Paris Jackson Could’ve Just Said, “I Wanted To Show What Singapore Could Be!”
Controversy over her Harper’s BAZAAR cover
Singapore has been at the forefront of mass media recently, from hosting the Trump-Kim summit, to being a backdrop of the monumentally progressive Crazy Rich Asians; and just days ago, it was the target of several Western pro-LGBTQ organisations.
For Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore’s September Issue (which I contributed to, check our team page when you buy our PRINT copies!), there were three versions released: one with Christina Aguilera, another featuring Theodora and Alexandra Richards, and the last with Paris Jackson.
A little peek at the photoshoot creidts in the caption above will show that this cover was not shot by BAZAAR team Singapore. In her apology tour that would happen later on, Jackson would further reveal that this cover was used for BAZAAR publications in other countries too, which was, in my opinion, a pussy move.
In a nutshell, Paris Jackson came out as bisexual last year. Following in the footsteps of her kids-of-famous-parents model predecessors, she’s also a social media star. Shortly after Jackson promoted her recent BAZAAR cover on social media, pro-LGBTQ outlet Gay Star News responded with an op-ed on their website, condemning Jackson for her appearance. The reason? Singapore is notorious for our anti-gay laws (I interviewed four Singapore heroes, including Hirzi and Becca D’Bus, about them here).
Curious to find out how reactive my followers would be of this news, I polled them on the controversy:
I wasn’t surprised with the overwhelming apathy to those who were outraged. In fact, one of my Instagram friends @streetstyleposer, a fellow Singaporean who recently married A MAN in Australia, reached out to voice out against the apparent backlash:
I agree with Henry and the those who polled “Unfair.” While I understand where the hate is coming from—it’s nowhere near Egypt or Russia, but still—putting an LGBTQ artist on the cover of a mainstream (SPH!) magazine is definitely a step forward for Singapore, in my opinion, contrary to what the Gay Star News contributor thinks it makes Jackson look like.
I also feel that the reaction was blown out of proportion, taking into consideration how benign the cover shoot looks. If Jackson was face-painted as the Singapore flag and french kissing Cara Delevigne, maybe I would’ve raised an eyebrow.
And clearly I wasn’t the only one who had something to say about this matter. A former intern (whose name I have purposely omitted) sounded out to me a Straits Times article where BAZAAR’s editor-in-chief, Kenneth Goh, tiptoed around the issue.
The article quoted of Goh’s statement of the covers as a “celebration of music and features music stars and their promising off-spring.” Not so promising anymore, I guess.
Come on. It’s obvious BAZAAR are now in PR crisis mode only because Jackson’s decided to “take the high road.” Since, she’s deleted her promotion of the cover and backtracked on not knowing about Singapore’s homophobic tendencies. She missed a huge opportunity, in my opinion, to become an unwitting LGBTQ rights champion in Singapore. A simple “I wanted to show what Singapore could look like” would have made me smile.
