fractionally marginalised

This morning over breakfast at Amoy Street Market Hawker Centre, I was telling my mother about how I find a lot of the conversations I have with X really tedious.

The obsession with appearances and how fat/skinny/pretty/ugly/badly-dressed/short-skirted/big-thighed/insert-comment-here a person is or was - it just tires me out completely. I try to change the topic to no avail, and so most of the time I just keep quiet and let my mind wander on to other more interesting things, like how I really need to buy a new suit.

Not to say I don’t indulge in such frivolous behaviour at times - I do. Of course I do. I’m a girl. But having the same sort of conversation the whole night long, every single time, is honestly quite ridiculous.

So anyway, I was telling my mother about how i feel about the whole situation. And without looking up from her bowl of porridge, she said,

’see, this is why I never thought buying children Barbie dolls was a good idea.’

Which I completely agree with now. Although I’m sure that as a child I must have kicked up a storm of a fuss because my cousins had the whole Barbie playhouse and 32 Barbies to boot. And I’m also sure the person in question did not exactly spend all her days designing Ken + Barbie’s new wardrobe.

On the other hand, if I only spoke in legalese and discussed the latest takeovers and financings deals, I know I’ll be labeled atas and be ostracized slowly but surely. So maybe all that superficiality is just the lowest common denominator of conversation topics, and is a genuine attempt at involving everyone in the discussion.

But if it is true, then it’s really depressing that my lowest common denominator is that low.