I’ve been seeing lots of discussion and excitement about Polo Boys, a new series by MediaCorp which features quite a few tanned, lean sexy boys frolicking in the pool. The general sentiment is that most gay boys are eagerly awaiting the series’ premier to feast their eyes on the attractive athleticism on display during prime-time TV in Singapore.

The trailers on YouTube and Facebook really don’t portray these actors as very able or proficient so it’s obvious they were not cast for their talents. Watching a few videos to confirm that I wasn’t being unfairly biased, I really started to get angry.

What I find disturbing is this double standard that the show seems to promote.

Singapore has little tolerance towards homosexuality with media owners being fined whenever any episode promoting a homosexual lifestyle is aired yet MediaCorp gets away with this kind of programming.

I remember years ago when Singapore had it’s first series featuring a gay character. The words used by the authorities monitoring the script-writing was that it’s OK to have a gay character so long as he’s negatively portrayed and he dies in the end. Such narrow-minded, unfair & one-sided portrayals of gay individuals have spurred my outrage and need to speak out. Seeing that TV script-writing in Singapore can produce such gem’s like Polo Boys only saddens me & outrages me more. TV has sunk to new lows in the pursuit of easy ratings as it unashamedly uses abs, dimples and skin to appeal to a group they are not allowed to promote the lives of.

It’s OK to milk us for ratings and revenue. We should be grateful we’re not actively criminalised after all … 377A only criminalise us in spirit and isn’t intended to be actively enforced.

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