‘Just put it in perspective’: the perception of sexual voyeurism and violence in Singapore evaluated through Facebook comments

ABSTRACT

There is scant research about sexual violence and attitudes towards it in Singapore. This study seeks to understand if Singapore has a rape-supportive culture, by examining how sexual violence is conceptualized, including the rising phenomenon of technology-enabled sexual violence. Facebook comments in response to mainstream media reporting of a well-known case of sexual voyeurism in 2019 were analysed. The data suggest that gender role expectations create an environment in which sexual violence is enabled and male perpetrators are absolved, and in which women are blamed for failing to avoid victimization. Gendered expectations also shape normative understandings of sexual behaviours, though the digital elements of voyeurism complicate understandings of violence and harm, inviting conceptualization of violence that goes beyond the element of physical contact. Commentators who resisted gender norms and scripts discussed violence in terms of interference with one's autonomy. Generally though, the frames of reference discovered in this analysis drew heavily on state norms and narratives and it is the state that can play a critical role in shifting mindsets to combat sexual violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• sexual violence
• voyeurism
• Singapore
• social media
• technology-enabled sexual violence

Acknowledgments

This article had its genesis in my MA thesis at the University of Sussex. I am grateful to my colleagues for their constructive comments, the three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback, and the editors for their important work. For any remaining fault, the responsibility is mine alone.

Declaration of interest statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1. The IVAWS was developed to enable more reliable assessments of violence against women that could be compared internationally.

2. AWARE is Singapore’s most prominent gender equality advocacy organization.

3. Singapore’s total population is 5.7 million. (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2020)

4. The other dimensions are using technology to enable unwanted sexual experiences and for sexual harassment.

5. Creepshots ‘focus[] on women’s clothed bodies [and] are sexually suggestive rather than sexually explicit’ (Waling, 2017).

6. The corresponding figures for the Straits Times (Singapore’s national broadsheet) and Today (a small digital newspaper also under Mediacorp) were 1.4 m and 898,000 respectively. This also outstripped CNA’s Twitter and Instagram following, at 961,000 and 280,000 respectively.

7. These are ‘like’, ‘anger’, ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘sad’ and ‘wow’.

8. 11% of comments against gender norms simply indicated agreement with other commentators using phrases like ‘yes, exactly’, without detailing an argument.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Tan

Sarah Tan Ning is an independent researcher with a keen interest in social issues and the ways gender interacts with other structures to shape meaning and experience. She is especially invested in growing literature on under-researched issues and societies, such as sexual violence in her native Singapore and gender performance in digital Asian societies. She completed her Master of Arts in Gender Studies (Distinction) at the University of Sussex.