overall, the banning of the lyrics is
a symbolic move in the right direction but AWARE has missed the point entirely.
But this issue has shed light on a darker side of our society - that sexist or
misogynistic attitudes are indeed prevalent. Indeed, AWARE has its work cut out
for them ahead.
--THE END--
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