Sex and the City-State: A Study of Sexual Discourse in Singaporean Women’s Magazines

Abstract

Singapore's print media now presents frank and open discussions of sexuality, signalling what appears to be a liberating overhaul of the strict moral codes that have restricted media content for decades. The intensely competitive magazine market is leading the charge. This paper examines how magazines such as The Singapore Women's Weekly reframe discourses on sexuality to allow them to operate within Singapore's tightly controlled media system. Drawing from a Foucauldian approach to discourse and censorship, and broader themes of global capitalism and state rule, this paper contends that despite immense pressures to allow the print media and its wealth-generating advertisers a high degree of autonomy in terms of content, Singapore's sexual revolution operates within parameters set by a government keen to strike a balance between maintaining 'traditional' moral values and a more pragmatic approach toward sexuality centred, in part, on attempts to promote 'civic nationalism' and to arrest the declining birth-rate.