When i first picked up the book ‘Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women’ by Naomi Wolf, i wasn’t expecting to repent. Oppression against women... not me! How can that ever be? Not with my belief that women are on par with men in terms of intelligence and its many forms.... or my conviction that women are presentable in the public sphere and that they make good in society. I pitch for equality and meritocracy for all genders. I am definitely for women, not against women. Even before i read the book, i made it a point not to ...

QueerCast will be throwing our official launch party for our new website, QueerCast.Net on 21 April 2007 (Saturday) at Pelangi Pride Centre @ Bianco, which is right above MOX Bar and Cafe!We have planned our program for a month now, and we are proud to say that everything will be fantabulously fun! We have special recording slots throughout the party, as well as some special performances that we've prep'ed up painstakingly! There will also be games, and yes, we have prizes to giveaway too! *hint* branded stuff *hint*Party Details:Date: 21 April 2007 (Saturday)Time: 4PM onwardsVenue: Pelangi Pride Centre @ Bianco ...

Have you felt that Sayoni has changed your life? Do you feel like doing something for the community? Perhaps you would like to meet more people while having fun at the same time? Sayoni is recruiting volunteers for our upcoming activities and events. We welcome everyone to join us in making the upcoming events possible. The first upcoming event would be Sayoni Anniversary Party, which will require many helping hands! Please write to irene [at] sayoni [dot] com if you would like to volunteer. We are all waiting! ...

Image from Glenkirk   "Fridae has been told that a total of 85 people including filmmakers Sun Koh and Royston Tan have lodged police reports over the long Chinese New Year weekend about pastor Rony Tan's offensive comments concerning gay men and lesbians in an online video." Read the rest of the article here.   Freedom of religion is a tricky thing. Take it too far and you can justify theocracy, give it too little and you have oppression. When freedom of religion and freedom of speech attempts to go together, it becomes even more of an unnavigable thicket. Did Pastor Rony Tan make a mistake? Of course ...

  Four years after we first opened the doors to the world, Sayoni is proud to present our spanking new renovated site. We didn't just renovate the apartment -  we built a mansion and moved in all the old furniture, installed a pool and a tennis court, and added a gym just for good measure. Why? All to make your visiting experience so much better. So what's new? Here are the main highlights. Under One Roof! Not, not just the lamest sitcom in Singapore history. All the various components of the old site is under one banner, and you can browse the forum ...

Oh my gosh, really? But don’t worry, we are not going anywhere you already haven’t been. As part of our efforts to continually improve our user experience, we will be beta-launching our new integrated site on Feb 15th 2010, 09:00 GMT+8. The new integrated site will be conveniently located at www.sayoni.com, with many exciting features including our standard offerings of the blog and the forum, with all the previously existing posts and articles. So as part of our move, the site will be taken offline at 00:30 GMT+8 on Feb 13th 2010. We suggest you save any necessary data before the move. So what’s ...

We would like to note that there has been a correction made to the report on page 33, as there was a decimal place error made in the field for respondents who live with their immediate family in an HDB flat. The data was previously 5.7%, it has now been corrected to 57%. You may download the corrected report here: ...

OC Women is a personal development group for lesbians and women who love women. Through individual development, reflection and heart-to-heart discussions, we aim to create a personal oasis – time and space for every woman who wants to grow to better understand herself, her relationships, and the community that she lives in. The fourth run of OC Women will be a ten-session programme commencing in late January 2010. Women aged 25 years and above are invited to share the OCW experience. Please write to ocwomen@oogachaga.com for details. ...

The original Woodstock Festival took place in 1969 and was later known as a pivotal cultural moment in history. It originated as a corporate venture that brought great artists together in front of a 500,000-strong audience. In 1970, a documentary was made about the music festival. Elliot Tiber, the man who offered the use of his family property to the festival’s organisers, published his story in 2007. Subsequently, Ang Lee (of Brokeback Mountain fame) based his movie Taking Woodstock on Elliot’s memoir. This, of course, I learnt from Wikipedia. Yes, I am unfortunately quite bereft of music history knowledge and shockingly ...

The Abomination of the Blue Hibiscus is a short story by Ovidia Yu, published in the Year’s Best Lesbian Fiction 2008 edited by Fran Walker. She requested that I review the story, whether or not I read the entire book. Hibiscus is a short, heart-warming story about a lesbian woman and her partner, at her mother’s funeral. Clearly Ovidia seems to love this theme – story actually reminded me quite a bit of the story she wrote a couple of years ago and read at our Indignation event, Tall Tales and Short Stories, called Pierced Years. Personally, I much ...

Have you booked your seats for The Blue Mansion? The Blue Mansion Don’t miss the special screening of Glen Goei’s latest film The Blue Mansion on 15th October. It’s a fundraising premiere and the net proceeds will go to AWARE. Don’t miss the special screening of Glen Goei’s latest film The Blue Mansion on 15th October. It’s a fundraising premiere and the net proceeds will go to AWARE. There will be a pre-movie cocktail reception where you can meet Glen and members of his cast. They include Lim Kay Siu, Adrian Pang, Neo Swee Lin, Emma Yong, Claire Wong, Tan Kheng Hua, and Huzir ...

Note from the editors: In the recent weeks, we published a review of the book No More Daddy’s Little Girl by Karen Lee. That review generated much heated discussion by people on both sides of the camp about the merits of the book. In order to give our readers both sides of the story, we are a publishing a reader-submitted review offering a different view from the previous. Neither reviews are indicative of Sayoni’s official view in any way. This guest writer goes by the name of Jane Jones. Two weeks ago, a friend handed me No More Daddy’s Little Girl, ...

Date: Wednesday, 30 September 2009 Time: 21:00 - 23:00 Location: Shaw Lido 1 (Shaw Centre, Scotts Road) Fridae presents the Taking Woodstock Fundraising Gala Premiere in Singapore on Sep 30. 100% of ticket sales will go towards funding gay-related community projects. Directed by Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (who brought us what were to become gay classics The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain), Taking Woodstock is based on the memoirs of a young gay man Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin). Tiber, then a struggling young interior designer in New York City, had recently returned to his parents’ rundown motel in the Catskill Mountains when he ...