Singapore FHM: State Values and the Construction of Singaporean Masculinity in a Syndicated Men's Magazine

Abstract

Transnational magazines have enjoyed enormous success with readers in Singapore in recent years. But what hurdles are faced by these syndicated magazines as they attempt to enter global markets? This article explores the difficulties of meeting audience demands while obeying strictly monitored rules set down by the state. Drawing from initial research into women's lifestyle magazines, this article turns to men's syndicated lifestyle magazines, in particular the controversial Singapore FHM, the first, and most popular, “lad's mag” to enter Singapore. By way of a visual and discourse analysis, this article examines the way the magazine constructs a particular view of masculinity in order to reflect the ideals of the Singaporean male. Despite a change of ownership from the UK-based Emap group to the locally-owned MediaCorp Publishing, few visible changes occurred in the magazine. Fears that the magazine's sexually-related content would be toned down with local ownership proved to be unfounded. This article suggests that Singapore FHM has subtly shifted Western notions of masculinity to encompass the new global masculinity of urban, professional, Singaporean males.

Keywords:

• Singapore
• lifestyle magazines
• masculinity
• State control
• syndication
• print media

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Dr Kelly Farrell and Dr Brigid Magner for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. The term “lad's mag” (or “lad mag”) signals a point of departure from the arguably more mature approach of “men's magazines” such as Esquire, GQ or even Playboy. The term reinforces the UK origins of the genre (or subgenre) and has been in popular use since the early 1990s (Nixon, 1996; Edwards, 1997; Stevenson et al., 2000; Beynon, 2002). As Edwards (1997, p. 82) has noted, these magazines began with a notable shift from the construction of a “new man” who was “caring and sharing” (today's “metrosexual”) to the “new lad” who was proudly “selfish, loutish and inconsiderate”.

2. FHM is now published in 31 countries. As well as Singapore, it appears across Asia in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand and Malaysia. See publisher information at: http://www.fhm-international.com/. Maxim“has a presence” in 45 countries, with editions in 32 different markets, including China, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. However, at the time of writing, SPH Magazines had divested itself of the Maxim brand, with SPH Magazines attributing the closure following its December 2008 issue to “changing market trends” and “declining readership of lad mags” (Media, 26 October 2008). Available at http://www.brandrepublic.asia/Media/searcharticle/2008_10/Congested-market-sees-Maxim-close/33112, accessed 10 June 2009. In 2008, previous editor of Maxim and a former FHM editor, Dylan Tan quickly joined, then left, new locally-produced magazine Playeur, published by Singapore's newest publishing house, Viscion Media Group. See ‘Playeur Editor Leaves the Game’, Marketing-interactive.com, 24 March 2008. Available at http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/5639, accessed 10 June 2009.

3. While the banning of the magazine in its (localised) infancy may have sounded its death knell, it is not the only transnational publication to have suffered such a fate. An AFP (2004) news report stated that Cosmopolitan was “banned in Singapore for more than 20 years for allegedly espousing extreme liberal values”.

4. PM Lee's claim to Singaporean nationality was based on his position as a “half Peranakan Chinese, middle-class English-colonial-educated” man (G.C. Khoo, 2004, p. 2). Heng and Devan (1992, p. 350) write of Lee's “fantasy of self-regenerating fatherhood and patriarchal power … inexhaustibly reproducing its own image through the pliant, tractable conduit of female anatomy”.

5. Lee Kuan Yew often used the term “OB” when referring to activities seen as against the national interest.

6. Nixon (2003, p. 166) suggests that “[i]t was the cultural proximity of these practitioners to and the investment in the codes of laddishness that drove the appropriation and deployment of the idioms of the ‘new lad’ in marketing to young men”.

7. See the Renaissance City Report (MITA, 2000). Ever mindful of Singapore's place in the region, the report maintains that “the Renaissance Singaporean is attuned to his [sic] Asian roots and heritage” (MITA, 2000, p. 39).

8. For further discussion of Asian values in the Singaporean context, see Yue (2006), Chua (1999), Brown (2000) and Tan (2007).

9. Wong (2001, p. 125) contends that “[b]ecause Singapore's cultural difference is based supposedly on Asian values, Western media TNCs [Transnational Corporations] are compelled to seek out joint ventures with Singaporeans to better cater their programming to Singaporeans and other Southeast/East Asian audiences”.

10. For example, an MDA statement following Cosmopolitan's return to the marketplace noted that the lifting of the ban was “in line with calls from the public for greater choice in media content” (emphasis added) (AFP, 2004).

11. While FHM's figure of 40,000 sales per issue (and estimation of readership) is supported by independent auditing company MCS, and its masthead claims that it is “Singapore's best-selling men's magazine”, in 2007 Maxim was claiming monthly sales of 45,000 (www.sph.com.sg/magazine/maxim.html, accessed 22 October 2007) and NewMan of 18,000 (www.mcs.com.sg/reports.html, accessed 22 October 2007).

12. Khoo and Karan's (2007) preliminary study of FHM in Singapore uses a content analysis based (in part) on various categories of undress found in images, under the terms “demure dress”, “suggestive dress”, “partially clad” and “nudity”.

13. See the FHM website for covers of issues from the previous 12 months: http://www.fhm.com.sg/girls/index.asp.

14. The rule of thirds suggests dividing an image into nine evenly spaced “thirds” by using intersecting lines. This rule suggests that viewers' eyes are drawn to the intersecting points of the grid, usually toward the mid to top right-hand side of the image.

15. This was a reference to Watts' role opposite the “big and hairy” King Kong in the forthcoming movie remake King Kong (dir. Peter Jackson, 2005).

16. This echoes the claim that Chinese masculinity is defined by a friction between the wu[warrior] and the wen[cultured] man. See Louie (2002) or Raphal (1992).

17. See the FHM website for covers of issues from the previous 12 months: http://www.fhm.com.sg/girls/index.asp.

18. All Singaporean citizens or permanent residents over the age of 15 must hold a National Registration Identity Card (IC), which contains not only the holder's name, date of birth and other details, but also the code C, M, I or O to designate one's race.

19. See Louie (2002) and Ty and Goellnicht (2004).

20. In Heng and Devan's view this non-appearance fits with wider notions of the “non-economic” Malay and Indian citizens in Singapore, noted for their “earthy sexuality, putative garrulousness, laziness, emotional indulgence, or other distressing irrationality [that] conform to reprobate stereotypes” (1992, p. 347).

21. Although the Asian values debate peaked in the 1990s with former PM Lee Kuan Yew (reiterated by his Malaysian counterpart Dr Mahathir Mohamad), these are still concepts that feature heavily in the Confucian underpinnings of Singaporean society.