24 February 2006

Poor Tammy

Feb 24, 2006
Student in sex video: 'We didn't intend to be porn stars' She lost her phone last month, but had forgotten the video was in it
By Sandra Davie and Jermyn Chow

THE Nanyang Polytechnic girl at the centre of the ongoing sex video scandal has spoken up for the first time, describing the past few days as a 'living hell'.

And it got a bit worse yesterday as a new section of the video clip surfaced on the Internet. This just as the student became the No. 1 item on blog search engine Technorati.

But the 17-year-old told The Straits Times over the phone yesterday: 'I have done nothing wrong, I don't know why people are making such a big fuss about it. Everyone does it (films video clips of themselves), even my friends.'

Tammy, as she is called on the Net, said the video she took with her 21-year-old boyfriend was meant for 'personal and private viewing'.

'It was just for fun...we don't intend to be porn stars,' she said.

But in her next breath, she said she regrets filming the explicit video on her phone.

'I can't bear to face people. When I go out, people who know it is me look at me as if I am a porn star.

'Now, looking back, it was a stupid thing to do, because the phone could fall into the wrong hands.'

It did, giving rise to the 'living hell'.

She has had to explain herself to her lecturers, her parents and the police. She even considered quitting her IT diploma course, but her parents and friends persuaded her to stay on.

Tammy confirmed she misplaced her phone last month but because she had forgotten about the video clip, she did not worry about it.

That was until a fellow Nanyang Poly student called her two weeks later to say the video had been spotted on the Internet.

'She told me not to be too worried because there were other homemade sex videos online and they didn't generate much interest,' the soft-spoken girl told The Straits Times.

But her friend was wrong. Last weekend, news of the video exploded on the Net, creating an excited buzz on local forums and blogs.

In the midst of this unfortunate incident, I think that one particular party deserves praise. That's Nanyang Polytechnic.

In less-enlightened days, an institution in Nanyang Polytechnic's shoes would probably say, "Disgusting! Unacceptable! Our wonderful reputation as a premier education institution in Singapore has been damaged! Let's suspend this student from school for six months. Or better still, expel her for good!"

However, nothing like that seems to be happening on Nanyang Polytechnic's part. Which I think is right. Not as if expulsion or suspension would actually accomplish anything. Besides, Tammy committed no crime (quite the opposite - a crime was committed against her).

And let's just be mature, open and sensible about the whole thing. LOTS of 17-year-old girls in Singapore are having sex with their boyfriends. It's just that (1) they may not necessarily film it, (2) having filmed it, they are not necessarily losing their handphones and (3) having lost their handphones, they don't have the misfortune of having the footage circulated around the Internet.

"Look, Adam, let's just say I'm glad
that you don't have a camera handphone."

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey first one for the day!

I noticed on other blogs that many people have already adopted the 'holier than thou' position.

One of the reasons I left Singapore is because I'm so disgusted by the self righteous attitudes of many Singaporeans.

Everyone can check out what the holy avenger XLX has a lot to say about this.

Anonymous said...

Or (4) maybe most 17-year-old girls aren't as hot as Tammy so their clips do not generate or sustain as much interest.

Anonymous said...

Err...Maybe Mr Wang had been busy banging his keyboard, and should know more about the clip before saying she committed no crime, esp with regards to Singapore Penal Code 377, and I am not referring to the oral part...

Jayce said...

anony, isn't oral sex ok as long as it leads to actual sex? Which they obviously did.

Anthony said...

I think anonymous is refering to the incidence of anal sex. From what I recall of the s377 interpretation, Mr Wang is still right.

s377 interprets "sex" as the act of penetration. Tammy did nothing wrong. Tammy is not the one who penetrated. Her partner may not be so lucky.

Anonymous said...

Errm... perhaps Anthony may like to see the video too. The guy was just a passive party in contravening Section 377...

Even prostitutes will cringe at the thought of the act...

For someone this young to be this bored with sex to seek kinky new thrills, like the camera and the backdoor, one has to wonder how long and how frequent they were at it...

I suggest the lawyers examine the evidences first before concluding which party is at fault...

Anonymous said...

HEy Trisha, then I guess you should talk to those who are in the youth counselling lines, such as Fei Yue Centre and etc.

I believe you may find that we are already in trouble given your criteria.

