Baby Got Back

I’m a little annoyed right now.  I found out from a friend on Twitter that Iggy Azalea recently quit Twitter, giving control of her account to her management team, due to online bullying.  Apparently, people went crazy over a photo of her in Hawaii wearing a bikini that displayed her large assets and her cellulite.

 

Quite honestly, I am disgusted.  I’m ashamed to live in a world where the photo above is so revolting and so horrific, that people can’t help but reach out to the subject of the photograph and let them know they should wear multiple layers of clothing to hide their gross body from the world.  Are you kidding me?!?

Let’s look back at Kim Kardashian’s “break the internet” photo of her giant, oiled up ass.  No cellulite to be seen, right?  Of course, when you use photography tricks, perfect lighting, and countless other ways to alter the photo into something artistic and flawless.  No body is perfect.  Photoshop can turn even the most horrendous looking person into someone aesthetically pleasing.  But that simply isn’t reality.

Do we really have nothing better to do with our time than hurl insults at someone for the tiniest of flaws?  Especially flaws we all have ourselves?  Are we that insure with our own bodies that the only way to feel better is to degrade famous people for not being free of flaws?  How pathetic are we?

I’m not some die-hard Iggy fan who is angry that her favorite celebrity got her feelings hurt.  I personally don’t care for her music at all and have zero interest in her personal life.  My focus here is on our sad society.  It’s one thing to have an opinion.  We all don’t have to agree on who is beautiful.  We are allowed to think certain people are hideous.  What isn’t okay is to purposely target the person and make them feel lower than a piece of shit.  Famous or not, that isn’t okay to do to anyone.

We are all flawed in some way, but flaws are what make us beautiful.  There are some things that one person considers a negative and another sees it as a fantastic positive.  No two people look at one thing the same way.  There is no right or wrong when it comes to beauty.  So the next time you feel like calling out someone directly for wearing the wrong thing or looking the wrong way, take a second to think about why you’re acting like such a hateful twat and maybe keep your opinions to yourself this time.

Cranky Comments

I recently received a comment on my blog, A True Masterchef, regarding Ben Starr who was a season two contestant on Masterchef.  The comment is:

Ben Starr is an opinionated and infantile nuisance! He has had his fifteen minutes and now that he is on the outs he has done nothing but ‘screw’ the integrity of the contract that he signed with masterchef. He thinks that he has the right to ‘correct’ everybody who thinks contrary to his thoughts about masterchef and about reality TV and if you disagree with him, he will do everything he can to defile your position: only Ben Starr can be right! Ben Starr is a very dangerous person. He dresses his persona up in this very passive….’gooey…ga..ga..type’ but when you challenge him on his ideologies that he espouses on his blogs, he goes absolutely nuts and he edits your responses and then threatens you!
Ben Starr is no sweetheart.
People need to read and I mean really read everything this guy writes about. He is extremely shallow…a fine example of a person that given a little bit of knowledge….can be extremely dangerous!

You can read Ben Starr’s so-called dangerous thoughts on his blog by clicking here.  When he’s not writing about Masterchef, he writes about his travels, the animals he loves and raises for food, instructions on how to properly cook certain things, and other wonderful food-related topics.  He also addresses more serious issues such as the recent passing of season three Masterchef contestant Josh Marks, the struggles our homosexual community faces, and the dangers of reality television in general for the participants.  He has not only been a help to me directly via Twitter and his blog, but he has helped many people and continues to educate those who wish to listen.  A fame whore he is not.

This is not about Ben though.  This is about my commenter.  This is a person who chose to read a blog of mine that was about Christine Ha that only briefly mentioned Ben.  This person chose to ignore the real topic and instead attack a person who quite honestly has been nothing but genuine and straightforward.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but I cannot understand why it was necessary to call him dangerous and accuse him of editing responses.  I cannot understand why certain people only make the effort to comment on something when they have something negative to say.

It is not necessary to insult someone in this way, especially on a posting that has very little to do with that person.  If someone is truly evil or dangerous, why not address that person directly on their own site, via email, or in another fashion?  What good is being done by telling me that someone I enjoy will threaten me if I ever disagree with him?  It’s petty and silly and wholly unnecessary.  If the goal is to educate me or assist me, provide me with facts and/or proof of your claims.  There are a few people who visit here on a regular basis who do exactly this; they give me links that educate, information that is backed up by concrete evidence, and opinions that are based on fact.  Those comments are meaningful and those comments matter.  The drivel above does nothing but irritate my eyes.

The ability to comment anonymously can be great for those who are normally afraid to open up, but it also makes it easier for cowards to come out of the woodwork and spout off with nonsense with the peace of mind that no one can really confront them or out them.  It makes it easy for people to be intolerant, abusive, or obnoxious.  Someone afraid to say F*ck Obama to their peers can do so without fear in the comments section of a news site, shielded by a fake email address or a guest posting.  The freedom to be whoever you want to be online has made people in general act hostile, cruel, and too often like children.

Surely we can find a way to express our opinions without littering them in places that aren’t appropriate, attacking people who don’t deserve it, or speaking as if we’ve never taking an English class in our lives.  I don’t care that my commenter doesn’t like Ben.  I care that they chose to post unsubstantiated claims on my posting about a totally different person and did so in a matter that makes them sound like a child.  That isn’t why I started this blog.  I welcome discussions; key word being discussion.  If someone wants to go off on a rant, do it, but do some thinking while your fingers fly across the keyboard.  Without effort, your words are meaningless.

The above comment did not change my opinion, did not educate me, did not humor me, and did not accomplish anything the poster likely set out to do.  Other than give me something to talk about while I try to wake up on this fine Thursday morning, it was for nothing.  Wasted effort on their part and probably too much wasted time on mine.  The internet is such a fantastic tool, yet we use it for the dumbest possible things.  All it takes is a few more minutes to come up with something that can either make someone laugh or make someone think.  If you’re going to take the time to say something, say something that matters.