"AN EASIER EXISTENCE?": THE EFFECTS OF A PATRIARCHIAL AND HETERONORMATIVE STATE ON LESBIAN AND BISEXUAL WOMEN IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis examines the intersection of gender and sexuality. Through the lived experiences and personal anecdotes of several lesbian and bisexual women, it explores how they make sense of being women and being queer in the context of the patriarchal and heteronormative state of Singapore. While there has been a sizeable and growing arsenal of LGBTQ+ literature in Singapore, most studies are centred around the gay male community. However, this paper proposes that women in the LGBTQ+ community have vastly different lived experiences as compared to men, due to their double subordinate identities as queer women. Lesbian and bisexual women are often invisible and unrecognised by the state and society, which allows them to slip under the radar, supporting the narrative that they have an easier existence than gay men. Through their exclusion from the notorious Section 377A, as well as the effects of patriarchal and heteronormative state ideologies, lesbian and bisexual women are doubly marginalised. Thus, this thesis uses a framework of feminist intersectionality and invisibility to address the issues that lesbian and bisexual women face, which are often left unscrutinised. I argue that lesbian and bisexual women do not necessarily have an easier existence, but rather, are not even seen or heard as they do not subscribe to the heterosexual mold of womanhood, which the state endorses. These are the circumstances in which they navigate how they live out their lives and circumvent these boundaries in order to maximise their benefits from the system.