August 7, 2012 • 1 note

FAT! HA HA HA HA! FAT!!!! --look, I am a comedic genius.

…out of nowhere, she suddenly launched into a rant against Singapore swimmer Tao Li.

“She’s so fat!” my mother said in Mandarin.

“How can you look like her and not expect to lose in the Olympics?”

This was the day after Tao Li had failed to qualify for the women’s 100m butterfly final in London, ending her medal hopes.

I never knew my 72-year-old mother was such a sports fan. Or a comedian.

While seated at the dinner table, she started doing the front crawl to demonstrate how Tao Li’s “fat little arms” were useless in competition.

My mother had never made me laugh so hard before in my life.

That’s the magic of the Olympics. It brings families closer together in the ridicule of defeated sports stars.

Aww, isn’t that sweet?  A pair of sexist, fat-shaming bigots chortling together at someone else’s body.

It doesn’t matter that Tao Li has been talented and hard-working enough to make a showing in oh, only the most prestigious sporting event in existence.  The important thing here is that body that got her to the Olympics - the fricking Olympics - isn’t visually pleasing to SM Ong’s tiny little mind.

But no really fat-shaming is all about the health no really it is.

Check out his “defence”:

I’m especially dismayed that my column is characterised as mocking foreign talent, which was not my intention.

My intention was just to make fun of the physical appearance of

OH WELL THAT’S OK THEN.

So in a way, I was actually making fun of my mother for saying that Tao Li looks fat and that’s why she can’t win.

Sure you were.  Sure.

August 5, 2012 • 3 notes
FENG TIANWEI: She plays like a man

From The Straits Times.

Front page: ‘FENG TIANWEI: She plays like a man, powered by tragedy, fear of failure.’

Page 3: ‘Home was Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in north-east China. Known for its long, icy winters, this was where Feng, 25, learnt her trade as a young girl, sparring daily against bigger and stronger boys in a gym minutes away from home. This was also where she first honed her looping forehand smash, a powerful killing stroke that has been described as “masculine” by those who have coached her.

…

‘“She’s no different from other women,” said deputy women’s head coach Jing Junhong, who described her charge as “guileless” and “adorable”.

‘“She wants to be pretty, she wants to wear make-up, she wants to relax. She’s a child-like woman who loves to laugh and have fun. But because of her schedule, she has no time to do all these things.”’

1) The characterisation of Feng’s playing style as “masculine” is an example of i) the arbitrary gendering of positive traits as male or masculine, and the idea that women must become more like men to be good at what they do; ii) how we are conditioned to think of men as the default human (otherwise, why assign abstract ideal human qualities with the male gender?)

2) It’s also hard to imagine male athletes being spoken of in such (literally!) infantilising terms when their personal lives are discussed.

July 12, 2012
These days it’s pretty hard to find skincare products in major Singapore pharmacies that don’t have “whitening” properties. 1) I don’t want to be whitened. 2) I hate that this sets up “white”/”fair” skin as the ideal. This is pretty racist. 3) The whitening agents are not benign to your skin. 4) CAPITALISM = CHOICE my brown ass.

These days it’s pretty hard to find skincare products in major Singapore pharmacies that don’t have “whitening” properties.

1) I don’t want to be whitened.

2) I hate that this sets up “white”/”fair” skin as the ideal. This is pretty racist.

3) The whitening agents are not benign to your skin.

4) CAPITALISM = CHOICE my brown ass.

June 8, 2012 • 2 notes

"Is Singapore a Top 10 city for hot babes?"

Where do I even begin with this one?

“Singapore women are beautiful because they are slim and the ethnic diversity here has given rise to a diverse ethnic gene pool”

So I guess all the non-slim Singapore women don’t count even count as women then?

“There’s a lot of variety and choice here”

Just like in a supermarket, eh?

“Singapore women maintain themselves very well.”

Just like a car, maintenance is very important for women. Must maintain yourself okay?

“I find it a bit annoying that lah, loh, meh have to be added at the end of every sentence”

Because you Singapore ladies look hot and everything, but why oh why do you have to talk and sound so foreign and dear god it is so annoying.

In conclusion: