Obscene, according to my Humpty Dumpty New World Dictionary, is an
adjective describing language, photographs, videos or acts that are socially
destructive.
- Lewd photos shown to children. Obscene. Kids might start behaving lewdly and who knows what kinks that will put into their maturing minds.
- Telling another congressman from the floor of the Legislature to do something physically awkward to himself. Obscene. Conservative church-goers might have heart attacks.
- Putting a video of George Carlin on ABS-CBN before 10 at night. Obscene. The kids might learn a whole bunch of new swear words, not to mention ribald satire which can stretch the brain over new horizons, not to mention being respectful of those church folks again.
I
consider Cosmopolitan Magazine,
Philippine Edition, grossly obscene and am surprised that the morality police
have not consigned it to the same place they consign Playboy Magazine. I have not seen one of those fine literary
magazines around here since I arrived 7 years ago.
Here are
the front page headlines for the January 2012 edition of Cosmopolitan:
- Sexy new You!
- Flawless Skin All Year Round
- Hot New Wardrobe Essentials
- Slim Your Waist in 6 Minutes a Day
- Rock the New Year!
- Make it Cosmo-Amazing
- 2021 Bedside Astrologer
- Juicy Month-by-Month Predictions Just for You
- Bea Alonzo
- New Bod
- New Man
- New Outlook on Life
- 10 Brilliant Shortcuts to Achieving Your Goals
- Are you an Orgasm Virgin?
- How to Go from "Um, Not Yet" to "OMG, Yes!"
- Why it pays to be a TIGER GIRLFRIEND
- Peel Off the Pounds Celebrity Style
- Channel the Diet Mantras of Bea Alonzo, Judy Ann Santos and Kate Middleton!
- Can You Change a Cheater?
Juicy
predictions indeed. OMG, if you don't talk Valley Girl chat lingo, you are not
cool. OMG, who the f*** are Bea, Judy Ann and Kate, and what have they done
lately to reduce corruption and poverty in the Philippines?
I feel so
sorry for pragmatic, socially aware women like Noemi Dado over at blogwatch.tv.
She has to swim against the tide of this Ego-stuffing, trivial nonsense to get
Filipinos seriously engaged about women's rights.
What is
the Filipina term for macho, applied to brain-dead, sweaty tough-guy Filipino
men who hang out at the cock fights and slip snide remarks to women nearby? Or
grace the ads in Cosmopolitan in their
briefs or open shirts, jeans tight enough to show a jelly bean in the front
pocket.
Bimbo is
the term used in the U.S. It means a woman who has mainly air in her head and
can natter about movie stars and gossip and hair color as if they really
mattered. OMG!
Christ,
the seas are rising, Filipinos are being washed into them every other month,
Iran is threatening to wipe out Israel, Filipinos are birthing the nation into
an impending economic disaster, China is strutting across the Pacific in combat
boots the size of aircraft carriers, and Cosmopolitan
readers are getting a heady dose of brain-killing, Ego-inflating, breathless
trash like this. With exclamation points and OMG's for emphasis.
I fear Cosmo readers could not read the Table of
Contents of The New Yorker without running headlong into the blank space of
social and literary ignorance that sits like a concrete wall inside their
crania.
Cosmopolitan is obscene for the values it
represents. For the behaviors it inspires.
What we
need around here is a few more self-centered, brain dead, dysfunctional people caring so sincerely, so passionately,
about Bea, Judy Ann and Kate. Or their Bods. Or their sex life or hair.
The
sadness . . . the obscenity . . . is found not in the fact that Cosmopolitan publishes this magazine. It is found
in the fact that so many Filipinas buy it or read it.
The fact
that a large share of the nation's women holds this material up as
inspirational.
H&M Philippine edition is one of two.
ReplyDeleteThe covergirls do not look like your typical Filipinas. White Americans of Metropolitan Transit Authority in Los Angeles, Bank of America and DeVery University knows better how Filipinas/nos look like. They pick a real Filipina for their advertisement. Round face, flared nose, brown-skin, chubby and short-neck.
Funny how card-carrying Fake-American citizen Filipinos in Los Angeles makes fun of these next-door "models". Many of them been badgering me for answer why these three great institution of Los Angeles cannot find a better dead-drop looker (meaning, non-Filipino looking) like Maui Taylor.
Filipinos has totally screwed what Filipinos looks like. I'm even amazed how Filipinos has transformed from coconut-climbing pygmies into Katy Perry look-alike. I found this out when I was held hostage captive audience to one of Filipino parties TFC blaring on the screen.
JESUS JOSEPH, JUDAS SAVE PHILIPPINES FROM THEIR OWN.
When it comes to sex everyone is a sinner. Of course, this is not supposed to be a spectator sport but sex is best watched than performed. The reason porn earns more money than Vegas strip combined.
ReplyDeleteThe way people practice sex nowadays is risque, absolutely not healthy and totally not hygienic. Did my great-grandparents practiced these? I believe so. It is different today because it is out in the papers, movies, books and people talk about it openly.
That is why I do not wash my hands after visit to the toilet. If it is safe for my girlfriend it is safe for everyone else.
I may be an atheist, sure, my girlfriend knows how to make me utter the word "God".
ReplyDeleteSex makes an atheist believe in God for that moment. OMG !
Cosmopolitan and H&M is porn in disguise so are Philippine Newspapers classified ads. Back then I was soooo poor my only source of "porn" was Manila Bulletin classified ads.
Mariano, yes, there are two Filipina faces. The ones on the street, quite beautiful in my eyes, and the ones on the magazines, quite artificial, in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteRight, on porn.
Right, on sex. And the influence of modern media on out-of-bedroom behavior.
Joe, you're starting to sound like an old old man. Kiddin' :P
ReplyDeleteI think you need to dig up the segment profile of Cosmo readers to have an honest assessment of their "social awareness." What are the odds that momblogger's followers are also Cosmo readers?
"social awareness" thru sex-themed magazine ... have you watched balanced reporting from nakednews.com ? They maybe naked but they are a thousand times professional than Philippine Mediots .
ReplyDeletebrianitus, My wife reads Cosmo religiously. I scan it for really juicy stories. I just think the RH and Divorce bills would get passed if women were more aggressively pursuing their own best interest, instead of attending to their nails and dolloping on the whitening creams. I just used Cosmopolitan as a vehicle to make a point.
ReplyDeleteI know someone who's avid Cosmo fan and is an aggressive RH Bill advocate.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I do get your point.
Focus tends to die down as the issue drags on. There's occasional noise and that's about it.
men and women of european ancestry spend thousands to get a tan and filipinos and other malays spend as much to get white. weird.
ReplyDeleteWhite people turns golden brown when exposed to the sun. They still have that pointy nose, skinny frame and long necks ...
DeleteMalayan ancestry turns dull dark brown when exposed to the sun and still have chubby round face, short neck, flat nose and curly aborigine hair ... even if they these brown-skin-punk'd nose even if they drink and take a bath with Clorox with Floral Scent they still do not look like Europeans.