\u201c\u2018G.F.E.\u2019, or \u2018Girl Friend Experience\u2019, is a term for transactional sex where the experience you buy is not merely transactional,\u201d Woon Yong explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not just f**king \u2013 it\u2019s more intimate. You kiss, chat, cuddle and make eye contact. The connection goes beyond sex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He first came across the term several years ago on an online forum \u2013 one dedicated to ratings and recommendations by men who engage in transactional sex regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reminded him of a trip he had made to Geylang, while smarting from a recent break-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had just broken up with my girlfriend and I was feeling very down,\u201d he recalls. His secondary school friend was also dealing with relationship woes, and so they decided to make a trip to Geylang together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt first, we were thinking of maybe getting a little action to numb our pain,\u201d he confesses. \u201cUltimately, however, we just went for drinks and had a long and deep conversation about love and relationships. It was a very surreal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Woon Yong came away from this visit to Geylang with one observation that has stuck with him through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll the men who were there for the sex workers \u2013 they looked dead inside,\u201d he says. \u201cThe most lively, colourful and beautiful people I saw in Geylang were the sex workers. The men, on the other hand, were lifeless. They looked trapped. It was really quite depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Woon Yong had been tasked to write a 20-minute short play for The Theatre Practice. He decided to distill his own experiences in Geylang and combine them with the research he had conducted online to create the earliest incarnation of G.F.E.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That first version of the play took on a life of its own. Woon Yong has performed it on tour in Shanghai, while Ric Liu \u2013 who will be directing the play at the Singapore Theatre Festival \u2013 did a reading of it as part of the 2016 Singapore Night Festival\u2019s \u2018Late Night Texting\u2019 segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year on, Woon Yong is glad to have the opportunity to develop G.F.E.<\/em> into a more complete piece, adding more depth and layers, for the Singapore Theatre Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s particularly pleased that his new play will be paired in a double-bill with When The Cold Wind Blows<\/em>, Neo Hai Bin\u2019s poetic look at the psychological costs of Singapore\u2019s National Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoth plays examine what it means to be a man in Singapore today,\u201d he says. \u201cA large part of When The Cold Wind Blows<\/em> examines toxic masculinity \u2013 what becomes of men when they are always told that they must be tough, that they must have balls, in order not to be seen as failures?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n G.F.E.<\/em>, on the other hand, is more about \u201cvulnerability\u201d and \u201crepression\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMen don\u2019t always have it easy,\u201d he notes. \u201cI look around and, sometimes, I see men around me laden with all sorts of expectations \u2013 be it a result of their circumstances or a certain type of societal conditioning. Occasionally, I feel it myself. How do these expectations affect modern men when they look for a partner?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, Woon Yong observes, \u201cSingaporean Chinese men have a lot of desires that they cannot find an outlet to express. Where and how do love and intimacy come into the picture?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe men I saw in Geylang \u2013 I\u2019m sure a lot of them are married and have families. And yet, you could tell they were just looking for a way out of themselves. And maybe buying a G.F.E. is a way for them to express that vulnerability, to indulge a certain need for intimacy, or perhaps even to mourn some sort of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the moment, Woon Yong is revising and refining his script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from talking to his friends and incorporating feedback from Festival Dramaturg Alfian Sa\u2019at, Woon Yong is also taking on insights from his creative team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are a lot of women working behind the scenes on this show,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s good to have their feedback on the script \u2013 it\u2019s been very constructive and offers a more layered perspective on the play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, Woon Yong has been pondering what sound designer Ng Jing had to say after a recent workshop reading of his latest draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe pointed out that a real<\/em> Girl Friend Experience involves things like quarrelling with his girlfriend, helping to clean her house, walking her dog, and being there for her when she\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, when you buy a G.F.E. in Geylang, you\u2019re not buying something that\u2019s somehow more real, or more intimate. You\u2019re actually buying a fantasy. The term \u2018G.F.E.\u2019, when used in its original context, is in itself deeply ironic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working on G.F.E. <\/em>has made Woon Yong consider his own views on love and relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile working on the script, I\u2019ve come to realise that a G.F.E. has meant different things to me at different ages,\u201d he says. \u201cAt 17, it was serenading someone on a guitar, going to the zoo. At 26, it was dancing the night away together. Now, at 32, I think what matters is that people in a relationship enjoy each other\u2019s company, even on the most banal of days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, he concludes that his play doesn\u2019t just deal in titillating topics like sex and hookers. \u201cIt may be called G.F.E.<\/em> but, ultimately, it\u2019s about love. Visiting Geylang for a G.F.E. simply provides a metaphor to examine that. How does the average man in the play process what he\u2019s doing? What happens when the experience falls short of his expectations? Can we love on our own terms?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"WhatsApp](\"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/images_BLOG_WhatsApp_Image_2018-04-26_at_11.42.09_PM.jpeg\")
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