Poet Marylyn Tan and scholar Khoo Ying Hooi spoke about censorship of LGBTQIA+ topics at the Berlin International Literature Festival.
Poet and author Marylyn Tan Photo: Marilyn Tan
Brainwashing is like a remote-controlled gun. A line from Marylyn Tan’s poem “Daddy Issues or SG50 Shades of Red”: The Singaporean queer poet alludes to the state control and censorship of LGBTQIA+ topics in her home country. She spoke at the Berlin International Literature Festival with Malaysian political scientist Khoo Ying Hooi about queerness and queer feminist literature in Southeast Asia as a means of resistance to oppression and discrimination.
At the start of a much-anticipated event at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, scientist and professor Khoo Ying Hooi contextualized the topic in terms of legal situations and media representations. It is important to consider colonial history. For example, Singapore was a British colony until independence in 1965, and some of the colonial laws still apply today.
Sex between men was criminalised under section 377A of the UK Criminal Code. This ban was lifted in 2023 in response to campaigning by activist groups. There seems to be a movement towards more rights and acceptance for queer people. Marylyn Tan agrees, but stresses that decriminalisation does not always equate to legal recognition. For example, under Singapore’s conservative government, queer couples are not allowed to marry or adopt children.
Distorted narrative
In political debates, queerness is often targeted by conservatives, who argue that queerness must be protected and that it is a Western import that threatens “traditional family values.” Queerness is presented as novelty and a Western import. This is a contradiction, says Khoo Ying Hooi, because in Southeast Asia, diversity in gender and sexuality has long been socially accepted.
Marylyn Tan challenges such conservative attitudes through her poetry. The poet is intentionally provocative when she writes explicitly about social taboos such as bondage, BDSM, lesbian sex, bodily fluids, and female desire. Literature, she says, represents an opportunity to change society’s perspective on queerness because it is less subject to state censorship than visual media.
Her English-language poetry collection, “Gaze Back” (2018), presents queerness and sexuality from an uncensored, self-determined perspective, demanding a different approach to the subject.
Commercialization instead of real protection
Marylyn Tan and Khoo Ying Hooi take a critical look at the current legal concessions in countries like Singapore and Thailand, which host internationally attended Pride parades each year. It’s an important step, but one that serves commercial purposes more than queer protection.
Both emphasize the need for transnational solidarity across borders and for LGBTQIA+ alliances that include activists and artists alike. Without pressure, there will be no concessions from governments that act only to maintain power. “If you’re not happy, we can talk about it. But first, put on this ball gag,” Marylyn Tan recites poignantly in her poetry collection. It’s an image that lends itself to limited discourse.
