Year: 2015

Why Filipinos’ obssession with Marian Rivera mirrors Philippine politics

February 25, 2015 Kate Natividad 12 Comments

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t believe Marian Rivera fantards are “doing anything wrong”. They’re just being themselves. And we have to respect that. They’re sort of like scorpions. They sting because that is what scorpions do. There’s really nothing wrong with stinging if you have the brain of a scorpion. Fantardism is an interesting…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Media, Politics, Society

The Girl In The Gutter

February 25, 2015 Grimwald 21 Comments

She was a small creature, no taller than a grown woman’s waist and with her limbs as thin and frail as bread sticks and her body almost nothing more than skin stretched over bone. Dressed in a grimy and filthy potato sack that’s supposed to pass for clothes, she walked on the hot pavement of the…

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Crime, Culture, Education, Lifestyle, Media, Society

The Philippine ‘Opposition’: A movement in search of a credible cause

February 24, 2015 benign0 3 Comments

There used to be an old 1970s-1980s term often used to describe the “politically passionate”. Cause-oriented groups or COGs as they were once called was the collective term used for activists and rabble-rousers alike. They had real “causes” at the time — many of which were focused on achieving “freedom”, because Filipinos were supposedly not…

Crime, Development, Politics, Society

What Marian Rivera’s fan base reveals about Philippine society

February 24, 2015March 29, 2023 Kate Natividad 89 Comments

It suddenly occurred to me why Marian Rivera has so many frothing fans. It’s because she looks sosyal but sounds palengkera. The psychology there being that there is some sort of perverted appeal to seeing a person who looks like she comes from the colonial elite speaking the language of the masa. Yeah, I get…

Culture, Education, Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Media, Society

It is time Filipinos learn to understand what it means to be truly MINDFUL

February 24, 2015 benign0 22 Comments

Your stuck with it so you might as well defend it. That’s the sort of loser attitude that’s at work in a lot of the apologism we see nowadays. I’m fat. Deal with it. I’m poor. Deal with it. I’m a Catholic. Deal with it. I can’t speak English. Deal with it. I voted for…

Culture, Development, Education, Lifestyle, Society

Is Over-Romanticism A Problem?

February 24, 2015 Grimwald 28 Comments

As a commenter previously mentioned, the unprecedented success of the show Mari-Mar prompted the rise of modern teleseryes. Ever since then, local TV had never been the same again. Now, all you really see on local channels are shows of similar nature or at least contains elements thereof. While I have never developed a liking…

Culture, Lifestyle, Media, Society

Chiz and Heart wedding out-glitzes ‘outrageously extravagant’ #DongYanWedding!

February 23, 2015February 23, 2015 Kate Natividad 71 Comments

Ha ha! It seems fans of Filipino “royal couple” Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera are still royally butthurt over explosive exposés on the outrageous extravagance of their wedding. Back in early January, Ilda posed the question Did the Dingdong Dantes-Marian Rivera wedding violate the Philippine Civil Code against ‘thoughtless extravagance’? The post generated a lot…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Government, Lifestyle, Media, Society

Language: Tools Of The Trade

February 22, 2015 Grimwald 31 Comments

I have always been fluent in English. You can say I grew up with the language. When I was in high school, people around me seemed to be so enchanted by the English language. There were those who seemed impressed by the way I spoke English while there were those who hated me for the…

Culture, Society