What Marian Rivera’s being the Philippines’ sexiest woman means

marian_riveraAnother SMS voting contest, another so-called winner. So Marian Rivera is this year’s “sexiest” woman in the Philippines according to the results of a popularity contest organized by men’s magazine FHM.

Congratulations, Ms Marian. I suppose one can be considered to be “sexy” when there is enough of yourself routinely publicly exposed for the highly visual male of the species to deliver their judgment over their celphones. To be fair though, she’s also supposedly exposed a bit of what’s inside her head some time ago — at least if the account that published the following tweet is really hers…

marian_rivera_oblation

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Of course men, being men, will likely consider ladies who say “standing oblation” even sexier. Which is why Marian is the Philippines’ sexiest woman again. And which is why, to the chagrin of those self-described feminists out there who would like to think they succeed in their careers because of their brains, many otherwise intelligent women have adopted playing dumb as survival strategies.

The FHM “victory party” is an interesting juxtaposition to the battle currently being fought in the Supreme Court over the right to define certain biological milestones in the various repdoructive processes that go on inside a fertile woman’s body. Unfortunately for the whole “Uphold Reproductive Health Law” thing that is keeping that noisy community of “socially-aware” tweetizens entertained at the moment, when I think of the notion of “reproductive health”, the image of half-naked women in outlandish costumes gyrating on a catwalk in front of throngs of men capturing the spectacle with their smart phones is what comes to mind. Actually, I couldn’t even consider most of them “half-naked” — more like 99.8% naked.

fhm_victory_party

But, see, that to me is what being reproductively “healthy” is all about at its most primal. When you’ve got it, flaunt it. FHM celebrates that simple fact, lots of women who are confident they’ve got it oblige, and the best of Pinoy malehood respond with gusto. Why do even ordinary women wear short skirts and even shorter shorts? Because that’s what we do as sexual beings. Showbiz merely exaggerates this inclination, but these being exaggerations do not in any way make the inclination less real.

The really pointless effort of forcing the issue of what “reproductive health” means from the point of view of the self-appointed morally-upright and socially-just among us all but highlights the foolishness of the idea that we can intellectualize sexuality. Marian Rivera emerging again as the country’s “sexiest woman” in this triumph of technologically-enabled crowdsourcing reminds us of that.

15 Replies to “What Marian Rivera’s being the Philippines’ sexiest woman means”

  1. Playing up this story in a broadsheet like the Philippine Star — complete with a photo that takes up a quarter of the front page — looks to be part of the newspaper’s propaganda effort for the Aquino administration.

  2. all your observations are true. just want to inform you though that superstarmarian is a parody account 🙂

  3. These women, by all intents and purposes, use their bodies to make a living. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you. If you have a talent, whether it’s being really good at something or being really really really good looking, there’s no shame in using it.

    I don’t mean to be shallow here, but this is about your greatest asset…

    The sad part is that these women don’t really work out, exercise, or take care of their bodies. I’d include link to a picture taken from this event where one can see the “cottage cheese” effect of cellulite. There was nothing sexy about it, and these are supposed to be the Philippines Sexiest?

    No thanks.

    There’s this myth/stigma that going to the gym will make women big. I have some friends who go to the gym regularly. Female friends who lift weights. They aren’t big, but they are very nice to look at.

    Eating muffins on the other hand… yeah, those will make you big.

    I’ve rambled enough and you probably think I’m superficial now.

    That’s fine, I don’t care. The whole event and in fact, the whole celebrity worship culture that has been going around and made more popular due to “reality tv” is nothing but superficial. We trade value for appearance and the sad part is that it’s all airbrushed on.

    Marian didn’t win because she is sexy, she won because she’s a celebrity. Our celebs can’t even hold a candle to international talent and the truly talented people within our country go unnoticed and unheard of because we are shallow people.

    1. Just so you know, Mr. Body Perfect, no amount of exercise will get rid of cellulite or “cottage cheese” as you call it. As you saw for yourself, even skinny women have it. If a little bit of cellulite already turns you off from these gorgeous women, you need to check yourself. Stop this shaming of women’s bodies.

      1. correction: everyone who has claimed that “no amount of exercise will get rid of cellulite” has never reached the single digits of per cent bodyfat. so many fitness competitors in the world have done it (sorry, there’s not many of them here). here’s an example. anyway, moving on.

  4. kate natividad,to be fair, thats not even marians account as mentioned by the other user, and you have just proven you are dumber than her, please getrealphilippines stop posting anything about showbiz, lets stick to the more important issues

  5. idiots like marian rivera should stick to what she knows – taking her clothes off and sugar daddies.
    thinking is above her pay grade

  6. First, this “sexiest woman” thing is a mere popularity contest that is commercialized.

    Next, media attention on this is a distraction from the real issues.

  7. Woah! FYI, it has long been known that @Superstarmarian is a parody account. The girl has no social media account, aside from Instagram @therealmarian just to be fair.

    Please bother to check your sources before writing about it.

  8. If your blog is too boring and you want it to be busy and interesting,you should write credible things not to start writing nonsense about Marian Rivera,foolish blogger to get a life.

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