Cheers!

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Trisha, I guess my main point is that Tammy doesn't deserve to be vilified as a vile, repulsive, immoral member of the human race. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about the fact that she is 17 and having sex. You might be interested to read this study about the average age at which Singaporeans start having sex.

You may think, "Oh this only shows the immorality of Singaporeans, terrible, terrible" and that may possibly be a valid point - but again, I don't think Tammy deserves a lot more condemnation than many other Singaporean teenagers.

Anonymous said...

Hu trisha,

having sex at 17 is not considered too young. A girl is capable of bearing children at a younger age. Sex is a form of entertainment, is it not? You can't mean that every time people have sex it is for proceational purposes. Oh dear, then the government wouldn't have to worry so much here.

Since the incident of Tammy is out on the internet and circulating, the way people deal with it, the comments that people make reflect a kind of attitude people have towards a particular subject. The reason why it is 'scandalous' is really not because of the sex, or that she is 17, but that it was meant to be a private (unlike porn) clipping and wouldn't the public love to get hold on on something so pte? The disgust/sympathy/horror that we feel towards the girl shows that we are personally so afraid of being caught in the same position. We are so afraid that our vulnerable position would be exposed that we think really hard why Tammy would compromise herself this way. So that leads to a lot of discussions. Mind you, the Monday Youthink column will talk more about Tammy...and from University students too...I already suspect some of the middle grounds and 'mature' people would take regarding this though I doubt they would be able to appreciate that if they were Tammy herself. The nature of this whole public fiasco is really about the nature of the public, not really of Tammy at all...

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

The incident *is* indeed highly reflective of our society. For example, why is it that so much attention is focused on Tammy, but not on her 21-year-old boyfriend?

If it is so morally reprehensible for a 17-year-old woman to have sex, how come it is not morally reprehensible for a man to have sex with the 17-year-old woman?

If it is morally reprehensible for the man to do so, then how come we're not hearing very much in terms of criticisms of the man (as opposed to the woman) on the Internet?

I've also noted the large number of people who, in recent days, have recently googled and yahoo-searched using terms like "Nanyang Polytechnic"; "Tammy"; "sex video on handphone" and come to my site. (Bear in mind that this isn't even a major topic on my blog). I doubt if all those people came to Mr Wang's blog to discuss social values in modern Singapore - I think that more likely, most of them were in search of the infamous video clip.

What does that reflect about our society as a whole? So many members of the public googling in search of a video so that they can watch a 17-year-old girl and her boyfriend having sex?

I'm also amused that whenever such an incident comes up, there will be people who moan about the lack of values in the terrible youths in Singapore today. We choose to turn a blind eye to the large crowds of Singaporean men in their 40s, 50s, 60s, who take ferries every week to Batam in search of ... what? Seafood? Oh. come on.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

This is what I meant:


Last 20 Searchengine Queries Unique Visitors

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26 Feb, Sun, 05:24:26 Yahoo: "tammy" "nanyang" "sex" "video clip"

26 Feb, Sun, 05:51:36 Yahoo: commentarysingapore.blogspot.com
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Jayce said...

my mistake, was thinking about the vid when I posted their comment. For those who had not seen the vid, it's just oral and penetrative sex, nothing anal.

Mr wang: I have the same issue, just cos one of my post had the words "tammy" and "nyp" in them, i got over like 30~40 hits, it kinda baffles me.

I think there is something we can learn from this instant, it is that parents should not bluff themselves and think that their kids are not engaging in sex. Teens these days are doing it, whether we like it or not.

And this brings to the state of sex education that we have. Promoting abstience is good, but it's not all that practical. There are teens who engage in sex, and instead of telling them the evils of sex, shouldn't we teach them how to protect themselves? Especially the girls?

Anonymous said...

As a former prosecutor and family man, do you agree with Tammy's "nothing wrong" statement? Has oral sex been legalised in Singapore?

Anonymous said...

What it really comes down to is everyone, for whatever personal issues, just want to watch the 20 min clip of porn.

Anonymous said...

my maternal grandmother married at 14, gave birth to 7 kids from 16 onwards..

that's asian values for you

Anonymous said...

Clearly Jayce hasnt seen the video yet either, at least not the last 3 seconds. Clear anal penetration! And the smooth glide in suggests she has done this more than once...