Misrepresentation of Interview Leave Girls Feeling Betrayed

By Tiffany Gwee View the original report done by The Straits Times here Amid pictures of girls posing sexily while clad in lingerie and flashing lights, the article and video seemed to portray the young women as attention-seeking and “slutty” – to simply put it. The article focused a lot about the girls’ yearn for popularity and fame – Miss Kylie Ng was quoted to have said that whenever she puts her lingerie photos on Facebook, her friends will call her a “slut” but she would not “give a damn” because she does “what she likes”. She reportedly added, “Even though I lose a lot of friends but I gain a lot of popularity and like… it’s okay.”  Miss Cynthia Ho was also reported to have mentioned that when she posts pictures of her clad in lingerie on Facebook, a lot of people would start requesting to be her friend. “Guys start talking to you,” Cynthia mentioned. The pictures below are all stills taken from the video.

Distortion of Original Interview However, according to Miss Vanessa Yap who posted under Facebook name ‘Vanny Kitchlynn’ two days ago, the video was “horribly taken out of context” and that it was a “misrepresentation” of what really went on that night of the shoot and interview session. The original interview was really meant to be a “fun, non-serious interview” about how to protect oneself during shoots when one is not an actual model who have agents but just someone who likes to shoot for fun. She even mentioned that in her interview, she talked about how she protects herself by having a knife with her. This was never mentioned in the published article or video. Miss Yap even posted screenshots of the conversation between Miss Amanda Wong (the journalist) and photographer John Seah in order to organise a meeting with the girls for a shoot. The message clearly stated that the interview will mainly revolve around the “dangers” of such shoots and how they can be protected.

                                          (Amanda's text to the photographer John, one of the model's friend)

                                         (Text message from a person-in-charge from RazorTV) Substituting Football Jerseys for Lingerie Miss Yap also mentioned that “all of (the girls) did not want to be in lingerie for (the shoot)” but “it was insisted”. Similarly, Miss Kylie Ng posted a status on Facebook and talked about how they were “supposed to take (the video) with their football jerseys” but RazorTV “insisted” they wear lingerie instead. This reality is in contrast to the article and how the writer used the word “gamingly” to describe the way Miss Vanessa Tan changed into lingerie. The very reluctance of the girls was completely not brought out in the article. I watched the ‘Behind-the-scenes’ shoot that was posted on Kylie’s Facebook page and it was true – they really were wearing football jerseys before they were asked to change out of it and into sexy lingerie.

Behind-the-scenes video of interview (taken from Kylie's Facebook Page)

Cyber-bullied and Hurt Kylie’s post on Facebook showed much hurt and anger – with English not being her first language, she was not able to communicate her words properly and carefully. The media, unfortunately, took this to their advantage and twisted the meaning of her words. When she said she loses many friends when she posts in lingerie but “gains popularity”, she actually meant that she does not mind losing the more shallow and superficial friends but gaining more love from her more genuine ones. I managed to talk to Kylie about the whole situation and she told me that she feels very “depressed” and “betrayed” about the way the media painted her to be. She also told me that many people are now attacking her online and “cyberbullying her” by constantly insulting and “slamming” her, making her feel even more depressed as she already is. They apparently tried to write in to ask about the misrepresentation of the article and video but to no avail - no reply was given to the girls. The Irony of it All It is ironic then that the interview was originally planned out to discuss about what measures could be taken to protect the girls who take shoots like this as a hobby. This is because the report has ruined their reputations, which did lead to even more bullying and insulting – the idea of protection and safety then, is no longer relevant in the article. Interestingly enough, I managed to watch the video (posted on asiaone) on the page two days ago but the video no longer works for me today. The video was originally a RazorTV video - which has since been removed from the website as well.

Cover Photo taken from The Straits Times