Across the globe, women in politics frequently face many challenges where they are reduced to their appearance alone, overshadowing their political knowledge. While this struggle isn’t unique to any nation, in traditional and conservative Singapore, women strive to break from conventional roles into political leadership in the recent Singapore General Election.
The Singapore General Election highlighted this reality. For some female candidates, their online fame had little to do with their knowledge or policies and everything to do with their appearance. This persistent issue forces us to question whether women can break free from their stereotypes.
One instance was when the Workers’ Party was campaigning in Punggol. Their candidate, Alexis Dang, was put in a situation where her appearance became a focal point. During a rally, loud catcalls of “chio bu”, a Hokkien term for an attractive woman, were heard from the crowd as she was delivering her speech, drawing attention away from her words and towards her physical presence. She had addressed the comments on her appearance, expressing surprise, as she doesn’t perceive herself that way. Alexis Dang’s situation sparked debate online as some found it disrespectful for people to only recognise her for her looks, and not her ability to serve the community.
Beyond the specific instance of catcalls directed at Alexis Dang at a rally, other candidates faced similar indignities. Apart from only focusing on their looks, Liyanah Dhamirah, a candidate of Red Dot United (RDU), was shamed for being a Muslim candidate all over the internet. Shamed for her race and gender, Dhamirah detailed comments like, “Are you the one I paid ringgit to in Malaysia KFC last week”, and “After [the] election, with your salary, [you] can eat 50 nasi lemak and mee siam every day” are just two of the many comments that were directed at her race, gender and physical appearance. She bravely filed a police report and used her platform to shut down these hateful commenters.
These isolated incidents are part of a larger, troubling pattern. The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) took swift action, taking to Instagram to slam the sexist and racist remarks that proliferated throughout the campaign. The group highlighted a widespread objectification, sharing multiple screenshots of sexist and racist comments targeting various female candidates on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
There was even a series on YouTube called “Chio Bu of GE2025” by Twenty Two Thirty which singled out the “attractive” women in the Singapore General Election such as Alexis Dang and Eileen Choong from the Workers’ Party, and Tin Pei Ling from the People’s Action Party, which was heavily criticised by AWARE. They stated that the remarks and posts have reduced women in politics to just their appearance and that their political leadership should not be overlooked.
“A woman on the ballot should not have to face being objectified, degraded, and stereotyped,” the group asserted in a strongly worded post. They stated in their post that the persistent habit of reducing women in politics to their appearance, wardrobe, or home lives overlooks their leadership capabilities. Because of the way they look, it suggests that these important political roles aren’t truly theirs for the taking.
AWARE called for Singapore to have more gender equality and for Singaporeans to stop interacting with racist, sexist, and harassing behaviour online. The group said, ”We need Singaporeans to support women candidates with the recognition of the systemic challenges they’ve had to overcome—and the values, experiences, and insights they bring with that. We need to do better, Singapore.”
They articulated that such behaviour reflects deeper issues of entrenched gender and racial bias, which only “reinforces myths that women are ‘less capable, less serious, and less competent to represent others’.” The group also urged all Singaporeans to take a firm stand and “do better” by actively refusing to engage in sexist, racist, and harassing behaviour, both online and offline.
The objectification, casual dismissal of their intellect in favour of their appearance faced by women in politics are unfortunately not unique to Singapore. These are battles fought in legislatures and on campaign trails worldwide.
However, for a country like Singapore, more women are bravely stepping forward to redefine leadership and push the boundaries of societal expectations in the Singapore General Election, and they should not have to suffer the burden of overcoming gender biases.
