Victor Vlam, also known as an opinion tornado and the male Angela de Jong, was upset for a whole day because someone had made an ugly comment about his nose on the internet.
It’s part of working in the public domain: criticism and negative reactions. Many Dutch celebrities cannot deal with it at all and media watcher Victor Vlam acknowledges that it is sometimes quite hard to swallow. Of course he’s not real celebrity, but as an opinion maker is increasingly making the news. And people respond to that.
High tolerance
Victor finds it part of the jobhe says NPO Radio 1. “If you operate in the media and in the social debate, you have to expect that there will be reactions. And when you have spoken out, there will always be positive and negative reactions. I think I have a fairly high tolerance for negative reactions as well.”
How high? “In the sense that I think I can handle it better than other people. It’s not that I ignore it completely or don’t take it with me, but you just have to see it in perspective as in: that’s just part of it.”
Criticism of nose
What does Victor touch? “Yes, sometimes there is just a statement that comes in the wrong way and that can be something really crazy. I once had someone make a comment about my nose. I have a bit of an upturned nose and of course I used to be bullied about that.”
He continues: “Those are typical of those things that are really such a thing in primary school. But for someone to comment on that… I remember when that came in and I was just a little devastated for a day. I thought: that is very strange to be that, why does this comment touch me more than the others?”
Inexplicable
Victor still doesn’t know why he was sick all day long. “I can’t really explain that. But I think you always tend to care what other people think…. We are all social animals after all. Normally I can keep it out well and this was a weak moment for me.”
“But,” he concludes. “I see it as something positive. It helps me grow a thicker skin. I think you need that. That is very healthy.”