Why foreign brides are hot, while local brides are not?  It was screaming in the headline of the Sunday Times, 1 October 2006.  One will be forgiven to think it's about male ego.  I thought the official media is ready to break from it's SMS model.  But suspicion is strong that this article serves to further entrench the ugly SMS impression, when I notice that the picture of the groom and bride are both asians.

 

The agenda was apparent from the beginning.  The Singaporean marrying a foreign bride characterised with a picture of a (Asian - Asian) Singaporean male, with a Vietnamese bride.  And facing the article, is an apologistic article featuring an Ang Mo with a (Caucasian - Asian) Singaporean female to pander to "Singapore men just don't get it" stereotype we have seen for ages.

 

The sharpest comparative points used by the reporter, is the Singaporean male wants and needs a "more demure and accommodating" female, while the Ang Mo "does not want a demure woman".  It seemed more like an article to highlight Singaporean males as "mummy's boy" who cannot stand up to strong women with views.  Those interviewed in the Singaporean male section are mostly those who "live with my parents and two sisters in our four-room HDB flat".  Their spouses' are almost always the Vietnamese or Chinese "brides-for sale", and while there are marriages registered overseas for Singaporean females, to explain for the lower number of Singaporean females with foreign spouses, Singaporean males must exclusively register their marriages in Singapore.  Strange.  I thought I am seeing more Asian males with Caucasian females on the streets these days, it should not be difficult getting quotes from them, especially when we have celebrities like Adrian Pang and Minister Mah Bow Tan who have foreign (Caucasian) spouses.

 

Why this need to entrench the SMS sydrome?  I seem to sense a sense of insecurity in a certain group of females in Singapore, needing to assure themselves (and us along the way) that they are not inferior.

 

Maybe I shouldn't, but in an unrelated article in the Newpaper, 1 October 2006, page 20-21 titled "Chilli-Hot Triangle", I quote the "make yourself a victim - exaggerate, make yourself depressed and you can get anything."  The quote is from a woman on gullible British public.  But this may be the psychographic protrayal of the Singaporean female "victims" unwanted by "chavinistic", "insecure" and "lousier" male counterparts.

 

 

Looking beyond the newspapers, we see only Asian females paired with Caucasian males on practically all local magazines and posters.  And nobody even realises that it's such a racist statement.  I am not seeking for all magazines to go on a 180 degree (360 and you go back to square one) change and adopt the male "chavinistic" Asian male - Caucasian female pair-up, but hey, alternative voices gives your magazine the unique selling point.  Moreover, it's not a simply made up (oops SMU?) trend, it's just Asian (Singaporean Chinese?) female pride in denial.