False Modesty

I'm not talking about clothes that looks transparent under the all-seeing camera flash.
It is in our malay culture to be modest in everything we do. Humility is also an intergral part of being a muslim. Malu sebahagian daripada iman.

But there are always people who claim that they are humble and modest but directly imply sly arrogance. I see this a lot in interviews, talk shows, speeches and facebook status. It's not much about the way one expresses their humility, but the emboldening of the intentional irony yells I'm the GREATEST at what I do!
Of course there is nothing wrong of being proud of one's accomplishments and skills but when it is done with a false sense of insecurity, I feel like expressing my feelings with a WWE concealed chair. Bam! Bam! Bam!

The most common form of false modesty are picture captions. One would post a picture of oneself *smoiling and write a caption like "I look fat in this one" or "omg I'm so fugly". So as expected, friends will give complimentary comments to boost up their otherwise downtrodden self-esteem. What's wrong with just leaving the caption space blank if you don't have the nerve to write "I chanteq dalam gambar neh!"
example:


caption: Baru bangun tido huhu. Muka cam selebeh pagi ni...

What's the dilly yo?

*smoiling
origin: combination of of the word smiling and spoiling.
definition: distortion of either the lips, nose, cheeks or eyes to hide the presumed ugliest feature of the face.

13 comments:

hazel darwisya said...

that's a cute girl.didn't see any smoiling part tho

alice said...

a facebook friend of mine uploaded a pic of the 2 year old daughter, holding 2 pieces of RM1 note. Caption : "Poor me. I only have RM2..."
Note : The daughter was posing in front of their new 5 series Bavarian.
What's wrong with just leaving the caption space blank if you don't have the nerve to write "I'm driving a 5 series now. What about you?"

Pic of this girl in your post? A definite 'smoiling'.

Ann Alien said...

Highly Awkward. D:

mata aku.... said...

tomeii nyer.....hehheh

Afiq Deen said...

Alice, that is sooo wrong (if the rm2 5series combo pic was intentional)

They say that smoiling can make us look cuter. Really? I've even seen guys smoiling. In 30 odd years time, do we really want to remember ourselves as portrayed in our smoiling photographs?

Anonymous said...

gambar siapakah yg hebat sgt boleh msk dlm blog afiq nih??

Afiq Deen said...

Mangsa google image

azuwa said...

tak pernah suka dengan pose sebegitu yang konon comel.

I call it FAKE.


p/s: kesian plak muka budak ni jadi mangsa, haha.

alif zai mim ra said...

salam..

this is a nice entry. the message is clear and very straight-forward.
em..frankly speaking.. putting up the picture is obviously to give the clearer picture of what u are saying.. but at the same time, don't u think that what u're doing is like humiliating the girl?

From my understanding, a true Muslim doesn't do that. and u're not a hypocrite, are you?

Afiq Deen said...

wouldn't say that I'm not. I am to a certain degree.

What would u rather have me do? Pixelate the girl's eyes?

(cheer up, it's just an EXAMPLE. She's not even smoiling)

wickedwarhol said...

So true.
Well documented and most of them are ehhmmm.....
Never mind and thanks for sharing!

alif zai mim ra said...

i got what u mean but sorry, mate. it might just happen that ppl will judge the person in the picture as smoiling though u're not. just be careful with what u do. elak fitnah kan. mungkin tidak kena pada kamu, tapi pada mereka yg tidak bersalah.

cheers~ keep on blogging and reminding. :)

Pakcik Luar Otak said...

Werd.