That's what I like about her, she never changed.
She does not like something, she says it.
How many people can honestly do that?
So what do I make of this recent controversy, where she outed the few men who left uncouth and disgusting comments about her and her friends on one Temasek Review (Or is it Temasek Times? Temasek "who gives a crap"?) website?
I think if she were a small fry, people would not even care. Dr Cherian George would not have heard of or written anything about it, because it probably would be a spat restricted to the various forums at best.
And worst of all, if she were not Xiaxue, I'm pretty sure the T-clones would be attacking her online. Maybe even stalking her and posting her personal details for all and sundry. It's happened before.
And then she will just become another statistic, since our laws are not exactly ace when it comes to cyber crimes.
So lucky for us that Xiaxue is not a small fry. She is known not just locally but regionally and internationally and she is still a big drama queen about what people say about her.
Some people think that this is not becoming of her, because she is a public figure. That's when the lines blur for me.
First of all, she is a blogger and blogs mainly about her life. That's how she gained prominence, by bitching about things that piss her off among other things of more frivolous nature. I don't expect her to change, and I also find it disturbing that people take it for granted that they have a free pass to hurl any type of verbal abuse at someone, anyone, they find disagreeable. Secondly, everything that is put on Facebook and made public is on public domain. She did not break into these T-clones' home and steal those photos, neither were they kept preciously in a hidden folder. Once you have a Facebook account, you are a public figure. Everything you say is linked to a page with whatever part of your life you want to share.
Thirdly, I've always found this assumption that well-known people need to take the high road annoying. People become prominent for so many reasons, some quite by accident. But they are people too. They are not allowed to have their feelings hurt? Are they not allowed to be fallible? Of course I know that in our history, some have taken it a bit too far (and you can learn more about it here). But I'll quote Russell Brand's quote of Tupac Shakur here "A role is what people play, a model is what people make, both of these things are fake." Why are we ever so eager to impose this responsibility of being a role model and pillar of strength on every single public figure?
Boo!
I have lost count of the number of times people called me names and saw fit to shame me, because I confess openly and unapologetically that I follow her. There is almost this immediate branding of me as an ignoramus, bimbo, racist or whatever it is that is grinding these people's gears.
I've learnt to accept that, for sure the girl has made some pretty grating opinions known. I too have been quite riled up by some of the things she has said. Her prejudice toward foreign workers for example, a topic close to my heart. Her run of the mill reasons for supporting the ruling party is another.
I remember being upset, because she has the ability to influence so many people, but here she is just mouthing off normal uneducated things. Then I realised I would not expect that from anyone who is not famous and I did not work hard to be prominent enough to counter her arguments in equal strength. She does not owe me anything. Neither does anyone else who is a public figure.
Neither does she owe T-clones who have enjoyed the luxury of high-road taking victims for too long.
Should she have kept the T-clones' families out of it? Perhaps. Should the T-clones be having a family and spouting this type of unsavoury crap online? Absolutely not. Never. In my books.
There is a real danger in trends. That is when people can fall into a sense of comfort that lulls them out of being discerning. It becomes all too much fun to hurl insults and make up one's mind about another person in the comfort of agreements and shouts for more. This is very much evident in every faction of society. So it is perhaps good that we have so many real people writing and expressing themselves online, showing both their strengths and their weaknesses. I'm with Xiaxue on this one.
