AN EPISTEMOLOGY FROM THE CLOSET : A QUEER ARCHIVAL PRACTICE AND HISTORY OF GENDERED PERFORMANCE IN SINGAPORE’S OFFICER CADET SCHOOL
M.A Thesis and Research
This thesis introduces a methodology in which we might be able to envision queer archives built around desire, affect, memory, and sexual fantasy. In light of Section 377A being repealed, how might archives be different if obscenity was introduced back into the archive? I construct an affective, sticky archive of queer history centered around the experiences of queer cisgender men, as well as transgender and non-binary individuals in Singapore from 1990 to the present day who have undergone mandatory National Service (NS) military conscription: a pivotal experience that denotes the change from “boy” to “man.” I specifically focus on men who score high on fitness and intelligence tests and get accepted into the Officer Cadet School (OCS). As part of OCS, enlistees are given specific-coloured singlets or tank tops that denote their class and rank over other individuals who did not make it into OCS. Within the cultural fabric of Singapore’s internet space, this has become the topic of sexual fetish for queer people, being heavily circulated on internet forums, pornography, and the resale marketplace. I “cruise” the internet to find the archive that is tender and wishes to be seen and loved. These include grassroots queer oral history projects as well as discussion posts and sexual fantasy/stories on internet forums about OCS, NS, and sexual experiences during and after NS. The OCS singlet becomes a method to think through masculinity, colonialism, nationalism, sexual racism, and gender performance in Singapore. In closing, I expand the practice of history through Elizabeth Freeman’s reparative notion of erotohistoriography, and what we consider “historical” through thinking of cruising and the act of sexual fantasy writing as not ahistorical, but rather as, reparative of trauma, emotion, as dreaming of a queer future, and as a way of demarcating queer existence in Singapore.
RESEARCH APPROACHES
This thesis introduces a methodology in which we might be able to envision queer archives built around desire, affect, memory, and sexual fantasy. In light of Section 377A being repealed, how might archives be different if obscenity was introduced back into the archive? I construct an affective, sticky archive of queer history centered around the experiences of queer cisgender men, as well as transgender and non-binary individuals in Singapore from 1990 to the present day who have undergone mandatory National Service (NS) military conscription: a pivotal experience that denotes the change from “boy” to “man.” I specifically focus on men who score high on fitness and intelligence tests and get accepted into the Officer Cadet School (OCS). As part of OCS, enlistees are given specific-coloured singlets or tank tops that denote their class and rank over other individuals who did not make it into OCS. Within the cultural fabric of Singapore’s internet space, this has become the topic of sexual fetish for queer people, being heavily circulated on internet forums, pornography, and the resale marketplace.
I “cruise” the internet to find the archive that is tender and wishes to be seen and loved. These include grassroots queer oral history projects as well as discussion posts and sexual fantasy/stories on internet forums about OCS, NS, and sexual experiences during and after NS. The OCS singlet becomes a method to think through masculinity, colonialism, nationalism, sexual racism, and gender performance in Singapore. In closing, I expand the practice of history through Elizabeth Freeman’s reparative notion of erotohistoriography, and what we consider “historical” through thinking of cruising and the act of sexual fantasy writing as not ahistorical, but rather as, reparative of trauma, emotion, as dreaming of a queer future, and as a way of demarcating queer existence in Singapore.
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER BREAKDOWN
TEXTURIZING THE OCS SINGLET IN SINGAPORE: MEDIA ARCHIVES OF AFFECT
Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for thinking about how the OCS singlet has evolved alongside Singaporean popular culture through a historical look at the formation of OCS in Singapore's postwar history. I bring together popular media and political rhetoric of the idealized "Singapore man" in relation to Lee Kuan Yew's rhetoric. I also emplace the OCS singlet in relation to OCS's strict guidelines for who gets to be in OCS and the physical component of being able to don on the singlet. Finally, I begin an exploration into the psychic affect that men inscribe onto the OCS singlet through their resale online and the "additive value" that comes from a used singlet that has sweat or other bodily fluids on them.
A “WORN IN” ORAL HISTORY AND “CRUISING” OF SINGAPORE’S NATIONAL SERVICE AND OCS
Chapter 2 incorporates the oral histories of queer, trans, and non-binary Singaporeans who went through the National Service (NS) system. Using oral histories found on Singapore Queer Oral History Archive, I parse together a history of OCS and NS that centers the affective and often-times traumatic experience of being put through NS which promotes a standardized notion of masculinity for the sake of nationalism. I chart vignettes of individuals' experiences from enlistment to experiences during and after NS to better consider how OCS has been socialized and discussed by queer Singaporeans as well as to provide a counterpoint to the argument that fetish is nominally about pleasure and pleasure only. Examination of these experiences allows for us to map the complexity of emotions that myriad of queer Singaporeans have regarding NS and the condition of the body and spirit as it pertains to everyday queer life.
WEAVING ARCHIVES: BLOWING WINDS FORUM AS AUTOARCHIVE
Chapter 3 uses Blowing Wind Forum (BWF) as a found archive. BWF is an online gay forum that was created in 1997 for gay Singaporeans to chat, mingle, find community, and to organize sexual encounters within the anonymity of the internet. For much of its history, it was a private group that required a membership access and in recent years has become “unlocked” for more people to engage with. I use BWF as an archival source to track changes in how the singlet has been discussed by Singaporeans but also to see how memories and thoughts of desire, intimacy, and sex are written online on an internet forum. On BWF, you will find people looking to have sex, people asking questions on queer health, discussion posts about kinks, stories about queer experiences or coming out, as well as sexual fantasy writing. What comes out of reading about the commentary on the site provides us with a vantage point in which we might understand how gay Singaporeans perceive the singlet as something that they wear during NS as well as how they wear it after serving in the military. In one comment thread, a commentator talks about the memories that come up when they think about their OCS singlet, that it holds memories of hard work as well as when they wear it, they feel a sense of comfort and confidence. There is also an excitement that comes with seeing someone else wearing it. Given my points about the nature of masculinity and the OCS singlet in earlier part of this thesis, we may characterize this excitement over seeing the OCS singlet as a desire of normative masculinity.
