Bukit Batok Video and the Singapore Voyeurism

I have inadvertly caught on more than I wanted to about the Tammy NYP scandal. Besides the usual hoo-ha from upright citizens/religious communities etc, what is quite interesting is that Tammy actually has supporters, fans rooting for her : ''Tammy I support you!'' ''Tammy I'm behind you all the way!''

Is Tammy going to do a Clara Morgane (France's darling porn queen, her 1st sex video Rêveries Exclusives was filmed when she was 19 and it showed her giving head to her boyfriend behind some plants in a street)?

After all, what did Macbeth say? To turn back would be just as difficult as going forth? Well, she could capitalise on her fame or she could lie low and hope that after a while nobody will remember her anymore. After all, how many of you still remember Annabel Chong and her 251-men gangbang, right?

But alas Tammy is already being supplanted by other homemade videos like the Bukit Batok Video. About some couple making out in the Nature (as in some NParks-maintained park, I suppose. I have not seen the video and do not really wish to see it).

And people outside Singapore are talking about all these videos. And I suppose they are marvelling over the fact that :

1. Singaporeans have sex (though often you do wonder);
2. Singaporeans have sex in different places (I personally have not tried anything in the nature, as Singapore has a surprisingly rich flora and fauna that includes fat beetles and huge flying cockroaches, but then when you have to either do it in a HDB flat with your parents' and siblings' prying eyes or pay a hotel room that probably contains the same fauna but not the flora, then the nature may not seem so bad after all);
3. Singaporeans film themselves (just when you start to believe that we were pudique and careful);
4. Singaporeans are frantically talking about them;
5. Other Singaporeans are all trying to get their hands on these videos.

And the last point brings me to my topic for today.

Why are we so kaypo*? Why do we want to watch other people in their amateur videos? People who are probably miles from looking like Tabatha Cash or Rocco Siffredi. Who probably have bodies and sexual parts like we do, and manoeuvres not worth commenting on? And most of all, why are we invading their privacy?

My theory is that pornography being illegal in Singapore, people do not have a real choice over what they get to read and watch in this area. Like everything else, you have good and lousy pornography and over time you learn to enjoy the good ones and ignore the rest. But if you have not much choice, then the No Fish Prawn also Good syndrome will step in and you will be grabing every XXX thing you hear of, and not even knowing why you're going for it.

Like dildos or sexy lingerie, pornographic material is an aid to having better sex (in addition to love and respect for your partner). We do not want to watch underage actors, zoological acts, incestuous acts or badly-filmed movies. We do not want to become dependent on pornography in order to get our own act together or to start believing that women should behave in a certain way or be subject to certain acts (like having sperm shot all over our face) in our own homes. We just want to occasionally watch good-looking and well-endowed professional actors act out our common fantasies and help us add some spice to our daily sex routines. A certain kind of voyeurism but a clear-cut one.

And voyeurism is for both sexes. Geylang is only for men. Voyeurism can be shared by couples. Geylang is between the man and his paid woman.

I remember reading once in an adult blog that there were Singaporeans who organized/attended private orgies in new HDB flats. Both men and women wanted to go beyond conventional experiences (with extended risk of catching STDs and bumping into your boss ha ha).

I have never done anything unconventional where sex is concerned. Though I personally know people who have visited Couple-Exchange Clubs, S&M Clubs and who have participated in private orgies. They are ''normal'' people who were just looking for a different sexual experience. Without breaking laws, often to keep within the boundaries of their fidelities (as in a couple do it together and not behind each other's backs), without abusing unwilling women or sleeping with the underaged.

I personally wouldn't go for any of the above (I always say, ''What if one day my son becomes the President of the country?'' or ''What if you got more than what you bargained for?''), but I do not judge those who do/did (or at least I try not to).

So all of the Tammy NYP, Bukit Batok, Airport Videos and the accompanying rude voyeurism are to me a symptom of a sexually-awakening and at-the-same-time-frustrated Singapore society. All those Tammy ''fans'' either sincerely thanking her for ''showing them the way'' or just congratulating her for doing what they, not ever daring to do the same, would ever do. Or damn it, maybe I was trying to read too much into the whole thing. Maybe everyone is just being themselves i.e. the kaypo, ugly Singaporean, rejoicing that ''this'' happened to ''you''and not to ''me''.

*kaypo = busybody, minding other people's business.