Where forth art thou?: Superband: What values are we promoting?

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Superband: What values are we promoting?

Like many singaporeans, I was taken aback when MICA (Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts) chose to respond so swiftly to offer critique on Mr Brown's article in the "Today" newspaper not too long ago. The lesson to be learnt from the incident is that the mainstream media has a crucial role to play in influencing Singaporeans and should be responsible for the messages (hidden/intentional or otherwise) it sends out.

That was why I was caught by surprise when I tuned in to the "Superband" finals last night.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister For Community Development, Youth & Sports and Second Minister For Information, Communications And The Arts (MICA) was the guest of honour for the show which was broadcasted "live" via Channel U. I can't be sure the exact number of people tuning in to the show but I reckon it was ALOT, judging from the hype about this show on the internet.

Now there was nothing unusual about Dr V. Balakrishnan's presence. What I found unusual is that he has no issues over this:


There was a heated debate in the forums about this issue but apparently, MICA is not as concerned about a male celebrity judge crossdressing as a female in a show that was watched by so many Singaporeans as it is about an article that a blogger wrote in the national newspaper.

What kind of values/messages are we promoting/conveying, especially to the highly impressionable teenagers watching the show?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

cq cmi

Sophia said...

Err, just my humble opinion -

Teenagers will feel like their dream could be fulfilled just like those competitors whom participated and had fans out of it.

Playing music in front of a large audience can be a kind of enjoyment too and listening to music played by people, is also a kind of enjoyment!

As for the crossdressing issue, hmm..im not sure about that.

Cheers & V. Peace.

Anonymous said...

PAP has always tolerated drags. Kumar is a well-known example.

MICA just doesn't want anti-PAP dissent or foreign media that 'bad mouths' (i.e tell the less than rosy truth about) Singapore.

Anyway, local shows, especially the clones of reality/singing shows, are just dumb. Going out or going online are better things to do.

Anonymous said...

Why not?
Let him be if he thinks he's pretty in that.

Anonymous said...

kumar is CONSISTENT.
This guy.. erm.. girl.. erm.. whatever is just CONFUSED!

Anonymous said...

he/she should just stick to one image.. if he wants to be a female then go ahead and be one
dont dress male 3/4 of the time and female 1/4 of the time it just aint right

somemore just 7th month
want to scare ppl issit??

Anonymous said...

meh cross dress? its only a slighly more extreme j-rock style dressing. feminine features n some make up to look doll like is not unusual. Contrary to popular belief, i don't think they current younger generation of youngers/teens will think of a dragqueen/any reference of cross dressing when they saw him. at least i didn;t :P

Anonymous said...

Impressionable young minds will learn that in today's society it is acceptable to dress in whichever way you please.

Leave your homophobia at the door, please.

Cre8tivesparks said...

Agree with the previous 2 posts totally. Such dressing is merely a personal statement to express his individuality. A quick browse at the J-rock artistes out there will tell you this is NOT cross-dressing.

And with the internet being such a readily available media, surely viewers should practise viewer discrimination and judge as to what is right and what is wrong, even when watching programmes on national tv.

The world is as such, complicated as it is. Why impose rules and restrictions to create an artificial society that is far from reality? Even if CQ is attempting to cross-dress, what is so wrong with the 'values/messages' that you think are being conveyed? (IMHO, there wasn't any.)

Viewers and teenagers alike will have to accept that cross-dressers are part of our society, even if they may be a minority. Instead of shooting off about the 'values' that it may be promoting, which I do not think there is, why not spend more time thinking of other meaningful topics to jack up your readership... or add a few more annoying money-making pop-up ads of yours.

P.S Isn't it kind of contradicting that you previously posted Royston's short 'Cut' when you seem to feel that this topic is worthy of posting?

Anonymous said...

That was kinda homophobic and ignorant...

It's the 80's disco/visual rock look. Plus Chong Qing doesn't have a gay image...

Please, if David Gan can be on TV, what's with poofy hair?

And the government has already said that they will NOT be anti-gay.

XLX, such a disappointing, close-minded post from you.

Shen Ting said...

In the first place, it has already been reported that Mediacorp chooses his various images for him, ie it's not his choice.

XLX, you are a journalist, this was reported in the newspapers and you are not aware of it?

Disappointing posts recently.

Anonymous said...

Basically it is a post that is posted online for discussion. And people are discussing it. And people learnt from it.

So please tell, what's so disappointing about it?