nerh wj i think he has been most maligned. i also happen to be in an argumentative mood today because i want to avoid my chem engine work for a while more, so i will address your points one by one! touched or not.
somehow i feel affronted as a female with the tag of mediocrity placed upon them
his main issue was that why is that singaporean girls are allowed to be mediocre whereas there is a 'self-censuring' mechanism in place for guys. this mechanism is the endless ragging that boys will get from their peers if they suck at their hobbies.
i have my fair share of complaints about people... doesn't give one a right to call them mediocre.
perhaps i misunderstand but the point of these two paragraphs appear to be a call to remain neutral and accepting to the different roles and ways people choose to perform. yes, it takes all sorts of people, mediocre or otherwise, to make the world go round but he is not asking why should mediocre people be allowed to get away with being mediocre. he is asking why is society more indulgent towards mediocre girls.
to disagree on anything would require you identify the very element you cannot agree on, wouldn't this knowledge then come with a description of said element? you disagree with the way some people choose to live because they don't appear to have motivation, hope etc. similarly, he doesn't agree with the way they live because 'they expect little from themselves', 'mediocre' is simply the adjective he applies to describe the element that he cannot abide by.
if you are bothered by how he has passed a value judgement on another's lifestyle then that indignation is slightly unwarranted because you have passed one too, if in a less verbose manner. you've obviously observed and evaluated how you live versus how others live, and your choice demonstrates which lifestyle you value more.
and why can't he describe these girls as mediocre? in the beginning of his post he has defined what he considers mediocre, anyone is free to debate the validity of his definition, but since the girls he mentioned pass the stringent criteria that he has set, then for the purpose of this argument, they are mediocre.
note: the more i read this paragraph, the more i am sure that there is a very smug and glib fallacy just screaming 'bite me!' but i can't put my finger on it. is there anyone who can point it out? my knowledge of logic and rhetoric isn't fantastic.
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.
society has expectations but do we have to live with that? and i think you are being far too modest because the ability to perpetuate such notions of beauty is not limited to men, if anything the fairer sex seems to be capable of absolutely destroying their own in that area. like you said, two sides to a coin.
fashion
i didn't want to go here initially but since i've gone so far i might as well bite the bullet.
i am not too sure he sees fashion/make up as an end in itself as a frivolous pursuit; however fashion as a means to an end, whether the end be self-expression or creativity, is superficial (literally). if fashion as an end in itself is the appreciation of beauty, the subversion of expectations and what have you, i don't think it is frivolous because there is personal input. but when fashion becomes but another way to just be seen, then i would say it makes the follower of fashion superficial in every sense of the word as he/she merely functions as a vessel of another's agenda.
i am not too sure why your feminist tendencies were flaring up wj, if anything the article was painfully accurate on the slightly zombie like, unquestioning nature of singaporeans, on how we are willing to expect what is expected of us even if it means that we might be shortchanging ourselves. we should not be a nation of carefully worded platitudes (my favourite platitude of the moment is 'critical thinking', can thinking be anything else?!), of neatly pruned gardens and ambition.
our day will come.
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