Talk about bad timing.I guess tabloids will always be tabloids, always wanting to try and sell more copies the next day. Most of you would've known about the front page headlines that ran on Kosmo on 27 July 2009, a day after Yasmin Ahmad passed away. Just google it and you'll be able to find it, but apparently you won't find it on Kosmo's website.
Reading the article outraged me, as I found it terribly disrespectful, tasteless, and tactless. The headlines said something about Yasmin "mati sebagai wanita", went into detail about her upbringing as a boy and winning Bintang RTM, and ended with something along the lines of how most people know her as a talented filmmaker but this was her life that not many people knew about.
WELL CONGRATS TO YOU KOSMO FOR ENLIGHTENING ALL OF US, YOU FUCKING MORONS.
It's been long known in the advertising circle (and news eventually spilled out of that circle) that Yasmin was born as a hermaphrodite, or better known in BM as a "khunsa", which means that she was born with 2 genders. There is a difference between the dilemma and confusion of being born with 2 genders and being born as a man and wanting to become a woman. She wasn't born as a boy. She was RAISED as a boy, and over the course of her life she made her decision on which gender to become. You try being born with 2 genders and tell me it's easy.
Now that that part has been cleared up, then there begs the question: Isn't it more important what kind of person she was, rather than her gender history? Ohhhh so you and I were born with only 1 gender like any other normal humans, does that make us better people? Better than Yasmin?
Everyone talks about Yasmin's contribution to the film industry and her heartwarming commercials about being Malaysians. Yes, there are a lot of great filmmakers out there, but few are as down to earth and humble like her.
I regret that I was so shy to say hi to her personally when she came over to our studio for a VO recording, and only smiled at her. There were no airs about her, she came in, did the recording, and joked about how she deserves as Oscar. And the most amazing thing? That she, being legendary, being popular, being high in position, being Yasmin Ahmad herself, actually remembered our engineer's name after he introduced himself to her. And he only had to say his name once.
And from that day on, I had the highest of respect for her. Why? Because I can't tell you how many countless times we've had agency clients come over to our studios (and these are people who have been coming for years), who can't remember the engineer's name, and they'll keep asking me "What's his name?" while pointing to the engineer, and I'll have to answer sweetly when in my head I'm thinking "Man, this is the 100th time you've asked me". So it's a BIG DEAL, because obviously when someone remembers your name even when you're supposedly "just an engineer", they're actually seeing you as a person and not just some "supplier". (Yeah "supplier"'s a pretty dirty word in the industry, kinda like "servicing")
It just irks me that Kosmo chose such a timing to publish that "expos
é", a day after her funeral. I hear that while she was alive, she was quite sensitive about the topic... what was Kosmo thinking? That she'd have a sense of humour and laugh about it if she saw the article? That her parents would feel proud and peaceful now that the truth about their child is not only gone, but is also now a tabloid hit?
sochews summed it up right when he twitted: "
My 2 cents on Kosmo's expose: Cowards. Write your exclusives when she has a chance to respond. Now, your piece is irrelevant to her legacy."
