Prudence and Madness

This is the second part of the series.

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Prejudice vs. Prejudice

Dismayed by the nature and the number of insults flung at Malu Fernandez, I’m more appalled by the justification some bloggers offered for continually assaulting this woman’s weight problem as an outlet for their hatred. They said that it isn’t bigotry or prejudice to criticize this woman for her obesity since it is a health problem and everybody should strive for a healthy size.

While it isn’t prejudice or bigotry to point out the growing problem of obesity in the country, to single out an individual and ridicule that person for being overweight is pretentious and unethical (if I know better, some of these people who made these remarks are obese too). Some tried to justify it some more by saying the word “pig” was not made in reference to her body size but in reference to her behavior which is “dirty” or “pig-like”.

Oh, did they really? Let’s take a sample of those comments:

eh kahit nga ako ng 50 kg lang halos
di na magkasya sa liit ng upuan emirates sya pa kaya
na mukhang balyena?

For everybody’s information, nag apply akong NANNY o DH before dito, hindi ako tinanggap, kasi mataas ang standards nila sa Domestic Helper. Yun bang mukhang mapagkakatiwalaan at maganda ang asal para maganda ang matutunan ng anak nila. Kaya I’m sure Malu Fernandez, hindi ka makakapasa bilang DH. Kasi ayaw nilang maging kasing taba mo ang anak nila. Yun lang.

If your rich and your ugly, its your fault, So kung eletista at mayaman sya, baket ganun ang face nya lalo na body nya?

Sabi ng classmate ko kaya daw nagsugat ang legs eh di kasya sa seat, ang taba taba nya, kakahiya syang itabi sa mga DH na sexy and beautiful.

sana ikaw nalang isang lahi sa lahi ninyo. sana dika na magkaanak baka magmana pa sa iyong masamang pagtanaw sa buhay. tingnan mu nga ang sarili mo sa salamin, palagay maganda ka?, hoy mataba ka para kang aparador kung sa muebles.

These are the tamer comments that I can find. Can you still tell me that this isn’t bigotry?

(This aspect of this issue is a foreboding that there’s still a problem in size acceptance in this country. While that we don’t ridicule our friends for being obese, anyone who’d say they haven’t enjoyed throwing out fat jokes involving strangers or someone hated is a hypocrite. I wonder what the International Size Acceptance Association or ISAA Philippines can say about this.)

Though most will say she deserve it because she’s insulted OFWs, I don’t think it will be necessary that we turn into bigots too just to extract justice from what she’s done. Why do you have to become the bigot which you’re accusing her of becoming when she wrote that article?

Again, most people will try to excuse themselves for throwing those invectives by saying they have become “emotional”. No, it isn’t a valid excuse. While we do know that we are human beings capable of emotions, we are also rational beings. Why go down to being deranged animals when you are a human being?

Should It Be Emotions Vs. Rationalization?

Somebody said that this Malu Fernandez issue is an emotional issue because what she said stirred emotions of anger and hate among the OFWs and other Filipinos and that this could not be settled logically because Malu did not have a logical case in the first place. Now there’s a great fallacy for you, folks. While I do think that those who’re irrational would not listen to the more reasonable thinking of those who’re clear-headed enough and that Malu Fernandez may have yet to straighten certain “facts” she harbor about OFWs, it must be considered that, like any other arguments, this can be settled by pointing out the fallacies to Malu and to those who may be clear-headed enough to do something about it. She may have become unreasonable in some aspects but she’s an educated adult. If many people will point out her mistakes decently, she would have come at the conclusion that she did wrong. That is the way adults should be dealing with the issue.

Another thing is that people have this misconception that rationalization is devoid of emotions. And that being emotional is not part of rationalization. This is false. When a rational human being reasons out, he acknowledges how an issue makes him feel and uses these emotions to make a decision on what to do with it and with the source of such emotions.

So, for people who likes using the “emotional excuse” to wriggle out of responsibility for what they have done or said, well, I’m not buying it. That’s just the result of too much TV drama, I’d say.

Was It Fair?

So, Malu Fernandez has finally resigned (only from People Asia Magazine, though). It was the goal of many bloggers and the OFW community that she had offended with her writings. But was the manner by which this goal was attained fair?

On one hand, it has been fair because both sides have been given the chance to air their concerns and sentiments. Malu was given the chance to air her side through her “apology” statement. The complainers were able to get their messages across by posting on blogs, forums, and through emails to the publishers and editors involved. On the other hand, I think, it has been quite unfair, too, because of the manner by which the lynch mob went after her. I do think the harassment she received in forms of blogs and comments that reek of hatred, curses, and violence (reportedly, she received death threats but nobody has verified this with evidence) was just a tad too much.

Yes, she hurt the pride of the Filipinos in the OFWs. But was that enough reason that we forget that we are human beings and we are dealing with another human being? Was that enough justification that we forget that we are rational beings and not animals? Does that justify our bigotry towards this woman?

Moving On

I think this Malu Fernandez issue has become one of the turning points in Philippine blogging history. Not that remarkable, though, in terms of the goal attained (resignation of a columnist) but, still notable, as to the process by which we arrived at the conclusion.

We have thrown a lot of hurtful words around and it is time to take control of the rage and see the problem for what it is. It is quite disappointing that, in an effort to fight for an injured pride, a lot of Malu Fernandezes sprung up.  And the rage exhibited by the mob reminded me much of the boys in Lord of the Flies. But like most things, this are not permanent and can still be changed. It is important that everybody take what we could learn from this and analyze how this issue has affected ourselves and the way we blog and live.

So, for now, we must move on to more important issues that we need to turn our attention to.