Does language turn you on? : Racial preferences and language attitudes among heterosexual and homosexual women in Singapore

• Main Author: Loh, Jaslyne Jia Ling
• Other Authors: Luke Lu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138304
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As Singapore prides itself on equal treatment of all races and not holding a bias against any race (Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, 1985), is our support for multiracialism as strong as we think? This study examines the language attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual women from the three main racial groups in Singapore. Adopting the verbal guise technique, it compares the attitudes of 45 heterosexual and 45 homosexual women within the age range of 21 to 25 toward the three local accents in terms of dimensions such as “likeability”. Building on the premise of racial preferences and language attitudes, this study shows that heterosexual women appeared to have a high level of in-group preference toward their own racial groups, while their heterosexual counterparts were more tolerant and receptive to other racial groups as they did not show any discriminatory attitudes toward any particular accent. This suggests that heterosexual women preferred partners of the same race in Singapore while homosexual women appeared to not have a preference. Correspondingly, it has also shed light on the difference between heterosexual and homosexual women pertaining to racial issues in Singapore. In particular, it has been observed that the Chinese accent was the most likeable, while the Malay and Indian accents were less likeable among heterosexual women. Meanwhile, there were no obvious differences in which accent was the most or least likeable among homosexual women. This shows that being the majority race may have a certain overt appeal to the heterosexual women. Alternatively, it could be a possible case of “Chinese Privilege” among heterosexual women (Chew, 2018), where the minorities could potentially move up the racial class through gaining access to their Chinese partners’ racial privilege, resulting in the positive attitudinal responses toward the Chinese accent. In stark contrast to the Chinese, racial minorities are likely to experience instances of negative and differential treatment and experience (Mathews, 2016), a possible reason for the negative attitudinal responses toward the Malay and Indian accents. On the lack of obvious differences in which accent was the most or least likeable among the homosexual women, this suggests that they held more progressive racial attitudes than others. Ultimately, it can be concluded that there was a difference between heterosexual and homosexual women pertaining to racial issues in Singapore.