Deportment classes: 02 (Singapore)

 

Miss Manning’s Deportment classes were the last period of the school day (3:30–4:30pm).

There’d be a mad rush to the ladies’ loo, to apply as much eye shadow and lipstick as possible.  Not just the amount, but the shade as well:  striking blue eye shadow, scarlet lipstick.

We’d look at each other and say, “Uggh, you look horrible!  But you’ll get a good grade from Miss Manning!”

And we certainly did.  She was very pleased with the results: “That’s better!  Now I can see your eyes and your mouth!”  The stronger the colour of the eye shadow and the lipstick, the higher the mark.

Because the class finished at 4:30pm, we didn’t have time to go to the ladies’ loo to clean up our faces, as it was too close to 5pm when office workers generally knocked off work, so we’d rush out to the bus stop looking like performers straight out of a Chinese opera.  Putting up with stares — some in shock, some in disapproval — was nothing if we could just manage to get on the bus home.

The only person in our class to escape the eye-shadow-and-lipstick requirement was Somyot — a young man from Thailand.  (Not sure why he’d chosen to do a secretarial course in 1970s Singapore when gender roles were certainly very clearly defined.)

(Singapore,1974)