A look at Singapore hostess bars through the lens of Negri and Chakrabarty
University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, UK.
Review
Open Access Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 2024, 07(01), 012–021.
Article DOI: 10.53022/oarjms.2024.7.1.0001
Publication history:
Received on 24 November 2023; revised on 31 December 2023; accepted on 03 January 2024
Abstract:
This article, written in a confessional, autoethnographic style, explores the author’s experiences over a number of years with Singapore hostess bars/pubs. The research method is participant-observation of practices, discourses, pricing models and customer demographics, and knowledge gained from hostesses, bar managers and musicians. The law aspect of the article is critiquing the lack of citizenship rights and marriage rights for foreign workers in Singapore such as pub hostesses and construction workers. It also looks at the working conditions and cultures of the pubs, and describes the alienation and emotional labour involved in delivering heavily racialized and gendered services. Neither Filipina/Vietnamese hostesses nor Europeans have established places within the Singapore citizenship narrative or in government policy, which relies upon the hegemonic CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others) Model. Filipina and Vietnamese pub hostesses do not fit neatly within this model and are hindered by the power of the narrative.
Keywords:
Filipinas; Gender; Hostess bars; Ladies’ drinks; Moral panic; Race and class; Singapore
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Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0