SINGAPORE and KUALA LUMPUR: In recent months local media in both Malaysia and Singapore have reported extensively on the sex scandals and the women at the center of the controversies. Women in both countries have lashed out and told Bikyamasr.com they want to see major changes to how media reports on women and sex in the region. “I find it very disgusting that all the time we pick up a newspaper and it is all about women and their sexual liaisons and little mention of men and their arrogance or violence toward us,” said Kuala Lumpur-based housewife Sherin. Take the headline on AsiaOne.com in early October concerning a Durex condemn report on sexual misadventures in Asia. The headline read “S'pore women '5th most unfaithful in Asia'." Sure, that could be news, but a quick read of the first paragraph of the story delivers the true story that seemed to have been forgotten and left out. Singapore men are the FIRST most unfaithful in Asia, according to the condemn brand's report. Instead of detailing how women might be going outside their relationships after discovering their partners are already finding sexual satisfaction elsewhere, the article delves into the reasons why women cheat. Maybe a woman's body is news and a man's meanderings is not. It shouldn't be and that's the point. Instead, Bikyamasr.com's reporter in Singapore phoned a few psychologists and discovered that, yes, women in Singapore were looking for sexual satisfaction outside their relationships after finding out their partners are cheating on them. “This sort of thing is common here in Singapore because when women find out their husband is cheating on them, they want to also find out why and then often this leads to cheating outside the relationship. It is more a result of male cheating than it is anything to do with women themselves," one psychologist told Bikyamasr.com. But that doesn't make news. Nobody wants to read about male wrongdoing it seems in Southeast Asia and Singapore in particular. The attacks on social media networks directed at Cecilia Sue, the woman who was coerced into giving sexual favors in exchange for contracts, is an example of how Singapore society views women, which is then translated into the media coverage. There was massive name-calling towards Sue last week, with users on Facebook and Twitter referring to her as “whore" or “slut." While women showed their anger, this was reported in no local media outlet. Instead, what was seen was tacit approval of such erroneous and derogatory names. It showed the true colors of how local media reports women's issues and women's rights. If Sue, a woman who claimed she was nearly raped by the former Narcotics chief Ng Boon Gay is being supported in the media as being a “slut" can women's issues ever truly find a place in the mainstream coverage? Doubtful. Instead, what is needed, and let us hope that Singapore women and others across Southeast Asia take notice, is the new media outlets that are sprouting up, such as Free Malaysia Today, Bikyamasr.com and others who do not have to cater to investors who believe they need to sexualize women in order to gain readers. The truth of the matter is women in Southeast Asia have constantly faced a barrage of sexualized reporting and it is time to end it. Women should speak out and find the resources that support their causes, in an equitable manner. While this sexualizing of women is common in the male-run media industry across the globe, nowhere is it as heightened as in Southeast Asia, and Singapore is leading the way.
