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[spiderpig]

Woo. Trying out XJournal right now, because it has pretty awesome tag-remembering features and I have too many tags to actually remember.

Anyway, I am unbelievably tired -- just finished doing research for Dr. G's paper (nearly 3000 words of research for a 1,500 word paper x_x) -- and I have four hours of classes in store for me. It's a warmup y'see, before I plunge into writing that Pamela essay that's due. Tomorrow. At 2pm. What I really want to do now is sleep, have a long nap, curl up in a pile of blankets (or just a mattress would be suffice), sink down into a nice armchair, put my head down on this table -- ANYTHING to get some shut eye.

Well, in anycase, I finished my never-ending Gender paper. I'm quite proud of it so here, let me shove a chunk of it down your throats!

In the twenty-first century, Asia is no longer as frequently misunderstood or unknown for most Westerners. However despite increased contact between both East and West, Asia still remains a mystery for most. With that in mind, we turn to the tumultuous grounds of Southeast Asian gender and how Singapore – as a melting pot of both Eastern and Western influences, adopts and adapts gender ideologies from both spheres. Singapore mixes the exotic ‘oriental’ images of “excess” and “irrationality” with the images of “unmanly men, and hypermasculine icons such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan” (Peletz 2007:1) crossing each other in the mass-media fuelled state. In that sense, much of the stereotypes of the Singaporean man are still heavily gendered and sexed and as Peletz (2007:1) goes on to describe, very much “embodied” by both the state and the public.

Hence I argue that the Singaporean man is marginalized, especially in filmic representation: film studies in general has repeatedly addressed feminine issues but have hardly ever considered how they relate to the masculine. It is not surprising then, that the Singaporean man as spectacle, performance, and what he represents has rarely been taken seriously. Save for Khoo Gaik Cheng’s essay on Asian Masculinity , both the academia and the public have repeatedly ignored the problem of masculinity (Cohan and Hark, 1993:1) in films. Relying on pre-existing academic discourse on gender studies in both the West and Asia, this paper will closely examine the socially accepted idea of ‘manliness’ through five Singapore films (locally produced and directed by Singaporean directors). Three of these films, Mee Pok Man, 12 Storeys and Be With Me were directed by acclaimed director Eric Khoo, who has been well-received locally and abroad. The remaining two films, Army Daze and That’s the Way I Like It have been considered box-office success and hence widely accepted by the public.

Yeah, you're probably snoring by now. I wish I was. I kind of want to write on how restrictive language is in Pamela or something original -- unpack the word "incarceration" and just play with it the whole time. But 1,500 words is rather short to do a full-blown thesis on characters being bound by language or something like that (1,500 is deceptively short. It takes a hell lot of time to write, sadly.) but how do I make it concise. Like poprocks.

'slike attended the Buddhism in Asia (henceforth known as BIA) pre-trip briefing yesterday and to be honest, it feels dodgy. I mean, it's a student-run affair, more so that last year's Japan trip, but still. Dodgy dodgy. I wish there were more friends/Japan people taking part. It seems like a good platform to get started on whatever pseudo-academic career path I have in mind so... yeah. Prof W-B was there (he's on sabbatical wtf) to give a talk and once again proof that Lit Profs are generally more interesting and witty than your average speaker. Or maybe I'm just biased lah.

Okay. Need to pack up and head for my Gender class. Sleeeeeepy. I'm really, absolutely, positively sure that I will fall asleep. Sorely tempted to not go for Dr. G's lecture and just head hope to nap write his paper. I mean, he's been rather happy with my work so far so I want to write a smashing paper.

wtf. Why is iTunes playing a lullaby.