By: Aeon Jelsey
Image via WikipediaI am not into celebrities until I saw and heard Charice sings. It was a curiosity at first when I heard news about this young and petite singer whose belting (BTW “belting” is different from “shouting”) difficult songs. I opened my browser turned to Youtube, search “Charice” and voila! That was the start of my never ending thirst for her performances.
I’ve been using twitter for a very long time now to promote my blog and my followers are mostly writers and poets and to avoid alienating them with my tweets about Charice, I decided to make another twitter account to tweet only about Charice. That’s when I began to see these hate tweets about her. It saddens me that while other nationals praise and rave about Charice, there are some Filipinos that keep on bashing a person who has done nothing but to work hard to realize her dreams. It’s a depressing reality that most of Charice’s haters are Filipinos bashing her looks and scrutinizing her to find even trivial things so they can just say something bad about her.
When I have the time, I analyze twitter profiles of those that are “defaming” Charice. Most are accounts that are just created to tweet nothing but hate towards her, some are students or graduates of some of the expensive private schools in the Philippines which I assume belong to the higher strata of Philippine society. Some are those with Filipino lineage living in other countries.
I am trying to understand those who “trash tweet” Ms. Pempengco because they are fans of some local celebrities but come to think of it they are not helping to promote their idols rather they unconsciously dragging them down.
In the Philippines, some of the students or graduates of “esteemed” universities which are mostly for the privileged few tend to see themselves as above the rest. To speak with them in “lame” English would mean it’s either they’ll laugh at you or ignore you. And so they bash Charice’s accent, the fillers and pronunciations as if she has done a great crime. Why would laugh at someone who can express herself with a foreign language? She may not be as good as the “set standards” made by some elitists, what matter is she’s slowly becoming more articulate. Let me quote myself below.
“ Filipinos are one of the most critical people when it comes to English grammar and sometimes fluency in it is being used a gauge of an individual’s intelligence which is so perverse, when it’s not even their native tongue after all. But when a Filipino stayed in America and would probably adopt the American accent, speaking in English with a foreign accent would invite criticism that this “fella” has forgotten about his/her roots.”
There is a figure of speech use in the Philippines “Sala sa init, sala sa lamig” which means that no matter how you will try to please everyone, they will keep on looking for faults. Charice came to America knowing only basic conversational English but she needs to learn and be fluent with it as it is required for her International career, then she learned fast adopting the accent, what does she got from Filipinos? “Lumaki na raw ang ulo, yumabang na” (she’s a swell-head and conceited) How some Filipinos can be so narrow-minded?
When it comes to musicality it’s hard to find flaws on Charice so the haters went low by criticizing her looks. The Filipino definition of beautiful is so screwed up and kinda shallow. What are the standards of beauty anyway? Is it lighter skin? Then why westerners developed tanning machine? Is it pointed nose? If it is, then majority of Filipinos are ugly. Is it the height? Then most Filipinos can never be beautiful. Charice is the epitome of a pure Filipina beauty but Filipinos are so into western kind of beauty which made them despise their own. I guess TV programs and magazines have changed the perception of the majority of Pinoys towards beauty.
Why can’t they just be happy and be proud of Charice? They don’t have to like her but they can respect her the way they want others to respect them. The problem is most of them are more updated about Charice and are always ahead on every articles and videos about her even beating the “Chasters” (collective term for Charice’s fans). They seem to have made their mission to leave defamatory comments on every articles and youtube videos of Charice. That is so pathetic!
Compilation of my tweets that lead me to write this article:
As long as there are people who love "Real Music" Charice will be in the music industry for a very long time.
All these negativities from some Pinoys are dragging me down, Wise yet ignorant, aware yet blind, critical yet dumb.
Some Filipinos are so dumb that they cannot appreciate their own beauty and the uniqueness of their own heritage. And it saddens me.
I could care less, but the thing is they're not hurting Charice, it's the image of us as a people that's being tarnished.
All things taboo before are becoming way of life these days. And kids are so wise yet ignorant.
You don't have to like her, just respect her, is that hard to do? She’s just a kid living her dreams.
There is a difference between opinion and insult. I may not like everybody but I refrain from insulting anyone.
Joke? I don't consider phrases defaming someone as jokes. Better say nothing at all if you have nothing good to say.
