Judging Books by their Covers

Remember how your parents used to tell you that you can’t judge books by their covers or people by their appearances? (Well, I hope your parents did.) Unfortunately, although we know not to judge things by the way they look, we still do.

I am one of the most unremarkable looking girls around. Everything about me is pretty average. I’m not slim, I’m not tall, I’m not pretty. My eyes are well hidden by glasses, and last year, I didn’t have the best fashion sense. It was jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers, and maybe a dull coat for when it was very cold. Make up didn’t even feature in my daily routine. People treated me as if I was invisible. I had to walk around them, or they would walk straight into me.

I had a makeover at the beginning of this year, and the change was remarkable. I wear high-heels now( whether they be boots, cut out booties, peep-toes, or just traditional black pumps), and eyeliner, eyeshadow and mascara–that is so I don’t look like a hungover version of my mother. My clothes are coordinated, feminine, and classy; I actually have skirts and dresses in my wardrobe now, and no more polar fleece, except for those days when I can just hang out at home and not see anyone outside of my family. I wear perfume, and I have remembered that I pierced my ears for a reason. The change in the way people treat me has been phenomenal. They now walk around me–and I’m not even about to barge into them. They hold open doors for me. All in all, they take me a lot more seriously, and they respect me. I had expected a little change following the makeover, but that much was just surprising. Maybe even I take myself more seriously now that I look the part. I certainly feel more confident in a pair of high-heels–the sway and the rhythm feels good.

So what does all of that say about our society? I’m afraid it’s not good news. We are shallow people, in other words. Material wealth and sophistication impresses us, despite the fact that we know we shouldn’t. We are always judging others based on our first impression of them, and more often than not, it is a first visual impression. There might be a few people who don’t do this, but they are a minority. In general, we do judge books by their covers.

So, if you want people to respect you and take you seriously, the first thing to do is to look the part. It could be just improving your posture, or you could have a full-blown makeover the way I did. Just a little change goes a long way.

Christian Bale and World Events

Thursday 24 July 2008, The Press, CHCH.

No, I’m not going to blog about Christian Bale and his life; that’s his business. Truth be told, I’m more interested in the newspaper itself. It’s very interesting actually. Notice how the headline about Mr. Bale has a bigger font than the one about the man who did something nasty with a bulldozer? Moreover, the former is higher than the latter, and the fact that they’re on the same page in the world news section really does say a lot.

The newspaper tells us that as a society or a species, we are very nosy. We want to know other people’s deepest darkest secrets. That’s why the headline about Mr. Bale is very big. The editors of the newspaper probably want people to see it, get interested, and buy the paper. And if they didn’t know that we would be more interested in Christian Bale than, say, the plight of the Palestinian people, why would they give him a bigger headline?

It also shows us how trivial we have become. Since when did gossip about famous actors become worthy headlines in world news? Not that I don’t read gossip, but the world news section is presumably for news which has some sort of world impact. As good an actor as Christian Bale is, I highly doubt he has any effect on world events which can influence the fate of the human species. Lots of people assault others, and if every person who was accused of assaulting someone was mentioned in the news, we’d have newspapers as thick as the Oxford Dictionary. So really, world news should be saved for those really important things, such as the rebirth of the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the state of affairs in Iraq, or Israel and Iran’s latest confrontation and another rise in oil prices…you get my idea.

It’s a sad world, isn’t it, when people are more interested in the private business of actors than things which could actually affect their lives. ‘How?’ you say. ‘Iran and Israel are really far away. I live all the way in Australia/Brazil/the United States/Japan/New Caledonia/England. It’s not going to affect me.’ The fact is, the world is like a row of dominoes. One domino toppling over will hit another domino, causing it to fall, and so on and so on…you know, the Domino Effect. Israel and Iran going to war would cause oil prices to soar, and since most things in this world need oil, your wallet is going to be a lot lighter. Now, perhaps obesity is a bad thing, but I’ve never heard of anyone complaining that their wallet is too heavy.

As for Christian Bale’s business? Well, it’s his business. Let’s leave it at that.

Idiots and…wise people?

