This was a thought that crossed my mind some four [4] years ago. Now, we are confronted with the issue of nudity in the billboards along EDSA. Good thing that after four years we somehow grew, a bit.
For about three decades now since the story of "Bakekang" was first told, the Filipino mentality remained in its infancy. We still cling to the superficial measure of success, that is, if you become a showbiz personality, appear on TV with all the pomp and glamour and become known and idol to many. If you appear rich and beautiful will all its external hypocrisy, you are successful.
As a manifestation of this mental immaturity, we find the Starstruck, Star Circle Quest and other similar star search very popular. Everybody, male and female, young and old, is aspiring to appear on TV and have a taste of how is it to be a showbiz personality – no worries, party here and there, idolized by many, with “lots” of money, handsome, beautiful. Everybody wants to be popular and they shall achieve this at all cost. Why? Because popularity is the measure of success! In fact, it has been proven as the ticket to becoming the President of the Philippines! Popularity means everything. No wonder, everybody is just so obsessed to become popular.
This is one of the most pitiful realizations of mine being Filipino and upon realizing this, I became more ashamed of myself, of my being Filipino although I take pride of my very rich cultural heritage. And there is an added insult to injury. Our mentality has not grown mature as patently portrayed in Bakekang, a soap opera aired on TV these days, presenting current realities despite the fact that its story had been written some three decades ago! It seems that nothing has changed. There is the ambitious desire for popularity and the abominable yet unresolved crab mentality. In about thirty years, the Filipino mind remained… immature.
Speaking of maturity, young stars today claim that in order to appear mature, you have to take off your clothes and allow malicious eyes to feast on your flesh up to its smallest details. The measurement of maturity has turned out to be nudity!
Is this really maturity or a symptom of its opposite?
If we may recall, we are born nude and it is just fine. After all, we were just little infants then. We were not yet aware of the norms of society. We have not yet realized the sense of respect of ourselves… our body.
Yet, as we grow up, we realize that these childish things should be left to the children. We dress up out of respect to ourselves and to make us appear attractive. We cover our flesh with clothes because we think mature.
Now, here come these revisionist westerners who distort our concept of maturity. They teach us the exact opposite of what we hold to be proper and true. They teach us that to be mature is to be nude. Nudity has become the expression of maturity.
And we Filipinos, whose identity and consciousness as Filipino have been buried six feet under the ground by the Americans during their long years of occupation in this country, readily accept without question and doubt anything that is western. When these westerners proclaimed the gospel of nudity as proof of maturity, we enthusiastically acclaim: Amen!
The intrusion of this alien concept has aggravated the collapse of our already embattled concept of good and beautiful. It has reversed our growth from going up to a higher level down to the shame of our lost selves.
How confused are we as a people! If they were alive, our ancestors, for sure, will be ashamed of us and condemn us like dogs without anybody taking care of.
Then I thought….
When will we grow? When will we wake up from our fancy dreams? When will we mature?
For about three decades now since the story of "Bakekang" was first told, the Filipino mentality remained in its infancy. We still cling to the superficial measure of success, that is, if you become a showbiz personality, appear on TV with all the pomp and glamour and become known and idol to many. If you appear rich and beautiful will all its external hypocrisy, you are successful.
As a manifestation of this mental immaturity, we find the Starstruck, Star Circle Quest and other similar star search very popular. Everybody, male and female, young and old, is aspiring to appear on TV and have a taste of how is it to be a showbiz personality – no worries, party here and there, idolized by many, with “lots” of money, handsome, beautiful. Everybody wants to be popular and they shall achieve this at all cost. Why? Because popularity is the measure of success! In fact, it has been proven as the ticket to becoming the President of the Philippines! Popularity means everything. No wonder, everybody is just so obsessed to become popular.
This is one of the most pitiful realizations of mine being Filipino and upon realizing this, I became more ashamed of myself, of my being Filipino although I take pride of my very rich cultural heritage. And there is an added insult to injury. Our mentality has not grown mature as patently portrayed in Bakekang, a soap opera aired on TV these days, presenting current realities despite the fact that its story had been written some three decades ago! It seems that nothing has changed. There is the ambitious desire for popularity and the abominable yet unresolved crab mentality. In about thirty years, the Filipino mind remained… immature.
Speaking of maturity, young stars today claim that in order to appear mature, you have to take off your clothes and allow malicious eyes to feast on your flesh up to its smallest details. The measurement of maturity has turned out to be nudity!
Is this really maturity or a symptom of its opposite?
If we may recall, we are born nude and it is just fine. After all, we were just little infants then. We were not yet aware of the norms of society. We have not yet realized the sense of respect of ourselves… our body.
Yet, as we grow up, we realize that these childish things should be left to the children. We dress up out of respect to ourselves and to make us appear attractive. We cover our flesh with clothes because we think mature.
Now, here come these revisionist westerners who distort our concept of maturity. They teach us the exact opposite of what we hold to be proper and true. They teach us that to be mature is to be nude. Nudity has become the expression of maturity.
And we Filipinos, whose identity and consciousness as Filipino have been buried six feet under the ground by the Americans during their long years of occupation in this country, readily accept without question and doubt anything that is western. When these westerners proclaimed the gospel of nudity as proof of maturity, we enthusiastically acclaim: Amen!
The intrusion of this alien concept has aggravated the collapse of our already embattled concept of good and beautiful. It has reversed our growth from going up to a higher level down to the shame of our lost selves.
How confused are we as a people! If they were alive, our ancestors, for sure, will be ashamed of us and condemn us like dogs without anybody taking care of.
Then I thought….
When will we grow? When will we wake up from our fancy dreams? When will we mature?
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