Kelvin Teo

A Singaporean student who was studying to become a teacher was recently nabbed with child pornography video files on his laptop. He has pleaded guilty to the offense in possession of child pornography and is facing the prospects of jail. In many jurisdictions, possession of child pornography is an offense. For example, the Australian customs may check laptops of incoming travellers for child pornography. A conviction with a fine will be imposed if caught.

As such, the student’s actions triggered a strong response from the public, which are largely negative. Reactions aside, this incident revives an age-old pertinent question – what is the Singapore society’s attitudes towards erotica of a mainstream nature (not child), and by its extension, prostitution?

A good place to start is to have a look at our laws, particularly in the section of our Film’s Act that involves offenses dealing with obscene films. If a person makes or reproduces any obscene film knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the film to be obscene, he can be convicted of a $20,000 to $40,000 fine or a jail term of not more than two years or both. Anyone who brings in any obscene film or having reasonable cause to believe that the film is obscene is deemed guilty of an offense and is liable to a fine of $1,000 for each film imported or a jail term of not more than 12 months or both.

In addition, our authorities banned access to two prominent pornographic sites – YouPorn and Redtube, according to a Reuters report in May 2008. The Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore, which was responsible for the ban, has said that it was enforced in a “symbolic statement” of the country’s societal values. The report quoted Jason Hoong, an MDA official, who commented on the two sites, as saying:”It should be noted that the hardcore pornographic videos posted on these sites are very easily accessible by the young as each video will start streaming for free once a user clicks on the related link.”

The MDA ban mentions two points – our society’s conservative values and the need to protect the young from undesirable elements. Is the reason for the need to protect our young attributed to our society’s conservative values? Is our society conservative to begin with or is it just a concerned conservative few advocating their ideal moral fabric that should be woven into our society? Could it be that it is just a necessary need to protect our young from undesirable elements even if our society isn’t as conservative as what many make it out to be?

Erotica and prostitution in ancient societies

The best way to kick-start this discussion is to begin with the definition of “conservative”. The Oxford online dictionary defines “conservative” as being averse to change or innovation and holding on to traditional values. Thus, we should examine the traditional societies where our forefathers came from since ancient times to analyse whether sex is really considered a taboo during ancient times within the traditional context.

In ancient China, pre-marital sex was forbidden for both genders, and more enforced in girls than boys. Young men’s sexual experimentations were with either prostitutes or household servant girls. However, relics of ancient sex objects found in China did shed some light on the nature of sexual expression dating as far back as the Ming dynasty. Now, making their rounds in exhibitions worldwide, these relics provided an untold insight into China’s sexual history. The exhibits comprised paintings depicting raw sexual intercourse and stone figurines in different sexual positions, and surprisingly, homosexual sex.

A writer who visited the exhibition in Toronto described a figurine that demonstrated both heterosexual and homosexual sex in lurid details – a man is having intercourse with a woman, while another man is having intercourse with the former from behind. James Miller, Associate Professor of Chinese Religion at Queen’s University commented on the exhibition website:” China has a long history of connecting sexual energy to spirituality.

Indeed, the cultivation of sexual energy lies at the heart of a range of “sexual yoga” or “bedroom arts” that have been developed in China for over two thousand years. In ancient China, sexual potency was connected with the quest for immortality.” More surprisingly according to Miller, homosexuality was widely tolerated in ancient China. However, Confucian values required sexual matters to be kept private rather than celebrated publicly. Thus, homosexual men and women are expected to keep their feelings hidden from the public eye.

Those with wealth and power are permitted to have homosexual lovers provided such activities did not interfere with their family obligations. There were even records of Han ministers and emperors’ homosexual trysts.

Much has also been written about the famous floating brothels of Nanking, Swatow and Canton by writers such as Yu Huai, P’an Chih-Heng and Ts’ao Ta-Chang. Known as hua fang (painted boats), they are luxuriously decorated boats where banquets are thrown, atmosphere enlivened by music and dance, and guests stay for the night. Yu Huai left behind a collection of reminiscences of the beautiful and accomplished Nanking girls, calling the quarters where they resided:”Capital of the Immortals of the World of Lust”

Like ancient China, there were records of prostitution in ancient India. The earliest record of prostitution can be found in the Rigveda. The earliest mention of prostitution took the form of an illicit love affair outside wedlock. During the days of barter economy, gifts were offered as payment for sexual services when currency is non-existent. Such relationships took place outside wedlock and are permeated by lust, and are of a non-lasting and temporary duration.

Attitudes to erotica and pornography – conservative or feminist-influenced?

Kenneth Paul Tan, an academic at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy gave an interesting description of a “conservative Singaporean” in a paper entitled Sexing up Singapore published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies – heartlanders who live in mature public housing areas and whose horizons are confined to Singapore. In the same paper, Tan compared the results of surveys of two different generations of Singaporeans carried out at different times in 1995 and the other that was reported in 2002.

