Designer Found Herself In Hot Soup For Her Allegedly Racist Remarks
Priscilla Shunmugam, a Singapore based designer found herself in hot soup for her racist remarks during a talk held by Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) on designing Singapore’s contemporary fashion identity.
Kebaya Societe, an Instagram page dedicated to showcasing Nusantara fashion in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, posted a video where Priscilla tried to justify her preference of designing qipaos and cheongsams over other ethnic designs.
Source: Instagram, kebaya.societe
She mentioned that she did research about the emancipation of Asian women and she claimed that Chinese women are more progressive as compared to their Malay and Indian counterparts.
“Chinese women have progressed significantly faster and further as compared to their Malay and Indian counterparts. It is not a modern day phenomenon, this is something that has been the way it has been since the 1960s. For example, Chinese women were the first Asian women to shake hands with men. So culturally it was acceptable for Chinese women to shake the hands of men long before it was acceptable for Malay and Indian women. It is also seen in how quickly they adopted Western dressing. Chinese women were culturally the first to adopt Western dressing whether it was the dress or the mini skirt. And I think that went hand in hand with Chinese women being able to join the traditional workforce whether it’s being a teacher or working in a factory. I think this is tied to their social realities, what was acceptable in their own communities.” – Priscilla Shunmugam
Priscilla went on to ask if Malay and Indian women were allowed to dress in a certain way, to go out and work and how soon these women released from their social shackles. She believes that these issues were pertinent to her fashion designs.
Kebaya Societe called Priscilla out on her idea of what progressive meant.
“Progressive for Malay women may not be about “shaking hands with men” or wearing thigh high slit dresses or mini skirts. Progressive is a mental state of mind – not physical. I actually find your response coming from a woman to be incredibly sexist, reducing physical touch as “progression”, and undermining the efforts of women who have progressed who do not fit into your definition of “progressive” – Kebaya Societe
Priscilla’s research was also flawed when it came to the historical progression of Malay and Indian women in terms of contributing to the workforce. Che Zahara was amongst a number of influential Malay-Muslim women in Singapore’s history. She founded the Malay Women’s Welfare association (MWWA) all the way back in 1947.
As early as the 1940s Malay women were already educators, entrepreneurs and business women, such as Hajjah Maimunah or Hajjah Fatimah to name a few, we have the likes of Khatijatun Nissa Siraj who empowered other women by establishing the “Young Women Muslim Association” who train and run skilled programs for other Malay women to join the workforce and pick up new skills. –Kebaya Societe
Netizens were quick to slam Priscilla in the comments section for her myopic views on progressiveness.
Some educated her on the difference between religious and cultural obligations.
The woke voices were loud and clear, and they did not stan this woman’s notions of progressiveness.
The best comment that did more research than Priscilla.
If Priscilla had done thorough research, she would have seen how Malay women adopted Western fashion by incorporating it into traditional silhouettes of kebaya and baju kurung to modernise their outfits. These outfits were popularised by old actresses like Saloma and Sarimah to name a few.
It is okay to prefer one ethnic clothing over the other especially when you are more comfortable designing it but there is no reason to drag women of other ethnicities down with your myopic views.
Reporter’s Opinions: Where do I begin with this fuckery?
First of all, how is progressiveness tied to the clothes and length of skirts? Fashion does not hinder the progress of women throughout the ages. You may look the part but if you don’t have the calibre to bring about progress for women’s rights, yeah it means jackshit.
Secondly, her designs don’t look or have the feel of a cheongsam/qipao. It’s just a modern knee length dress with ethnic prints. Judge for yourself.
Thirdly, you call an entire collection Cheongsam 2022 when you have both kebaya and cheongsam inspired clothes in them.
So question yourself, can you call yourself progressive when you didn’t do enough research and drag other POC women in your narrow vision of what progress is supposed to be.
Let’s call a spade, a spade shall we? Admit that it’s easier for you to design and modify cheongsams than other ethnic clothings.
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