Non-Combat Personnel and their Negotiations with Masculinity in the Singapore Armed Forces: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

National Service has developed into an integral and omnipresent part of Singaporean culture, from featuring as a common topic in conversations among those involved in the nation’s military conscription efforts, to being regarded as the rite of passage for all Singaporean males. In my research, I examine how Lenore Lyons and Michele Ford, as well as Kenneth Paul Tan, explore the construction and institutionalisation of a hegemonic masculinity by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), as well as how this figures against the wider backdrop of Asian masculinity as discussed by Kam Louie, in particular, the Chinese concept of wen-wu. In Singapore, non-combat personnel may make up a small percentage of the overall military forces, but they have a significant role to play nonetheless. As I believe it is important to find out their side of the story in the narrative of a long history of National Service, I endeavour to examine through small-n and comparative research how non-combat personnel, specifically admin support assistants and supply assistants, negotiate and perform their masculinity, as opposed to an ideal one that the SAF sets forth.