The measure of a woman

IN today's parlance, "butch" is a word used to describe a woman with masculine characteristics - a woman like actress Deonn Yang. Tall and beefy, she is quite the opposite of the thin demure women favoured by Asian fashion, media and advertising.

When Yang talks about how she once queued for the women's toilet, only to be told by another woman that the queue was for "Girls Only", you sympathise. When she talks about distant cousins who address her as kor kor (brother) instead of cheh cheh (sister), you wish you were there to correct those kids.

Her candid confessions make her a compelling character in Tan Liting's play Pretty Butch. But it also makes you wish the other characters in the play similarly burdened by gender expectations were as strong as her.

Developed in Centre 42's playwriting programme, Pretty Butch looks at gender issues that don't get talked about enough in Singapore because of its close links to sexuality.

The failure to address these issues adequately ensure women like Yang continue to suffer at the hands of ignorance.

But while Pretty Butch has good intentions, it is unfortunately predictable and unsatisfying. Writer-director Tan casts her net too wide by approaching the issue of masculinity and femininity in the broadest manner.

Besides Yang's heartfelt confessions, there are two other storylines: one is a drama about a lesbian couple (Farah Ong and Shannen Tan) conceiving a baby; the other is a comedy about two heterosexual men (Fadhil Daud and Henrik Cheng) struggling with machismo.

These related but discrete issues end up being superficially explored with blunt and repetitive lines, such as: "I wish this was a different world. But I can't change the world. I don't have the capacity to."

Characters do exactly as the dialogue instructs them to, and there's little subtext and nuance for an audience to chew on. Pretty Butch aspires to tackle complex, sensitive themes, but it operates more on the level of a sketch than a play. Still, one hopes that Tan continues her exploration of gender identities, roles and expectations. It's an important discourse that often doesn't get past censure.