Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Projecting an Unintended Image

02:16, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted in rants .. 7 comments .. Link

The little Chinese girl, Lin Miaoke, who starred in the opening ceremonies for the Olympics apparently singing the Chinese patriotic song, "Ode to the Motherland", turned out to be only lip-synching the song. The girl whose voice was actually heard, Yang Peiyi, was banned from singing the song in public because she was not considered "attractive enough" for the world to see. Her "imperfections" are a chubby face and uneven teeth.

The two girls are nine and seven years old.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said, "The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression,"

Oh, they're projecting an image, all right. An ugly image.

They're telling the world that an individual's worth is summed up by their physical appearance, not in their inherent worth as human beings and this accident of birth trumps anything they've worked to achieve.

They're telling the world that even little girls must conform to a narrow, sexualized idea of beauty -- I'm sure many pedophiles would be quick to agree. They are saying those who don't measure up to the narrow definition of what is considered fashionably attractive at any point in history are a lesser form of human beings who should hide themselves from public view and never be seen doing anything worthwhile or fun.

I think it's totally shitty.

This incident reminds me of something I once saw on a talk show in the early 90s. Martha Wash, a plus size singer who recorded the dance song, "Everybody Dance Now", was barred from performing her own song on a music video and was replaced by a svelte lip-syncher, simply because she was not thin.

That disgusted me then, and the incident with the little Chinese girls disgust me even more because they are children.

Thoughts?

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04:16, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by Chandramoon
I agree with you entirely - the world's gone mad long ago!

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05:28, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by Nikkie
Agreed. I was appalled when I heard about this. It is really sad. China did, in the long run, show what their true image is of their country. It is ugly. If the world didn't know it before the world does now.

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05:52, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by slayerbarbie
I thought it was a disgraceful thing to do and reflects poorly on our ideas of what is really beautiful. What kind of message are they sending to children?

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05:59, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by logis
I agree with you. It's not a perfect world so i hope people in charge will stop pretending it is.

If you think it thru and go a bit overboard one could say this is as ugly as the thing the Germans tried with their Arish race (blue eyes, blond hair). But i know it's going a bit far since the Germans actually had people selected for an official breeding program. Hopefully nobody will go so far anymore.

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08:14, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by littleMissConfused
There are so many things the Chinese are doing to make themselves look good in front of the camera that it makes me sick! I hope the world is looking past all of that and seeing what it is really like there.

Today I saw on the news that the police over there are stopping photographers from taking pictures of people protesting. Do they really think everyone will think protests don't happen?

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10:08, 2008-Aug-13 .. Posted by Aielman
I agree...but really, what would you expect them to think we'd want to see? That's basically what all the media we put forth espouses...that only beauty is acceptible. That flawlesness is desired, and anything short of that is undesirable.

They're just mirroring our own media.

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03:00, 2008-Aug-15 .. Posted by DeeJay
I think that was absolutely disgusting.

The whole "show" being put on by the Chinese keeps reminding me of Hitler when Germany was promoting their perfect state years ago.