An opinion poll in 1995 showed that 67% of the respondents disapproved of pre-marital sex, 66% were against cohabitation, 90% disapproved of extramarital sex and 86% disapproved of homosexuality. Another survey of students showed signs anti-homosexual sentiments, in which 9 out of 10 of the respondents indicated they would be disappointed if their children were homosexuals.

In contrast, the survey that was reported in 2002 showed that young Singaporeans (under the age of 30) were showing signs of liberal attitudes towards divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality. Interestingly, the rate of HIV infections according to the Ministry of Health was 36.8 per million within the population as of 1995. It steadily increased throughout the years to 69.2 in 2002, and 124.0 last year.

It is not known if the two studies surveyed the respondents’ opinions of pornographic materials of the mainstream variety. It is also not known if both surveyed the latter’s views of prostitution, though it can be inferred that the 1995 batch of respondents could disapprove of engaging a prostitute’s services judging by their responses on pre-marital and extramarital sex. Neither is it also known whether the respondent’s views on sex were solicited.

There are parallel views on premarital sex between the 1995 survey and that reflected in ancient Chinese society. However, what made us unique from the ancient Chinese society was our lack of tolerance towards homosexuality in the 1995 survey. What resulted in the intolerance? No one knows for sure. Can we then say we are conservative when we are less tolerant than our forebears towards homosexuality (since we are traditionally more tolerant, coming back the definition of the word)?

It is ironical however, that 2010 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report prepared by the US state department listed Singapore as among the countries that failed to prevent women from being forced into prostitution. It was reported that some women were swindled to coming into Singapore with promises of legitimate employment but forced into the sex trade.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have responded strongly: “The Singapore government is committed to tackling the TIP issue, and our efforts in dealing with this issue have certainly not weakened since last year (2009).” The issue is not so much the hoo-ha over the State Department’s rating, but rather the inference of demand for prostitution services which resulted in high volume human trafficking. Hence, it seems paradoxical that we seem to have a high inferred demand for prostitution services despite our ‘conservative’ assertion. Yet, in the ancient Chinese and Indian societies where our forebears come from, prostitution is quite common place.

In terms of attitudes towards erotica and prostitution, it is worthwhile to examine the feminist philosophical views on both subjects. The main point of feminist philosophers’ contention against erotica is that sexual objectification or pornography violates the moral imperative to treat people as autonomous (exercising free will), rational subjects. The person becomes a body desired by the other, and such is not reciprocated. Thus, the object of desire remains an object, a slave, and is not accorded recognition as a human with desires too.

The feminist argument against prostitution is that the work itself is inherently harmful to the woman. Carole Patemen, a British feminist and political theorist, argued that a prostitute’s work was different from that of other jobs since it is indicative of the inferior socio-political status of women. Pateman viewed people’s bodies and sexual capacities as an integral part of their identity as men and women, therefore a prostitute sells away her womanhood as well as herself. She observed that in patriarchal social orders, men acquire rights to women through formal or informal contracts, i.e. men have a right to sexual relief from women. Such could explain the prostitution phenomenon in patriarchal societies of ancient India and China.

Protecting our young – to abstain or not?

Turning to our young, not too long ago, there was a debate between religious conservatives and liberals on how we should conduct our sexual education curriculum. The religious conservatives prefer sexual abstinence and the liberals, contraceptive methods. A lot of ground is covered on sex education, but little is covered on grappling with pornographic materials especially among our young, an area of concern as highlighted by MDA. Despite the efforts directed at eradicating pornographic materials through site blockages or/and Internet filters, the verdict is that eradicating pornography is futile.

There are other sites capable of reproducing the same pornographic features as the banned ones, and they could still be accessed. The American Academy of Paediatrics explains that abstinence from pornography approaches is a “waste of time” since the “media have become such an important source of information” about sexual activity. It is however recommended that we increase media-literacy in our young so that they can navigate through the sexually-mediated world of our media.

An ending note

It has been argued that our society is “conservative” in nature, which explains our laws’ tough stance on pornography, upholding of penal code 377a which criminalises sex between men and our authority’s pro-activeness in curbing the problem of human trafficking and prostitution through anti-vice raids. Yet, recent surveys showed that young Singaporeans are more liberal in their views on cohabitation, divorce and homosexuality.

It was ironical that the 1995 survey of our ‘conservative’ respondents showed that the latter is less tolerant towards homosexuality unlike the ancient Chinese society where our ancestors come from. Furthermore, an anti-prostitution and anti-pornography position may not be necessarily consistent with a “conservative” society. In patriarchal societies like that of the ancient Chinese society, it is common for men to seek sexual relief from women. Thus, a feminist position could also be consistent with an anti-pornography and anti-prostitution stand.

Lastly, it is not useful to adopt measures to eradicate pornographic materials to prevent our young from accessing them. Such eradication measures cannot completely eradicate all the pornographic materials, and our young will be able to access those that are currently available. It is thus more prudent to increase their level of media literacy so that they can skilfully navigate the sexually-mediated world of our media.