About Tongue Biting

I shall start off this entry by apologizing for jumping on the bandwagon, and rambling on about a topic that's been blogged and flogged to death by a million other people, in a million different ways. (Hey! Flogged... Blogged... A rhyme! I'm such a poet sometimes. Hah! :P)

I also need to qualify that I'm not 1 of the "AXXA" (Yep. That's my little label for all the XX slammers out there - "Anti-Xiaxue-Activists"). On the contrary, I generally enjoy her entries. I might not always agree with what she says, but she's entitled to her own opinion and her blog's an entertaining enough read, so who cares?

Which brings me to my main point. (Yes, I do have 1 and I know that I'm taking my time getting to it but I'm in a rambling mood... So there! :P) I've just read XX's latest blog entry on the whole SPG fiasco and how she's suffering from the backlash of her rather catty comments some days back.

I quote...

"I cannot take it anymore. I've developed a phobia for reading my mail, I don't dare to look at the comments links anymore. I don't have to take all these. Please don't fight anymore, please stop saying such mean things, I cannot take it anymore. I am breaking down into a million pieces."

My feelings after reading this heartwrenching plea? Zilch. Nadah. Zippity-doo-dah. (Oh! And it's "I don't have to take all THIS." Sorry... Grammar nazi at work.) Heh... The reason for my lack of sympathy? Besides the fact that I can be a coldhearted bitch at times, I simply can't understand why XX didn't see this coming. I mean...

With Photoshop-ed images and little comments like these on another girl's boobs...

"I don't want to sound mean, but in fact I see nothing wonderful about it. Average, so very average."

"I told T, (one of those many deluded men who thinks her bod is good) "Huh, don't you think her neh neh look very funny?""

XX gets all upset when her inbox gets flooded with emails that contain snippets like...

"You have demeaned yourself, and all Singapore females, for being a foul mouthed and petty toad to be so obviously jealous of someone else stepping into the limelight, whether intended or not."

"I would advise you to shut up if you have nothing intelligent to say. Your New Paper columns are a waste of ink and space."

Now just so we're all clear... I sure as hell ain't saying that XX should keep her mouth shut. I think she's as entitled to her opinion as SPG is to her boobie pics. But for fuck sakes, don't play the game if you can't afford the stakes.

I guess XX's still learning that being 1 of Singapore's most famous bloggers (How many zillion site hits does she get a day again?) comes with more than pretty pictures of her in the newspapers and a complimentary Zouk membership card.

It comes with a drawback that every kind celebrity deals with... A little something called public scrutiny. Don't wanna be affected by hate mail? Don't fucking read it. Don't even wanna get hate mail? Drop the bitching and stick to blogging insipid little entries about what you ate for lunch. Something along the lines of "I had fish porridge today. It was so much tastier than the prawn noodles I ate yesterday. I think I shall have nasi padang tomorrow. I like nasi padang too... And mee soto and etc etc etc" should do just fine.

Don't wanna do that because you'll be letting let your fans down?

"I know readers like me to maintain my honesty even though I am so mainstream now, so I try my best to. I really do you know."

Sorry hun, but you should know by now that you can't please everyone and that as a public figure, so to speak, you're an easier target as compared to the average, anonymous Joe.

If you feel that your priorities lie in whatever obligations you have to your readers, fine... Then deal with the flak you're gonna get every time you express an opinion that's even remotely controversial... And take comfort in the fact that for every person that slams you, there's probably 1 that sticks up for you. Can't take the heat? Then don't start a fire. It's as simple as that.

I guess I felt a sudden need to blog about this because of my recent run-in with the evil that's called "self-censorship"... Uh huh. I didn't want to risk any splatters landing on me from the shit hitting the fan, so I threw the whole sack of dung out before anything could happen. It sucked but the possible consequences of not doing so were too damaging for me to do anything else...

Speaking of consequences, I'd better end this little ramble right here. There'll be hell to pay if I can't wake up in time for my morning meeting tomorrow. *grumpy face*