Whole of Holland Baked scandal
Whole of Holland Baked participant Maroeska Metz is not happy with how she has been portrayed by the makers of Whole of Holland Baked. According to her, the manipulative editing makes her come across as unsympathetic, and there were people who criticized her cookbook and catering activities in an unsympathetic manner on Twitter. Last Saturday, Metz shared her story in Het Parool, and last night she was a guest on Jinek to elaborate on her grievances. Still, she has no regrets about participating. ‘I have become a baker 2.0.’
It reminds me of the annual controversy surrounding Princess Amalia on King's Day. The number of haters who express negative comments about our crown princess on Twitter is disproportionate to the number of people who tweet about it. Then the media picks it up, and voila: we have another major scandal. And poor Amalia. If everyone had ignored the at most fifteen tweets, nothing would have happened. Now the complaints of a few unhappy people were blown up to mythical proportions. All those well-meaning ‘dear Amalia, you are not fat,’ tweets were much worse than the ailment.
We better realize that there is indeed a group of people who have nothing better to do than tweet nasty things about people on television. They are like a pot full of shit that systematically boils over. One day Maroeska is the target, the next day Eva Jinek gets the dirt thrown at her, and the day after that it's Iris from De Nieuwe Rembrandt's turn. It is very important to realize this: it is not personal. As Taylor Swift sings in her song Shake it off (so much wisdom in this song): Haters are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Instead of ignoring these trolls (who often have no more than ten followers if you click on their account), we make their opinion extra important.
Dear Maroeska, I completely understand that it has been painful for you to receive all that crap, but I also see that you have received many more positive reactions. And to add one more: I loved watching you, precisely because you are so human. Are you really going to let your memories of a wonderful period be colored by nasty people? Are you really going to blame Omroep Max for this? Come on, you can do better than this. Just be proud of what you have achieved and enjoy the fame and all the praise you have received instead of letting the nasties burn a hole in your soul.
