CULTURE-SINGAPORE: No Sex Please, We’re Singaporean

By Kunda Dixit Reprint | | Print |

Kunda Dixit

SINGAPORE, Feb 21 1995 (IPS) - The Singaporean editions of popular glamour magazines are tame by comparison to their western counterparts: no daring semi-nude covers here, the articles are tittilating but safe, the advice and agony columns are wholesome.

But some magazines had been testing the thresholds of how far they can go. And when the February edition of the magazine ‘Cleo’ published an article titled ‘I Married My Rapist’ the Singaporean government said enough is enough.

This week, the Ministry of Information and Arts issued new guidelines for magazines on what they can and cannot print.

“The subject of sex should not be overplayed by local magazines, as they are read by young Singaporeans,” the ministry said in a statement. “Such publications should not make it their aim to use sex to sell copies.”

Singaporeans are used to their government acting like a strict parent and regulating pratically every aspect of their lives. A ban on magazines is nothing new in this country that also prohibits the chewing of gum, has stiff fines for not flushing toilets and regularly spanks naughty teenagers.

Usually, it is the political magazines that get hit. The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review is only allowed restricted circulation without advertisements, and the International Herald Tribune last month felt the government’s wrath for printing a story critical of autocratic Asian regimes.

Not surprisingly, you will not find magazines like Playboy and Penthouse on magazine shelves here. But even the relatively harmless glamour magazine Cosmopolitan has been banned for a decade now, alledgedly for promoting sexual permissiveness.

Two years ago, an issue of the Singaporean edition of ‘Marie Claire’ was banned for writing about extra-marital sex.

The new guidelines from the Ministry of Information and the Arts pertain mainly to sex-related stories. Out: articles that “promote” homosexuality, casual and extra-marital sex. Also out: write-ups that treat single motherhood and multiple-sex liaisons as normal.

As its citizens become more affluent, the Singaporean government has been trying to prevent what they see as moral erosion and to uphold traditional family values. It has been especially critical of western values creeping in through cable television and periodicals which it says are threatening bed-rock Asian mores.

A new law passed last year makes it almost impossible for single mothers to apply for a government apartment. (MORE)

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