Day 227

Ok so the Chinese had a cute girl lip-sync the voice of a less cute girl at the opening ceremonies. I'm sure you'd all heard, and I'm sure you've all felt that sense of requisite outrage. How dare they, right?

Well, the polit bureau guy who made the decision (or his press secretary, anyway) said that the idea was to create the best possible performance. So they combined good looks with good singing; it was a team effort.

I imagine our sense of outrage, or having been fooled, or our sense that the 'ugly' girl got a bum deal, stems from our particular culture and its obsession with individuality. We have a doctrine that individuals ought to get recognized as such for their acheivements, and that it is unfair when the limelight is shone (shined? ... I hate irregular verbs) in the wrong direction, or not at all.
But that's not Chinese culture. Both girls were doing what they did for the benefit of the opening ceremonies, and not for themselves. The culture essentially prescribes each person to play his or her part in creating a whole which itself deserves love and respect.

Is that so bad? Maybe we could all stand to concern ourselves a little less with personal success and a little more with being part of "thankless" collaborative processes.

And, if that argument doesn't pursuade you, I'd also point out that virtually every well-known musician in North America is good looking, because good looks are a necessary condition for music video face-time. The only less good looking musicians are the ones who make not being good looking an intentional point of sale, a 'rebellion' against the good looking ones. "See look, she can be a famous musician and not fit into the stereotype! Look at her break boundaries!" I can't for the life of me understand how the archetypal fat black girl musician, or archetypal punk misfit nobody-understands-me band, is any less superficial than the archetypal pop princess.
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On a totally unrelated note: does anyone here like mixing food with sex? I really, honestly don't, but it seems that many other people do! I've always been of the mind that food is best eaten after sex, when I invariably find myself grumbling for a snack.

But many disagree. For example, Seinfeld's George Costanza, who in one episode started not just combining sweets and desserts with sex, but other food as well:

Jerry: "So, how's the fornicating gourmet?"

George: "Doing quite well, thank you. Yesterday I had a soft-boiled egg and a quickie. You know what? If I could add TV to the equation, that would really be the ultimate."

Jerry: "George, we're trying to have a society here."

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