Can Singaporedaily.net be more representative? - comment on the 'girlie' 'Daily Chiobu' section

Daily-Chiobu

The following is an excerpt of my response to Singaporedaily.net’s reply to my observations on their ‘Daily Chiobu’ section (that features pictures of 'sexy' clothed women) following my article, To SingaporeDaily.net - a section for Interanational Affairs. 

Firstly, I have to say that this does not undermine the existing credibility of Singaporedaily.net’s serving as a ‘people’s newspaper’.  Rather, this brief critique hopes to make it more representative than it currently is, but which is compromised with the 'Daily Chiobu’ section.  In other cases, Singaporedaily represents the people admirably well by the exposure it gives to various interest groups.  But as the subconscious is the first and overarching front wherein the victory or loss of an existing struggle is compromised in the present and future, by way of possibly comprising  self-defeating or compromising biases and other perspectival deficiencies, it has to be addressed.

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Just playing devil's advocate here....

...I dare say that it reduces the political/intelligent stature of the site and can have the effect of promoting the notion that SingaporeDaily is just a 'boys-will-be-boys' 'playing at being opposition' site - something like a political FHM ;) - though there isn't enough of the relatively trivial to support such a notion.

To have to use this ploy, which I sometimes quite think might be required in a perspectivally medieval state, simply goes to show the low intellectual levels the population in general might be located - one of the reasons why 'mr brown' could attain the level of popularity that he did – making a joke out of the distressing circumstances people have to contend with, and which can be argued to have a cathartic effect. 

Additionally, it can also be perceived as exploitative of women by presenting them as sex objects - imagine a feminist site that puts up pictures of 'hottie' men; bias toward one set of ethnic features and group - as the girls featured are usually Chinese and Japanese or look like either…and which reinforces the notion that those not conforming to these features are undesirable; bias toward heterosexuals and lesbians as men aren't cast in a similar fashion; and the title ('daily chiobu') indicating bias toward the language of one ethnic group - we already have a lot of these in this country and it serves to reinforce it.

If nobody had pointed these out to date, then it indicates the degree to which relevant biases and self-absorption may be ingrained amongst the readers.  (an example of fascistic harmony)

Given these, it might be reinforcing as much, or more, negative, juvenile, and self-absorbed perceptions, that in turn can perpetuate more perspectival deficiencies, than the good it achieves.

I too, like yourselves, certainly subscribe to the 'all work and no play makes Ah Chan a dull boy' perspective, but I like to keep both my juvenile and adult proclivities apart lest their proximity compromises my appreciation and performance in either, or public perceptions.

By the way, I'm sure you noticed that I did not suggest that SingaporeDaily take the 'Daily Chiobu' off, as I suspected that it might be for your aforementioned reason. You certainly deserve credit for realising that there ought to be a goodness-of-fit between what you are trying to achieve and the target population. I've used similar ploys myself in manipulating people for developmental reasons, in various sites that I’ve written on, and the way I pair one type of information with another in order to disarm the reader at a subconscious level....at times.

I realised, overtime, that such a strategy can have negative consequences if we are not aware of the subconscious impact and implications of such ploys in both the short and longer terms, and its possibly reinforcing evils we might be trying to counter.