cass: i read the article that you had put up a link to, and my feminist tendencies flared up like the biggest gold-dust firework you see on national day. BOOM right across the sky. i'd love to hear cui's opinion on this.

okay. i get the derision and slight contempt for what he termed as 'mediocre females'. yes i know what kind of girls he's talking about, and while i do roll my eyes at these girls when i see them dragging their stupid flip-flops along the shiny floors of one of the shopping centres in orchard, in their tiny micro shorts, with their mandatory lv bags perched carefully on a jutting out arm.. somehow i feel affronted as a female with the tag of mediocrity placed upon them.

i have my fair share of complaints about people who just live to exist. they go through the same motions everyday of their life, fulfill the necessary obligations, school, degree, job, marriage, kids, a few lv bags here and there, grandkids, look after them, and then die. sometimes i just wish i could see some motivation, hope, dreams or whatever. the guts to be different, the yearning to make a change.

but at the same time i know that for some people, there simply is no such lofty ambitions. they are happy to live each day quietly and peacefully. some live to survive. and who is fault them for that. i don't believe that anyone has the right to just sit there and damn these women just because they fall into the faceless average singaporean girl category. we can criticise lifestyles on a personal level, in the sense that i don't like that lifestyle or i won't live my way like that. that's you. that doesn't give one a right to call them mediocre.

secondly, i think history has shown, and it is still going on now, the male role in female subordination has not simply been limited to the creation of a 'damsel in distress' role, or that or a 'virtuous wife and mother'. men have continually seek to put women in what they believe to be their 'rightful place', be it through social stigma, societal and familial pressure or even violence. Iran recently gave out execution orders for the woman who was accused of adultery. and while there are definitely many women who voluntarily accept the subordinate role so created, is it so bad. is it so wrong to choose that? does that make them mediocre?

and then, the topic of mediocre men. HAHAHA :p oh trust me i have a lot to talk about them. its so easy to say that all women care about are their looks. gee, i wonder who made them so beauty conscious with chauvinistic men constantly comparing which girls has the hottest legs, telling their girlfriends they are fat when they themselves have paunches at the age of 25. like i said, there are faults on both sides of the coin. i'm not trying to pin these on men. i'm just trying to say it is unfair to only criticise women as mediocre for being a certain way, and completely leaving out the other sex's criticisms.

and lastly, snorts, this is the argument that annoys me to no end ALL THE TIME. i absolutely absolutely absolutely (emphasis felt?) hate the fact that a passion or interest in fashion seems to constantly be used as an argument in support of mediocrity/lack of seriousness/lack of intelligence/anything bad about the female sex really. c'mon. the most common group of people i hear these statements from are those who think way too highly of themselves, take themselves too seriously and think that a lack of fashion seems to equate to intelligence or seriousness about their work. often i feel that the men who come up with these arguments just sound so sexist.

why does an interest in fashion and beauty make you boring/such a typical girl/'mediocre'? it is a form of personal pride, looking presentable no? and here they can list a whole list of artists as 'brilliant people' like picasso, van gogh and botticelli. but can't they see that fashion is another art too? a much more practical art in fact - you can wear it, cover your body and keep you warm at times :p instead of hanging it on a wall or keep it in a museum under lock and key. and fashion has produced an incredibly long list of brilliant geniuses too - chanel, karl lagerfeld, alexander mcqueen, balenciaga, just to name a few. isn't it funny how your so-called 'frivolous, mundane and oh-so-feminine based' industry is led by so many brilliant males. sorry, i think an attempt to copy these fashions from far east is much better than the typical male singaporean's uniform of bermudas, polo shirt and slippers. thanks :p

whoosh. i think my brain got fried during my spore constitutional law exam today -.- what a bloody waste of my time. mms. glad that's over with. i think i passed :p haha. on to the remaining three.

do tell me what you thought cui :p

ps. i know this is bordering slightly on a personal attack, but the inclusion of the japanese words were simply unnecessary, and often erh incorrect or simply irrelevant -.-