Source: Yahoo! Singapore News – “Are Singaporean women marriage material?”
You know I can’t possibly chance upon an article like this and not give it at least a mention on this blog, right?
The moment I read this article on Yahoo! Singapore, I was like “Ho ho, here we go again! Let the gender wars begin!”
There are only 3 main paragraphs you really need to read in this article:
“An international dating agency believes Singaporean women are “most ideal” for marriage, according to a Lianhe Wanbao report.”
“A poll on straitstimes.com, however, showed that respondents do not agree with the agency’s assessment. Nearly three-quarters of the 1,685 voters disagreed with the agency. Half of all the voters were Singaporean male.”
“Peter, a 36-year old IT executive, told Yahoo! Singapore he is also in the ‘no’ camp. He says: “A few traits come to my mind that highlights the ‘strengths’ or ‘characteristics’ of our highly valued Singapore women: self-centred, self-opinionated, inconsiderate, demanding and, last but not least, materialistic.””
And as of now, this article has 685 comments and counting.
As expected, there were many comments made by men that run along the lines of what Peter (quoted above) said, and as equally expected, there were a lot of women who inevitably stood up for their own kind by justifying themselves as “realistic”, “opinionated”, “self-sufficient” and what-not…and also turned the tables back on the men and listed down their many flaws, as is the normal thing for females to do whenever they are being criticised.
Then the were the inevitable comparisons with Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai and PRC women, as is par for the course whenever a topic about Singapore women is brought up.
Where do I stand on all this?
Well, firstly I have to make it clear that I refuse to take the bait and be drawn on either side.
I don’t fall for the trap so easily. =)
Besides, I’ve never married a Singaporean woman before, nor any woman before for that matter, so unfortunately I can’t really give my own first-hand take on this.
I’m just very curious as to how the whatever-international-dating-agency managed to come with a survey that put Singapore women at the top of the “most marriageable” list.
(I’m genuinely curious. Not trying to be sarcastic here.)
I suppose a lot of the respondents who voted the Singapore woman weren’t Singaporean men themselves, because it certainly does seem like the average Singaporean man’s view of a Singaporean woman is rather different from a foreign man’s view.
And if I were to choose, I would say that of all the men in the world, a Singapore man would probably understand a Singapore woman the best, don’t you think?
Let us now draw our attention to this very oft brought-up word: “materialistic”.
Pardon me if I’m wrong, but this word has been brought up far too often whenever one refers to the Singapore woman.
Far too often to be ignored.
Surely, if this word keeps popping up in conversations, it has to somehow carry at least a modicum of truth to it, no?
Back in my younger days, I used to hear older guys bring up this M-word whenever they would talk about Singapore women.
They always said Singapore women were “M”, whereas Malaysian women were more “simple”.
(You haven’t lived in Singapore if you’ve not heard this being said at least once in your life.)
Back then, I didn’t really understand what they meant.
But I guess nowadays I can start to see for myself what it all means, and while I definitely cannot generalise and say that all Singapore women are “M”, I would have to admit that there is indeed a modicum of truth to what people always say about it.
…
But don’t get me wrong.
At the end of the day, I think it’s irrelevant as to which country’s women are most marriageable.
Firstly, it’s something that cannot possibly be quantified.
Secondly, ultimately you only need to find your one partner in life and you’re set.
Surveys mean nothing as long as you manage to find your one perfect life partner, whichever country she may hail from.
hahaha.. really meh? i dun feel like i’m materialistic leh….
Yup, you’re one of the exceptions that I know. =)
Of course, you do know that this post will most likely draw the most comments, don’t you? ;p
I too, am curious to know how that international agency come to the conclusion that Singaporean women are most ideal for marriage and who are the voters and why.
But I guess every now and then, the media needs some attention-grabbing articles to generate some readership.
Yeah, I guess you’re right. Nothing like an article about Singapore women, or Singapore men for that matter, to attract readership and comments!
“You know I can’t possibly chance upon an article like this and not give it at least a mention on this blog, right?””
Yup!
Don’t know lah, but maybe they were thinking along the line of someone who juggles both work and home. Haha!
I think instead of “materialistic” it would be more of being practical.
Haha…maybe it’s a ploy to up marriage rates.
Am curious to know how they came up with such a survey and assessed this too.
I guess it can always be spun both ways.
Men say “materialistic”, women say “practical” or “know how to enjoy life”.
Men say “aggressive”, women say “opinionated”.
Men say “self-centered”, women say “independent”.
Men say “demanding”, women say “realistic”.
One trend that I’m a bit worried about is the emergence of the “princess” mentality in quite a number of young women in Singapore these days. Or you could term it as “self-centeredness”, I think it’s the same concept.
I suppose this is a product of growing up in relative affluence from a young age, and being pampared silly by one’s parents and maid (if any). Not to mention not having experienced NS life.
As such, it is a worrying trend that there seems to be a lot of women out there in Singapore who tend to behave in a very self-centered, princess-y kind of way.
I won’t name any specific incidents, but after living in Singapore all these years, I can’t say that I’ve not met many such unpleasant incidents in restaurants, shopping malls, theatres, public areas, in the workplace, on the roads, etc whereby females displayed behaviour which suggested impatience, intolerance, and self-centeredness.
I’m not saying that men are angels, but that is another discussion altogether. =)
I agree that more details on the survey is needed… :p
Thanks alot – your answer solved all my problems after several days strlguging
Glad I’ve finally found soethming I agree with!
Singaporean women are not materialistic as PRC women. Saw a recent article that a teen girl willing to sell her ‘First night’ for an exchange of iPhone 4 in china. What is this??? seen so many PRC women selling their body in order to come to Singapore to get married and swindle Singaporean men money and their CPF. They bring back the money to build big houses for themselves and buy luxury brands. Are they not materialistic???? Singaporean women bought all these with their own money.
i found two friends {Girls} but bad luck they cheated me, are women from Singapore unfaithful?? sorry for these words if someone become hurt, but this is my personal expereince…..shazoo2011[at]gmail[dot]coM