The other day, I was making up a statement concerning freedom and wisdom and I needed a group noun for wise and smart people. Being the relatively studious sort of person, I went and got my Oxford Thesaurus off my bookshelf and tried to look for something which would suit. One of the few words I knew which meant someone smart was ‘genius’, but as there was such a fine and fuzzy line between genius and madness, I couldn’t use that for my saying. I looked up ‘genius’ in the Thesaurus. That didn’t yield any good results (‘Einstein’ wasn’t exactly what I was looking for) so I went and looked up ‘intellectual’ instead. There were very few synonyms, but after a while, I chose ’sage’. The word ‘intellectual’, while appropriate, didn’t have the right rhythm. The thing is, I didn’t find many nouns which meant ’smart people’.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the word ‘fool’. That was the other word I was using in my statement. There were so many synonyms listed there that it would take a while for me to type them all out. I found ‘idiot’, ‘ass’ (very insulting to donkeys, in my opinion), ‘halfwit’, ‘blockhead’, ‘dunce’, ‘dolt’, ‘dullard’, ’simpleton’, ‘clod’, ‘dope’ etc. just to name a few. The most important observation was that there were a lot more synonyms for ‘fool’ than there were for ‘intellectual’.

So what does that tell us about society? It was just a curious thought. Why are there so many words for a stupid person? Do we live in a society of idiots, or are we just a defamatory society which delights in putting people down? Either way, it doesn’t look great.

Technology–the new conqueror

Yesterday morning, I discovered that my new mp3 player wasn’t working. It might not seem like a big deal, but to me, it was. See, I had been planning on taking it to university so I could work under the influence of music. The malfunctioning of that tiny machine stressed me out so much that instead of studying (which I should’ve done), I wrote a two thousand word chapter of fanfiction just to de-stress myself, and that only made me feel just a little better. All right, so I wasn’t thinking about the mp3 player while I was writing it, but I was so stressed out that it only took me an hour and a half to write it.

This little incident, even if it is in no way out of the ordinary, has made me reflect on our reliance on technology today. Without modern technology like computers and cellphones, many people, like myself, would not be able to communicate as well as we want. I’m quite reliant on the computer for many things, especially for socializing, since the real-life people I meet are hardly ever interested in the same things as I am. The internet is a lifeline for introverts like me because we can hide behind this artificial alter-ego. I love the internet, and when it stops working, my brain ceases to function properly until the problem is fixed. I wonder if I can even survive (sanely, that is) without the internet now. Three years ago, I would’ve said yes. Now, I am definitely going to say no.

On the Social Heirarchy

When I was eleven, I realized I was living in a social heirarchy; one which had been passed down from generation to generation ever since the time of the ancients. And I hated it. As a girl, growing up in a rather traditional Chinese family, I came to realize that respect is dealt out according to age, gender and status. Being of the younger generation, and a female, I was looked down upon. There were so many things that I couldn’t do. Swearing, or even talking in a less than ‘lady-like’ manner was a no-no. I wasn’t even allowed to say ‘Ew’ because it sounded similar to some cuss word in Cantonese. Women’s business was kept in the dark. Once my father saw sanitary pads in the bags of shopping, and then he did something which equated to making the sign against the evil eye in the Middle Ages. When he saw those, he said “Good fortune be on us!” I told him off soundly for that. Father or not, he had no right to hold the view that women were somehow lesser than men. It’s the twenty-first century! If not for us women and our menstrual cycles, there would be no more homo sapiens sapiens.

Perhaps this blatant male chauvinism is something which draws me to the Crusades. During that period, there were a lot of strong woman. Most famous of them all, Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of Richard I of England. If not for her, England would’ve been in shambles, and Henry II wouldn’t have been quite so powerful either. Then there was Eschiva of Tiberias, who defended her castle against Saladin’s attacks, knowing that her husband would not willingly send troops to rescue her, no matter how much he loved her. (Raymond of Tripoli is also a character I’m quite fond of. He loved his stepsons, and his wife. That’s not really normal for a man of his time.) Even Sibylla of Jerusalem, although foolish, was a strong woman, because she braved the anger of the nobles to marry the man she loved. Subsequently, that led to the downfall of her kingdom, but that’s beside the point.

***

As a member of the younger generation, I could not speak out of turn, although that as a rule I broke often, and for my pains, I would be told ‘not to mind the business of adults’ when obviously, I knew what was right and wrong. And legally, I was an adult, just not of the right generation. I had to respect my elders simply because they were older, and not because they had done anything to merit my respect and admiration. Of course, I’m not that sort of obedient perfect daughter. These unfair expectations made me angry, and certainly did not improve my view of the male gender.

The thing was, when I talked to other adults, not Chinese, they didn’t seem to have this sort of heirarchical system. I was able to have proper discussions, and they would listen to my ideas. Whether they accepted them or not was another matter, but at least they listened.

This social heirarchy is one of the things which I feel is wrong in Chinese culture. Respect is all very well, but I believe that respect and status needs to be earned, not expected, as it seems to be with a lot of Chinese adults.