THE DISCUSSION

A Crisis of Masculinity? Reflections on Singapore and the United States 
By Eric Thompson

Since the 1990s, various commentators have suggested that men face a “crisis of masculinity” in the wake of feminism and changing gender roles. In this roundtable, we will discuss the idea of a crisis of masculinity, whether it has any substance and what  if anything to do about it. The speaker, Associate Professor Eric C. Thompson of the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore will share reflections on the crisis of masculinity as it plays out in both Singapore and the United States.

What make for good men and good women?: Change and stasis in conceptions of masculinity and femininity in contemporary Singapore  
By Teo You Yenn

The past fifty years or so have seen radical changes in the ways people conceptualize what it is to be women and men. In contemporary Singapore, one would be hard put to find someone who claims that girls should not receive too much education, or that men ought not change diapers. At home, at the workplace, and in public life in general, women and men have both seen an expansion in the roles they may take on, and the identities they can embody as  women and men.

Yet, there are also persistent limits/constraints women and men face as they navigate their ways through various “choices” in life about work and family. This paper focuses on some of these constraints. I argue that narrow definitions about womanhood and manhood exist at the level of, and are perpetuated by, state policies. The state, through various policies around the familial, articulates specific, narrow and differential definitions of what it means to be a Singapore citizen for men and for women.

About the speaker

‘Power Femininity’ and Beauty Advertising  
By Michelle M. Lazar  

 In this presentation, I talk about the articulation of ‘power femininity’, an empowered and/or powerful feminine identity, in contemporary advertisements addressed to young ‘modern’ women in Singapore.  ‘Power femininity’ is part of a global postfeminist discourse, which incorporates feminist signifiers of emancipation and empowerment while at the same time promotes an assumption that feminist struggles are over and women today can ‘have it all’.

The site of analysis for this study is beauty advertising that deals with cosmetics, fragrances, skincare, hair and body management products and services, found in The Straits Times. Beauty advertising represents an interesting site for analysis, as the beauty industry has long been criticised by some (second wave) feminists as oppressive upon women for its promulgation of impossible beauty standards. Yet, some postfeminists have more recently reclaimed beauty practices as pleasurable and empowering for women. As a site of contestation, beauty advertising can be viewed as a productive space for the imbrication of post/feminist signifiers with patriarchal codes of femininity to produce a ‘power femininity’, without apparent contradiction.

In the talk I outline four ways that ‘power femininity’ is produced in beauty advertising, and critically discuss the implications this has for a female consumer identity today.