I am woman, hear me roar
Women artistes feature strongly at the Esplanade. But whether their presence
is a sign of the male-dominated arts world is still a controversy
By Tan Shzr Ee
EVENINGS at the Esplanade - Theatres On The Bay are turning into Girls'
Nights Out.
GENDER DEBATE: While there are more acts at the Esplanade featuring a strong
female presence, including Cabaret: A Single Woman, these women are still
seen mainly through a man's eyes. So the debate rages on: Are women
performing in their own right, or is it still a man's world?
Females in party gear are not just trotting out for evenings of culture down
by 'The Durians', but real and imaginary women are conquering the stage, too.
The three commissioned works for the centre's Opening Festival were
unabashedly themed on women.
Boi Sakti's Reminiscing The Moon looked at the suffering of women in Asia
through beautiful exotica, while the Singapore Repertory Theatre told an
alternative life story of the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Forbidden City.
The Singapore Chinese Orchestra's bombastic reworking of the Marco Polo
myth was uplifted, musically, by soprano Wu Bixia, who played a Mongolian
princess.
Impresario Robert Liew, director of Arts Management Associates, finds the
'trend' encouraging.
'What is remarkable is that the roles played by the women here are so broad,
ranging from solo performers to oppressed women,' he says.
There were seven other acts with a strong female presence, including Cabaret:
A Single Woman, Nupi (Woman), and divas Jessye Norman and Cesaria Evora.
But Esplanade programming manager Geoff Street says the female theme was
entirely 'accidental', although his team of four men and six women were
pleasantly surprised when they discovered it.
'We did think of talking about it outright in a press conference, but we
didn't want it to sound as if it was a deliberate programming strategy,'
he says.
'It's the issue of letting a theme emerge from programming, rather than
coming out with a theme and restricting yourself which may in fact, hold
you back.'
As Esplanade director of marketing communications Carolyn Tay says: 'We've
always believed in artistic standards first. Within the programme template,
we still want to have the diversity and accessibility.'
SELLING A SHOW WITH SEXY WOMEN
BUT critics also wonder if this reflection of the gender issue in the arts
is also symptomatic of a long-running male bias: The women seen on stage are
still portrayed through the eyes of men.
Professor Sue-Ellen Case of the University of California, Los Angeles School
Of Theater, Film and Television, who has been following the theatre scene in
Singapore, asks the age-old question: 'Where are the women directors,
composers and playwrights?
'The woman as dancer and singer is nothing new - just like nudes in the
art world. They are still subject to the directives of men.'
While some shows, like Cabaret, took feminist issues gently - but not
overtly - to the stage, others like Raise The Red Lantern and Forbidden
City had women languish in the predictability of the feudal past.
'The woman may be the star, but she is still painted as a sufferer
and the oppressed,' says Prof Case. 'It's insidious because it's disguised
as if it's progressive.'
Composer John Sharpley, a regular Esplanade festival goer, wonders if this
is sometimes a case of image and advertising.
'It's easier to sell a show with a picture of a sexy woman than with a
handsome man,' he says.
'It's obvious why you'd use female dancers in publicity shots of Reminiscing
The Moon, or Wu Bixia in Marco Polo.'
Indeed, the politics of representation hint of a deeper game.
While the accidental theme of women in the Esplanade festival has 'jumped
out' at both programmers and audiences, closer analysis reveals that the
balance is actually tipped in favour of men.
A count of performing stars billed by name in the Esplanade programme
booklet puts the ratio roughly at three men to two women.
Perhaps women are too often expected to be under-represented, so that when
they do come into the limelight, they are suddenly noticed.
Ms Tisa Ng, president of the Association Of Women For Action & Research
(Aware), points out parallels in the political world: that the few women
achievers in Singapore are always highlighted as if they were proof of
women having arrived in society, despite contrary statistical evidence.
'Their presence and contribution is always disproportionately more than
their representation,' she says. 'Think how much more we will be able to
do, if appropriately represented.'
HAVING THE UPPER HAND
TO BE sure, there are women who also know how to play the game of sexual
representation and stereotype well.
Singer Kit Chan, who commanded a substantial portion of the budget for the
large-scale project, Forbidden City, as her fee, and opera star Jessye
Norman, who regularly commands six-figure fees, would surely have the last
laugh over men.
But more interesting than looking at women as objects of sexual representation
- whether as Dragon Lady, Opera Diva or World Music Earth Mother - is
observing women as non-sexual objects.
The mere remarkability of Norman, for example, is the fact that she is a
successful black singer in a world dominated by white artistes, rather
than that she is female.
Dancer-choreographer Kuo Jing Hong also pushed the gender-equality envelope
in taking the two female forms in her Esplanade offering, Silent Song, as
sexless Teletubby 'bodies' playing off each other's tensions.
Then there was Mongolian singer Urna, who simply sang as a 'singer', defying
all stereotypes in the space allotted to her as a non-Western, non-Chinese,
non-pop and non-male performer to deliver a programme of unpretentious
integrity.
Ultimately, the so-called surfacing of women in the Esplanade festival does
not add anything to the debate on both the Esplanade's programming directives, as well as the place of women in the Singapore arts scene.
Prof Case says: 'We're always talking about women's rights in the arts.
'But the day when gender equality has been achieved is when it is no longer
an issue and we shouldn't even be writing about it.'
Which brings one to the final, sweet irony: For all the many male
protagonists who may be helming arts companies in Singapore, arts
journalists and reviewers at the newspapers - The Straits Times,
Lianhe Zaobao, Business Times and Today - form a strong female majority.
And this is a totally accidental finding, too.
--
Sabine/duffy陳潔儀虛擬世界三連發
批踢踢實業坊telnet://ptt.cc 等了又等●唯有陳潔儀KITCHAN版
就是陳潔儀！Yahoo!奇摩家族http://tw.club.yahoo.com/clubs/KITCHAN
Lonesome Dreamer Theatre 有你愛過Kithttp://www.kitchan.twmail.cc
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 219.68.15.233