2017 KS Bull Issue 2b

KS Bull 2017 Issue 2b The views expressed in each essay are purely for the academic purposes of crafting a viable argumentative response. They do not necessarily reflect the personal opinions of any student or staff member, nor do they necessarily represent the perspective(s) of Raffles Institution. No portion of this collection may be reproduced or shared for any reason and by any means whatsoever.

KS Bull 2017 | Issue 2a (Year 5)© Raffles Institution Unauthorised copying, sharing & distribution prohibited 2 CONTENTS 2017 Year 5 GP CT1 1 “We can never close the gender divide.” Do you agree? Yeo Shi Wen | 18A13A 3 2 “We can never close the gender divide.” Do you agree? Siobhan Tan | 18A13A 9 3 “Social media disconnects more than it connects.” Discuss. Nadya Bhandari | 18S03Q 13 4 Are newspapers still relevant in the digital age? James Ding | 18S06S 18 5 To what extent is education an effective way to combat poverty? 24 Gan Chong Jin | 18A13A 2017 Year 5 Class Assignments 6 Examine the impact that foreigners have on your society. Sophie Low Hui Ting | 18S07A 31 7 ‘The media is to blame for gender inequalities.” Comment. 36 Ella Tan Ray Ing | 18A01B Editorial Team 40

KS Bull 2017 | Issue 2a (Year 5)© Raffles Institution Unauthorised copying, sharing & distribution prohibited 3 1 2017 | Y5 | GP CT2 Yeo Shi Wen | 18A13A “We can never close the gender divide.” Do you agree? A famous adage Chinese goes “Women hold up half the sky”. 2016 saw a shift toward such progressive mindsets with regard to gender roles. With popular figures such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hollywood actress Emma Watson publicly supporting feminism and championing gender equality, it really does give us hope of closing the gender divide. However, it is the very same year that also saw misogynist Donald Trump, who wanted to grab women “by the pussy”, elected to power as the President of the United States. Some espouse the view that we can never close the gender divide due to legislative barriers and sexist mindsets that persist and are pervasive in society today. However, it is my view that while closing the gender divide will be difficult, it is not impossible, due to changing attitudes in legislature and shifts in societal mindsets towards women. Therefore, though it will be difficult, closing the gender divide is indeed possible. Some espouse the view that we can never close the gender divide because there exist legislative barriers that institutionalise gender discrimination and perpetuate gender inequality. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to make major decisions for themselves, or even drive themselves to the nearest hospital in the case of an emergency. As Pakistani Malala Yousafzai related in her address to the United Nations General Assembly, the Taliban, which rules over large swathes of the Middle East, bans women from going to school. In many of these countries, legislation expressly denies women certain fundamental rights such as freedom of movement and education, and given that this gender inequality is so deeply institutionalised and entrenched in legislation, it is not hard to see why it may seem impossible to close the gender divide. On the other end of the spectrum, in more liberal countries, the situation seems very grim as well. In countries such as Japan and Korea, more maternity leave is given than paternity leave, alongside other sexist policies. Thus, women are offered lower-paying jobs as a trickle-down effect, since they are seen as unprofitable to hire as they are just going to “get married and have children”. Women in developed countries are also regularly subject to abuses,

KS Bull 2017 | Issue 2a (Year 5)© Raffles Institution Unauthorised copying, sharing & distribution prohibited 4 due to the lack of legislative protection for their rights- for instance, in Singapore, marital rape is not illegal and in India, 52% of women when interviewed said it was normal for a husband to abuse them if they did something without his permission. Across developing and developed, illiberal and liberal countries, a disturbing trend seems to be emerging- legislation either explicitly hurts women and promotes sexism, or it condones behaviours that hurt women and promote sexism. It remains a deeply painful and saddening reality that the patriarchy continues to be entrenched in legislature, and ingrained in societal institutions, leading some to believe that we can never close the gender divide. Some also espouse the view that we can never close the gender divide because traditional mindsets that promote gender inequality persist in society. The reference to “traditional mindsets” is likely what led 56% of women who voted for Donald Trump to do so. Most people in society continue to harbour patriarchal views regarding men and women- for instance, in China, many still practice sex-selective abortion because it is seen as better to have a son to carry down the family name. Even for those who have daughters, those who do not marry by a certain age are termed “shengnu or “miserly spinsters” while unmarried boys are called “swinging bachelors”. This is symptomatic of “zhongnanqingnu” or patriarchal views in China that promote different gender expectations, exacerbating the gender divide. Women are expected to be demure and passive, while men must be strong and powerful, the main breadwinner for the family. This is exacerbated by the media as well, which promotes gender expectations, foisting unfair expectations on both men and women to conform. For instance, in the 2012 London Olympics, a news agency did a word cloud of the words TV commentators most commonly used to describe athletes, and it turns out, while they used words that highlighted mental fortitude for men (“persevere”, “determined”, “confident”), they preferred words describing physical characteristics for women (“toned”, “slim”, “sexy”). A case in point would be when Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hozzu won a gold medal and smashed records in her event, the TV commentator immediately cut to a shot of her jubilant husband and declared “there’s the man responsible”. The media also promotes gender expectations surrounding body image- most recently, on social media, girls have been participating in the “A4 waist challenge” which challenges them to take a picture of themselves if their waist can fit within an A4 sheet of paper. Even

KS Bull 2017 | Issue 2a (Year 5)© Raffles Institution Unauthorised copying, sharing & distribution prohibited 5 men have not been left untouched by such media pressures and are often expected to be muscular, toned or fit, like people such as Theo James who regularly grace the cover of magazines such as Men's Health. These gendered expectations persist in society and lead to many tangible ramifications- less so for men, because these trends benefit them financially, but more so for women because this leads to very real economic harms- unemployment, less pay, being prevented from pursuing jobs in specific fields, among others. Thus, due to patriarchal mindsets that persist, some believe that we can never close the gender divide. In view of all these challenges, it will indeed be difficult to close the gender divide. However, it is my view that closing the gender divide is not completely impossible- there is hope. Firstly, there have been changing attitudes in legislature that have led to tremendous progress for women’s rights on paper. In terms of the right to political representation, it has been growing- in the recent US Presidential elections, Hillary Clinton made history as the first women nominee from a large party. In Canada, Justin Trudeau made half the ministers in his cabinet women. This trend holds for less developed countries as well. In Rw