The Orang Minyak has been traditionally blamed for rapes, beginning in the 1950s, and superstitious Malay female students would attempt to ward off the creature by donning sweaty clothing "to give the appearance of someone who had just been with a man".
According to Radford, "if a person actually covered himself that way, greasy hands and feet would make it difficult to turn doorknobs or run around, not to mention crawl up the sides of buildings or grab a struggling captive".
According to the story, the devil offered to help the creature and give him powers of the black arts, but only if the Orang Minyak worshipped him and raped 21 virgins within a week.
[5] Several years earlier, local newspapers carried sensational reports of a knife-wielding rapist covered in oil, ostensibly in imitation of the Orang Minyak.
[6] Singaporean writer Yogesh Tulsi comments that the orang minyak's depictions slathered in crude oil represents traditional ways of life ruined by a "horrific petromodernity".