The Changing Sexuality Profiles of the Filipino
8.23.2004
I will not present a fine-flowing article today. I think I'm not in the mood to be coherent and concise. Instead, let me go straight to the observations:
- While 20 years ago access to porn is limited to beta tapes and assorted magazines brought home by the OFWs and balikbayans, all fancies, assortments, toys and kinks are now easily available in stores in Manila, both legal and illegal, included.
- Pirated DVD and VCD videos are easily available in the streets - and the sad thing is that they are in the main streets that kids pass through with their families. I will not be a hypocrite, I have watched these material, but access to these have to be limited to adults. I won't even question whether it is legal or not, thing is it has to be available only to those who want it. Example: Playboy comes in black plastic covers and inserts that disguise it as another magazine - not just because it hides itself from nosy people but more because it shouldn't be seen in public. Filipinos don't have that --- instead you have tabloids and magazines splattered on the streets ready to be seen by any passing dad and 7-year old kid in hand right under the train stations or major intersections.
- FHM (Well this is my opinion, ok?) is much more lewd and fueled by sex than Playboy is. I know because I read both. See, you don't have to show both breasts to see both, or have to show bare pictures to be lewd. FHM's attack on sex in it's articles is not always the most tasteful. Playboy's articles are more discrete and damped. What's my point? I think sex is not being given it's fair share of its wholesome side. What you produce instead of responsible consenting adults are hormonally-charged Filipinos out to score and no sense anything else.
- Primetime TV wreaks of sex - from songs, to dancers, to jokes, to just about everything that sells on TV. Hve we Filipinos grown more accepting of these things or we have been numbed already that we can't draw the line?
- More importantly textchat on TV and internet access makes this so easy for kids to access. Is there any show left on free TV that doesn't talk about sex or relationships - the news included?
- Have we Filipinos been more sexuality open --- see today it seems we have grown to accept same sex couples, even as Religious groups don't approve it, our society seems to have been more tolerant. I am not saying it is bad or good, but I am saying we have gone beyond thresholds it seems, as a society.
- I do not have a study to back me, but it seems virginity is no longer a word that matters.
- In 1991, Maganda magazine featured a story about the history of sexuality of Filipinos and focused on how the manongs - in the early 20's-30's have been the horny brown devils in America and how the whites have looked at them as competition. Back then we thought to be better than Latin Lovers. The article continues to explain that slowly the Filipino male is subjugated and lost it's charm as capitalism expanded and Filipinos have been stunted to grow into other jobs. It finishes by encouraging us to regain that virility. Is this progression towards sex a natural consequence of decades of repression of that vigor? Or more because we have been irresponsible as a society that these has transpired?
- Have I grown older that sex talk is more candid, or is it because of media and Sex and the City? That said, is this updating of sexual profiles more of a global phenomena than one limited to the Philippines? I would surmise it maybe, only that things may have been too fast for comfort here in the Philippines.
The double-meaning songs for instance, and the many denials that they do not mean anything else but kiddie rhymes, these and other bubble gum songs as early as Barbie Girl by (Aqua ? in 1997?) have been happening elsewhere. The change may just be a shock because we have not been fast enough to adapt to it - or more because we are a conservatively Catholic country that is filled with horny brown devils. Either way I don't know, but these things I present maybe good points for studies, or may have in fact been done already by now but have not been published yet. We maybe changing, but we need to be sure we change toward the good things. Like teenage pregnancy, we need to be sure .
posted by Jdavies @ 8/23/2004,
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The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
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This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
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