I never imagine this article will be this long and I haven’t said enough. I just wish that these Filipino haters will realize that they are not hurting Charice’s career but blatantly staining the image of Filipinos as a people. When asked by non-Filipino fans why some Filipinos are are so harsh on Charice? I fumble and I’m lost for words because I am asking the same question myself.
Image via WikipediaI’ve been using twitter for a very long time now to promote my blog and my followers are mostly writers and poets and to avoid alienating them with my tweets about Charice, I decided to make another twitter account to tweet only about Charice. That’s when I began to see these hate tweets about her. It saddens me that while other nationals praise and rave about Charice, there are some Filipinos that keep on bashing a person who has done nothing but to work hard to realize her dreams. It’s a depressing reality that most of Charice’s haters are Filipinos bashing her looks and scrutinizing her to find even trivial things so they can just say something bad about her.
When I have the time, I analyze twitter profiles of those that are “defaming” Charice. Most are accounts that are just created to tweet nothing but hate towards her, some are students or graduates of some of the expensive private schools in the Philippines which I assume belong to the higher strata of Philippine society. Some are those with Filipino lineage living in other countries.
I am trying to understand those who “trash tweet” Ms. Pempengco because they are fans of some local celebrities but come to think of it they are not helping to promote their idols rather they unconsciously dragging them down.
In the Philippines, some of the students or graduates of “esteemed” universities which are mostly for the privileged few tend to see themselves as above the rest. To speak with them in “lame” English would mean it’s either they’ll laugh at you or ignore you. And so they bash Charice’s accent, the fillers and pronunciations as if she has done a great crime. Why would laugh at someone who can express herself with a foreign language? She may not be as good as the “set standards” made by some elitists, what matter is she’s slowly becoming more articulate. Let me quote myself below.
“ Filipinos are one of the most critical people when it comes to English grammar and sometimes fluency in it is being used a gauge of an individual’s intelligence which is so perverse, when it’s not even their native tongue after all. But when a Filipino stayed in America and would probably adopt the American accent, speaking in English with a foreign accent would invite criticism that this “fella” has forgotten about his/her roots.”
There is a figure of speech use in the Philippines “Sala sa init, sala sa lamig” which means that no matter how you will try to please everyone, they will keep on looking for faults. Charice came to America knowing only basic conversational English but she needs to learn and be fluent with it as it is required for her International career, then she learned fast adopting the accent, what does she got from Filipinos? “Lumaki na raw ang ulo, yumabang na” (she’s a swell-head and conceited) How some Filipinos can be so narrow-minded?
When it comes to musicality it’s hard to find flaws on Charice so the haters went low by criticizing her looks. The Filipino definition of beautiful is so screwed up and kinda shallow. What are the standards of beauty anyway? Is it lighter skin? Then why westerners developed tanning machine? Is it pointed nose? If it is, then majority of Filipinos are ugly. Is it the height? Then most Filipinos can never be beautiful. Charice is the epitome of a pure Filipina beauty but Filipinos are so into western kind of beauty which made them despise their own. I guess TV programs and magazines have changed the perception of the majority of Pinoys towards beauty.
Why can’t they just be happy and be proud of Charice? They don’t have to like her but they can respect her the way they want others to respect them. The problem is most of them are more updated about Charice and are always ahead on every articles and videos about her even beating the “Chasters” (collective term for Charice’s fans). They seem to have made their mission to leave defamatory comments on every articles and youtube videos of Charice. That is so pathetic!
Compilation of my tweets that lead me to write this article:
As long as there are people who love "Real Music" Charice will be in the music industry for a very long time.
All these negativities from some Pinoys are dragging me down, Wise yet ignorant, aware yet blind, critical yet dumb.
Some Filipinos are so dumb that they cannot appreciate their own beauty and the uniqueness of their own heritage. And it saddens me.
I could care less, but the thing is they're not hurting Charice, it's the image of us as a people that's being tarnished.
All things taboo before are becoming way of life these days. And kids are so wise yet ignorant.
You don't have to like her, just respect her, is that hard to do? She’s just a kid living her dreams.
There is a difference between opinion and insult. I may not like everybody but I refrain from insulting anyone.
Joke? I don't consider phrases defaming someone as jokes. Better say nothing at all if you have nothing good to say.
I never imagine this article will be this long and I haven’t said enough. I just wish that these Filipino haters will realize that they are not hurting Charice’s career but blatantly staining the image of Filipinos as a people. When asked by non-Filipino fans why some Filipinos are are so harsh on Charice? I fumble and I’m lost for words because I am asking the same question myself.
