a final word on the malu fernandez to-do
so the malu fernandez affair turned out to be one of those flash in the pan things the intarwebs are famous for. some say forgive but do not forget, but who's willing to bet that in just a year or so, nobody will even remember the name "malu fernandez"? sure she's easy enough to google up now, but unless she does something else that's flame-worthy, i doubt she'll be brought up by anyone again.
before i let the matter rest, though, there are just some thoughts i have to put down. for example, i had to roll my eyes upon seeing that some bloggers didn't expect the rest of the blogosphere's reaction, and were openly appalled at all the "miss piggy oink oink" taunts and acid "she should just die" remarks.
i just have to ask: under what rock have these bloggers been hiding? are they so out of touch with the rest of the philippine population, that they should be shocked when this happens?
we've ridiculed and railed violently against people who abuse their power and privilege since forever. it doesn't make us right, but it seriously shouldn't surprise anyone anymore. as a media person, and especially as someone in the entertainment sector, malu fernandez should know that. but apparently she doesn't, and i'm appalled thinking of how many other educated, well-off pinoy bloggers and media writers don't, either.
if we're going to talk fairness, common sense and civility, what miss fernandez wrote in her two offending articles wasn't exactly fair, intelligent or civil. she may believe she doesn't deserve the kind of attention she got, but there are really only two things that make the reaction worse than the provocation: 1) many of the people who responded were not people with very strong language skills, and therefore could offer little by way of veiling, sarcasm, or "acerbic wit," and 2) it was done by a multitude.
yes, it was a mob action. yes, it was mean and bullying. there's no denying that. still, i'd imagine a media writer who prides herself on being a genuine tell-it-like-it-is bitch would be thicker-skinned than to give in to something like that. why not issue an apology without quitting? the people she aggravated aren't people asia readers anyway, so how could that hurt the sales of her publication any further?
as for the weight taunts - well my dears, you'll have to understand that she pretty much made fun of the nation's stick-thin and starving, the ones driven off to seek work overseas because they simply can't feed their families on unreliable salaries of around PhP36 (currently US$0.77) a day. the ones whose siblings or children or parents died because they couldn't afford the medicine for treating malnutrition-related illnesses. until a large body stops being a symbol of upper-class excess (and given the poor nutrition we receive, that time may come soon), i'm afraid it will remain quite hard to defend oneself for making fun of the underprivileged by saying "please don't make fun of my weight."
and yes, some of the rabid commenters and bloggers needed to get a hold of themselves, but we need to keep things in perspective here. even if miss fernandez was a silly bigot, she was still a bigot - worse, she was a bigot with an education, good connections and the power of the media, which entirely too many other filipinos do NOT have. she needed to be held accountable, and a mob action was probably the only thing that could have "humbled" her anyway.
***
ps: break muna, have a quiz. snagged from
brett_dunbar:
***
pps: have begun to stalk Audrey Kawasaki, akai_seldom_do. her oil-on-wood paintings just take my breath away. her webpage contains a gallery of her work.
before i let the matter rest, though, there are just some thoughts i have to put down. for example, i had to roll my eyes upon seeing that some bloggers didn't expect the rest of the blogosphere's reaction, and were openly appalled at all the "miss piggy oink oink" taunts and acid "she should just die" remarks.
i just have to ask: under what rock have these bloggers been hiding? are they so out of touch with the rest of the philippine population, that they should be shocked when this happens?
we've ridiculed and railed violently against people who abuse their power and privilege since forever. it doesn't make us right, but it seriously shouldn't surprise anyone anymore. as a media person, and especially as someone in the entertainment sector, malu fernandez should know that. but apparently she doesn't, and i'm appalled thinking of how many other educated, well-off pinoy bloggers and media writers don't, either.
if we're going to talk fairness, common sense and civility, what miss fernandez wrote in her two offending articles wasn't exactly fair, intelligent or civil. she may believe she doesn't deserve the kind of attention she got, but there are really only two things that make the reaction worse than the provocation: 1) many of the people who responded were not people with very strong language skills, and therefore could offer little by way of veiling, sarcasm, or "acerbic wit," and 2) it was done by a multitude.
yes, it was a mob action. yes, it was mean and bullying. there's no denying that. still, i'd imagine a media writer who prides herself on being a genuine tell-it-like-it-is bitch would be thicker-skinned than to give in to something like that. why not issue an apology without quitting? the people she aggravated aren't people asia readers anyway, so how could that hurt the sales of her publication any further?
as for the weight taunts - well my dears, you'll have to understand that she pretty much made fun of the nation's stick-thin and starving, the ones driven off to seek work overseas because they simply can't feed their families on unreliable salaries of around PhP36 (currently US$0.77) a day. the ones whose siblings or children or parents died because they couldn't afford the medicine for treating malnutrition-related illnesses. until a large body stops being a symbol of upper-class excess (and given the poor nutrition we receive, that time may come soon), i'm afraid it will remain quite hard to defend oneself for making fun of the underprivileged by saying "please don't make fun of my weight."
and yes, some of the rabid commenters and bloggers needed to get a hold of themselves, but we need to keep things in perspective here. even if miss fernandez was a silly bigot, she was still a bigot - worse, she was a bigot with an education, good connections and the power of the media, which entirely too many other filipinos do NOT have. she needed to be held accountable, and a mob action was probably the only thing that could have "humbled" her anyway.
***
ps: break muna, have a quiz. snagged from
brett_dunbar:
You're The Catcher in the Rye!
by J.D. Salinger
You are surrounded by phonies, and boy are you sick of them! In an
ongoing struggle to search for a land without phonies, you end up running away from
everything, from school to consequences. In this process, you reveal that many people
in your life have suffered torments and all you really want to do is catch them as
they fall. Perhaps using a baseball mitt. Your biggest fans are infamous
psychotics.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
***
pps: have begun to stalk Audrey Kawasaki, aka
i_seldom_do. her oil-on-wood paintings just take my breath away. her webpage contains a gallery of her work.