A TV presenter with a traditional Māori face tattoo has calmly replied to negative comments from a viewer, proudly standing up for her cultural heritage and identity.
Facial tattoos often spark debates online. Some people think tattoos should only be on the body, while others understand and appreciate their cultural importance.
Oriini Kaipara, 41, made history when she became a newsreader for New Zealand’s Newshub. She is the first primetime TV news presenter to wear a moko kauae, a special facial tattoo for Māori women.
The Māori are the indigenous people of mainland New Zealand. They see moko kauae as important symbols of their heritage and identity. These tattoos, traditionally on the lips and chin, show a woman’s family ties, leadership, and honor her lineage, status, and abilities.
Oriini Kaipara. Credit: Oriini Kaipara / Instagram.
Despite receiving praise, one viewer named David expressed his dislike for Kaipara’s moko kauae in an email to Newshub.
He wrote, “We continue to object strongly to you using a Māori newsreader with a moku [moko] which is offensive and aggressive looking. A bad look. She also bursts into the Māori language which we do not understand. Stop it now,” according to the Daily Mail.
But Kaipara didn’t let David’s negative words stop her. She bravely shared screenshots of his messages on her Instagram story and responded calmly.
“Today I had enough. I responded. I never do that. I broke my own code and hit the send button,” she wrote on her Instagram story alongside a screenshot of David’s message.
Kaipara didn’t just share screenshots of David’s email, she also responded to him. She explained that his complaint wasn’t valid because she hadn’t broken any rules for TV.
She also corrected David’s spelling mistake. He called her tattoo a “moku” instead of “moko”.
In her email back to him, Kaipara said, “I think you don’t like how I look on TV. But tattoos and people with them aren’t scary or bad. We don’t deserve to be treated badly because of them.”
She asked him to stop complaining and to try to understand better. She even joked that maybe he should go back to the 1800s if he couldn’t accept people with tattoos.
Despite David’s negative words, Kaipara says she mostly gets nice comments, and mean ones are rare.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Kaipara talked about how it’s important to have more Māori people in important jobs. She said, “The fact that my existence makes some people upset shows why we need more Māori people in every job.”
Kaipara’s calm response reminds us how important it is to be proud of who you are, even when people are mean. She’s inspiring others to be proud of themselves and stand up to unfair treatment.
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Barbara Eden is 91 and still enjoying a successful career over 50 years after ‘I Dream of Jeannie’
Barbara Eden, who is 91 years old, has been performing for an incredible 70 years and is still going strong.
The actress, singer, and producer is most known for her role in the 1965 television series “I Dream of Jeannie,” though she had been on film for eleven years before that.
Many TV generations have watched the classic 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, which tells the story of an astronaut who brings home a 2,000-year-old female genie.
Fans watched and laughed despite the ridiculous premise because of Barbara Eden, the stunning and talented actress who portrayed Jeannie.
It might be hard for fans to believe, but Barbara is 91 years old now!
She hasn’t been seen on TV in her notorious harem attire in a while, but she is still going strong and staying busy.
Barbara’s life hasn’t always been easy, though.
Barbara Eden was born in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States, in 1931. Following her parents’ divorce, she moved to San Francisco and enrolled in the Conservatory of Music to begin studying singing.
Barbara grew up in Golden Gate City, where she played in neighborhood nightclubs with local bands. But in the end, she too decided to go into acting.
“Barbara, you don’t sound like you mean a word you’re singing,” my mother remarked. “Acting is something I think you should study too,” Eden recalled.
She then decided acting was a suitable fit for her and moved to Los Angeles, where she began appearing on some of the biggest shows of the 1950s.
She made her television debut in 1955 as a semi-regular guest on The Johnny Carson Show, but her role in the cult classic fantasy sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” is what really made her famous.
Arizonan actress Jeannie played the enticing genie that astronaut and US Air Force Captain Anthony “Tony” Nelson (played by Larry Hagman) released from her bottle.
“We simply clicked,” Our rhythms were identical. Whatever we were doing, we were getting the same truth,” Eden clarified.
“I was really in love with him. There are some actors that you have to really try to like them. then you store it in a different mental box. But I never had to do it with Larry. He was there all the time.
She played Jeannie’s mother and her mean sister in the program over her five years in the role. Jeannie became well-known because of Eden’s harem clothes, which at the time was a touch too risque for television.
In 2015, close to the show’s 50th anniversary, she told Today, “Executives at NBC got very frightened.” “They tightened their rules regarding the navel.”
Eden asserted that the myth was really spread by means of an entirely separate, far earlier interview with the Hollywood Reporter, following her friend and columnist Mike Connolly’s ridicule of her over the issue.
Mike started making fun of my belly button when he first came in, and it quickly caught on and went throughout the globe. I would tease him back and we had a nice fun with it, but I had no idea it would turn into something.
The iconic ensemble additionally contributed to Eden’s rise to fame as a TV sex symbol among a host of celebrities, including Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy, who emailed her his phone number.
As stated in her 2011 memoir, Jeannie Out of the Bottle, the actress “binned the piece of paper, but I wish I still had it.”
Eden, who is 91 years old, has acted in more than 50 motion pictures.
In her most recent movie, My Adventures with Santa, which came out in 2019, she portrayed Mrs. Claus. Melissa Gardner made her stage debut as Melissa Gardner in the play of “Love Letters” the same year the movie was made.
“I feel so young!” Barbara continued, saying that she felt fortunate to be able to accomplish the work that she did. “I feel bad for anybody who, like my poor father, had to work in a job he didn’t enjoy every day. I take pleasure in what I do. I’m still employed.
Barbara said that she had continued to go to the gym, do spin classes, and lift weights until a few years ago. Now, a personal trainer comes to her house to help with resistance training, and they take a walk together.
The television icon declared, “I have a lot of friends.” “I’m not too bad at socializing.”
She even has a scheduled appearance in March 2022.
She remarked in jest, “If I’m around, I’ll be there; I really like it.”
In addition to writing children’s books, Barbara likes to act. Barbara, a little child, meets a “charming and wizardly Genie” who takes her on adventures that are a little bit like those in her well-known part in the novel Barbara and the Djinn, which she co-wrote.
She claims that because “now all they do is look at telephones,” she believes that her books will help kids understand the importance of reading.
Barbara brushes off the notion that “I Dream of Jeannie” would seem a little out of date to modern audiences.
This is a famous concept, come on, she said. “Twelve Hundred and One Nights”? This fantasy is really sweet and great.
And to be very honest, you know, she was in charge. She was anything but submissive.
Barbara Eden has led such an incredible life, enabled by her positive outlook and boundless enthusiasm. She is a true example of how age is simply a number.
If you also adore this iconic actress, do share.
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