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Representing Violence Against Overseas Contract Workers

Curtin University

This article explores the case of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic worker in Singapore who was sentenced to death in 1995 for the supposed murder of a young boy. The totally different versions of the case presented by the media, especially the Singapore and Philippine presses, are explored. Violence against overseas domestic workers has long been acknowledged in sociological research. However, previous media analyses of the Contemplacion case have not addressed such violence. Here, negotiation of gender discourse in media meanings of violence with respect to the Contemplacion case is presented, thereby bringing a different approach to media and cultural analysis of the case, and contributing more generally to the dearth of media analyses of gender and violence. The article endeavors to show how media and nationalist discourses are inextricably interwoven and felt politically in the lives of Contemplacion, the other individuals involved, other overseas domestic contract workers in Singapore and their employers, and media audiences.

Key Words: Filipino domestic workers • overseas contract workers

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