August 14, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AWARE’s annual fundraiser goes Supersonic
New categories and more winners for the AWARE Awards
The AWARE Awards, Singapore’s first gender equality awards, return this year with new categories and more winners.
The Awards will be the highlight of AWARE’s annual fundraising event, which this year is called the Supersonic Big Ball.
Why ‘Supersonic’? Because that’s the speed at which we would like to see the transformation of mindsets and policies towards achieving gender equality in Singapore.
The AWARE Awards were launched in 2011 to celebrate individuals and organisations that have advanced gender equality in Singapore.
This year there will be two AWARE Heroines and one AWARE Hero, and these new categories: Campaign of the Year, Significant News Story of the Year, and Cause of the Year: Women In Corporate Leadership.
We have chosen female corporate leadership as the Cause of the Year to focus attention on an area where Singapore still lags behind many countries. Women hold just 6.9 per cent of directorships on the boards of Singapore-listed companies, and 61.3 per cent of the 730 companies listed on the Singapore Exchange do not have a single female board member.
The recipients of our Cause of the Year Award show that encouraging female leadership can be done consistently and effectively, at both a local and an international level.
All the recipients of the AWARE Awards 2012 will be announced at the Supersonic Big Ball, which will be held on Sept 10 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. This event will also feature:
- The Alamak! Award: Who’s responsible for the most jaw-droppingly sexist behaviour of 2011? Internet voting starts now!
- The AWARE auction, which will include Singapore’s most famous bag: To help raise funds for AWARE’s Support Services, Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling has kindly donated her Kate Spade bag to our auction. Yes, that Kate Spade bag.
Visit http://www.aware.org.sg/supersonic for more information. If your media outlet wishes to cover this event, please email [email protected] with your name and contact number by Aug 31. For press queries, please contact us at [email protected] or 6779-7137.
EVENT DETAILS
Alamak! Who will it be this year?
The Alamak! Award ‘honours’ the most sexist behaviour over the past year. Nominations are made by members of the public, and the ‘winner’ will be decided through Internet voting. Popular parody group Chestnuts will be spoofing the nominees at the Supersonic Big Ball – don’t miss their hilarious take on this year’s nominees.
The nominees are:
London Weight Management
For conceptualizing, producing and running a TV ad that was dangerously misleading about serious issues like post-partum depression and suicide, and which carried damaging messages about health, body image and self-esteem. In this ad, London Weight Management presents a story where a woman's weight caused her child's anguish, her husband's hatred, her termination at work and extreme self-loathing that erupts into outbreaks of screaming. All is remedied by London Weight Management treatments – it is only by being thin that that the woman can be happy and gain her husband's love.
Mr Tan Jee Say and Dr Tan Cheng Bock
While running for President, both managed to find words to annoy half the electorate. “I would like to go back to the days when women can afford to be housewives,” Mr Tan Jee Say said, when asked about his views on the Baby Bonus. And when asked how to encourage female participation in politics, Dr Tan Cheng Bock replied: “The political arena is a difficult area for women in Singapore because the commitment is really very heavy. So you got to get the permission of your husband.”
Date With Dad
It is laudable that this campaign by Focus On The Family Singapore believes that fathers are crucial to helping their daughters build self-worth. But it is problematic when it encourages dads to “affirm” their daughters’ “femininity” – surely each daughter has her own unique traits worth affirming besides the fact that she is female? Also unsettling – the event encourages fathers to give their daughters a purity ring, available for sale on their website, to "signify your commitment to protecting her purity until her wedding day”.
Bride Of The World
Contestants for this pageant, which is co-organised by the People’s Association, model white bridal gowns, because “white is the universal colour of purity” and “where East meets West, a woman wears a resplendent white gown to proclaim her worthiness as a bride”. The pageant represents marriage as a form of national service. "In Singapore, our women play an integral role in contributing to our society's well-being at home, at work and in various communities. They help establish and maintain wholesome family values, and together with our National Service men, they provide our nation's Total Defence."
Shape Run Singapore 2012
This women's run introduced male pacers for the first time. Why no female pacers? According to Shape’s press release and media reports, the male pacers were meant to be "eye candy" – they must "ooze oodles of charm", in order that the women have "a chance…to chase guys for a change". Heaven forbid the female runners are there to, you know, run, and not pant after eye candy.
Track the Internet voting for the Alamak! Award 2012 at this link:
http://www.aware.org.sg/2012/08/the-alamak-award-returns/
THE AWARE AUCTION
Bid for Singapore’s most famous bag
The photograph of Ms Tin Pei Ling posing with the box for her Kate Spade bag was one of the defining images of GE 2011.
Ms Tin has kindly agreed to donate the Kate Spade bag to help raise funds for AWARE’s Support Services. The item is in mint condition and will be put up for auction at the Supersonic Big Ball.
“In the course of my work in the community, I have met many women, from single mothers to the elderly, who need help and support,” says Ms Tin. “I hope that the proceeds from this bag will help to sustain AWARE’s crisis Helpline, Sexual Assault Befrienders Service, Legal Clinic and counselling services for women. These are laudable efforts to help women in Singapore. This particular bag received much publicity during the last GE, and I hope to put it to good use. When AWARE approached me and asked to put it up for auction, I saw this as an opportunity to raise funds for a very worthy cause.”
A total of 50 items will be available for bidding at this auction. These will include:
- Jewellery from homegrown social enterprise Saught, made from safely deactivated metal supplied from the national de-mining organization of Cambodia.
- An artwork by Singaporean artist Manjeet Shergill, from her collection about the evolving stages of being a woman – from being single to becoming mothers.
Find out more about this auction here: http://www.aware.org.sg/supersonic-auction/
