Monday, June 13, 2005

Thin Red Line

Sarong Party Girl is a blog I visit regularly, among others. I never knew much about the author but I do enjoy her writing very much. First of I should explain that Sarong Party Girl is “a pejorative term describing local (Singaporean) girls who will only go out with Caucasians. The stereotypical “SPG”, as she is usually abbreviated, is extremely tan, and skimpily-dressed.” So, on her blog she usually writes about relationship issues and some of her sexpliots and sexcapaedes. I find her journal mildly entertaining but as I mentioned before, SPG has a very interesting style of writing that reflects depth of character.

Last week on her blog, SPG put up a picture of herself in the buff. The picture in my opinion is very classy and not of a pornographic nature. She has mentioned on her blog in the past that he has done some fetish modeling. She has also shared the fact that she has engaged in sexual acts that might not suit everyone’s tastes. But those are all her stories so you can check them out on her blog. I have found out today that over this weekend there has been some fiasco in Singapore and the conservative swine have blown this poor girl into the open with an article titled “Net Group Set abuzz by Nude Blogger”, that I believe was also printed in the Star newspaper.

The article does not divulge the actual name of SPG but it does bring to light that she is a 19 year old on route to Uni. Critics have already gone as far as to say “What she has done reflects badly on her parents.”. This poor girl is going to have to face a shit storm now. Singapore is a very judgmental society. A prime example of what I wrote about in my post a few days ago. SPG’s parents did not know about her blog and now chances are a lot of people who were not aware of her “extracurricular” activities will be.

I guess one could say that by putting her self out there she has no right no feel violated by the press and the attention she is bound to receive. And she is receiving attention, as you can see on her site that the pictures are not showing up because her bandwidth has been exhausted. Maybe this is the risk you run of having a blog and you should not be entitled to any privacy as a blogger. But in this age we live in, where people pay hundreds of dollars to spew their thoughts out to physiatrists, therapists, and spiritual healers, some people have found a way to purge them selves and maintain sanity by throwing their thoughts up on a blog. Do they not have the right to remain anonymous if they so wish to be? I mean SPG does not even leave a comment space on her blog so she obviously does not care for criticism or our opinions; almost 3,000 people still visit her site. Some things she writes may shock us and other things may even enlighten us. But now society will paint a scarlet letter on her and people will be free to point their fingers and cast judgment upon her. Arguments will ensue deliberating weather this is defined as porno or art.

I have included 2 pictures from her web site below and you can decide for yourself. And whatever people may say about SPG, I will still contest that she is an extremely bright and clever person with a rare talent. I hope she makes it out of this unscathed. Society can be very wicked as we all know. Recently a few of the blog’s I read have come close to extinction due to society and their verdicts but thankfully they have all bounced back even under the harshest of criticism. I hope SPG is not forced to fold her hand and bow out. It is blog’s like hers that got me confident and motivated enough to write in the first place.

2 comments:

ival said...

Hey Avi, I've was made aware of the SPG girls in Singapore when I was in school there (I actually did hang out with a few of them...). Over the past few years I thought the SPG issue had died down, I guess I was wrong. But I did seem to find that the ones I knew had a good mind on them. In particular one of them, a Chinese girl I knew, has stuck in my mind forever. We became very close friends and when she poured out her mind to me, I was very overwhelmed. I got to see another side of it, and I really wasn't ready and did not know how to handle it. It was a difficult friendship that I was entrusted into. However, I could not let go, as I felt I would betray her trust or something like that. She had a very open mind, very much like the SPG blog poster, but that was kind of her crowning jewel as well as her cyanide pill...Having an open mind can be very hard in a closed society. She was literally tormented by the fact that she was so open. I dont know if you get what I mean. But she did not have any person or outlet to vent her frustrations that arose from every facet of her life - her family, school, society, culture... everything that was around her made her feel something was wrong with her and it was eating her up inside. It was so bad for her that she even attempted suicide a few times. I tried be a listening ear for her but, at times I couldn't accept and believe some of her thoughts at that time becos I did not have a mind as open as hers at that time. I do see a parallel here though to the SPG poster. Had my friend an outlet or a more open mind in me, she would not have left everything (or nothing) and re-located to another country. That was the only thing that brought her back to her sanity.

I think having a BLOG has become a very much needed outlet for many people. Society always puts its stamp on the non-conformist thinker and always will. I sometimes think that I have a greater responsibility now that I feel that I have evolved my thinking a little. I feel I have to be able to bridge the gap between more "accepting" minds and more "traditional" minds.

Like the line goes in Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility!"

Lavi

Indo Dreamin' said...

Thanks for the feedback Lavi. There are so many mixed idea's over this inccident.
I hear you about bridging the gap. It was very strange for me as well, returning to Ghana after college and most of my old friends had not ventured out at all. Innitially I would attempt to put in my 2 cents but eventually I just let it go. I guess I did not want the responsibility.