Beyond The Male Gaze: Seeking Out New Terrains For Malaysian Feminist Practise

Abstract

After a day's classes, the unsuspecting undergraduate of the University of Singapore (in the mid 1960's) heads towards Nassim Road where she will catch a bus. As she strolls past the all-male university college, Rames Hall, by the second or third window of BLOCK B directly above her, a guttural shriek pierces the air in her direction. Then comes within minutes a whole chorus of "WOMAN! WOOMAAN! WOOOMAAAN! WOOOOMAAAN!" ringing out in rising decibels of mocked sensuality as the red-faced, toe-transfixed girl traverses a whole fifty metres to Block A. There she faces another excruciating fifty metres of the collective visual and verbal penetration of a precocious male psyche manifesting itself in a remarkable uniformity of expression which sweeps within its ambit even the least libidinous of the collegians.