I never thought it would come to this ladies and gentlemen. I thought maybe, just maybe, there were at least enough Filipinos out there with some decency left in their hearts and souls. I thought that, maybe if some of them did vote for Manny Pacquiao, they would have enough good sense to know the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, once again, I find myself corrected. Once again, I find myself realizing just what kind of people I’m trying to address here. With great contempt and disgust, I find myself writing this rant because it seems the Filipino people, especially the youths, are now utterly doomed.
There was this recent incident that involved a certain Wattpad story about young lovers. In one comment, a male someone (I don’t know who they are and, whoever they may be, they can be thankful for that), aged 24, confessed that they had had a relationship with their 14-year-old cousin, impregnated said cousin and stated that they were still going strong with said cousin. Said anonymous male made mention of the fact that he was inspired by the story he had read and was glad that there were people out there who could understand him and his situation. It was then that a young woman, Rexie Robles Tamayo, decided to react to said comment and pointed out how wrong it seemed.
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What followed was that many fans of the Wattpad story in question as well as other Wattpad readers misinterpreting Ms. Tamayo’s reaction and stepping in to criticize the poor woman who, while wrong in some aspects, certainly had a point. Like rabid dogs, the Wattpad fans attacked her personally and mercilessly without even sensing the underlying wrongness that Ms. Tamayo was trying to point to. They reacted to a perceived slight but otherwise failed to notice the more sinister element that was right under their nose the whole time.
Ah, Wattpad. It’s a free online publishing website. You can write your own stories and have them published there. Since it’s also free, just about anyone can publish on Wattpad and many of our youths are quite enthusiastic at having their works posted there. This is where the stories of the films She’s Dating the Gangster, Diary ng Isang Pangit and She’s in Love with the DotA Player come from and while not every story on Wattpad is horrible, I’m beginning to really worry about what’s happening with the youth of today.
Now look, don’t get me wrong, I write on Wattpad too. I also believe that, since it’s free, everyone’s free to write anything they want there. Heck, I’m willing to admit that a lot of the works posted there may seem nonsensical to the casual reader. Unfortunately, bad writing isn’t the only reason I’m calling out Wattpad and the way Pinoy readers and filmmakers have become fixated with its contents.
Themes of Immorality
Look, this is what actually validates Ms. Tamayo’s argument in the matter.
The thing is, sexual relations between a 23-year-old and a 14-year-old (the age of a minor, mind you) is still clearly illegal. Sexual relations between an adult and a minor is considered a form of child molestation or corruption of minor and should not be tolerated regardless of how innocuous the two involved may think of it. More likely than not, the couple may even think that what they have is true love but, knowing from experience, what they’re perceiving in themselves is probably just teen lust.
But that’s not the worst part.
The worst part here is that Wattpad is viewed and read from by young readers on a regular basis. Stories that normalize the idea of an adult having sexual relations with a minor can be considered a form of corruption in and of itself. I suppose the author of the story mentioned above probably didn’t intend his or her work to be outright immoral but its underlying effect will certainly have some influence on the minor readers of Wattpad. This will make them easy targets of sexual predators both online and offline.
And where the heck are the Wattpad authorities? Implying sexual content between adults and minors is illegal on the site or any legitimate website or online group. If it was my gaming community, I would’ve been kicked out and reported to the authorities already!
Misguided Thinking
Another problem with many Wattpad stories being adapted to films and TV shows today is that they espouse the same fairy-tale mindset that has, time and time again, sabotaged our very culture and poisoned the minds of our youths. In the end, they only encourage youths to be irresponsible and breed like rabbits because, according to their themes, “everything will work themselves out” so why should they worry about the consequences of their actions?
In real life, we can’t all be Daniel Padilla and Katherine Bernardo. In real life, we have to deal with crap like poverty, disease, overpopulation and making sure our children can get a good education so they don’t end up like us. In real life, singing stupid songs like Na sa’yo Na ang Lahat won’t be enough to deal with the very real threat of political tyranny, desperate unemployment and general human cruelty.
Lack of Creativity
Actually, this is a personal issue but I might as well mention it while I’m at it. Look, I’m a struggling writer too and, like I said, I post stories there too. Unfortunately, are Wattpad stories the only thing local filmmakers can draw their ideas from? And of all the stories they can find there, why only adapt the cheesy and often misleading love stories instead of some of the few better horror stories that I’ve managed to read there? I mean, honestly, is this all our filmmakers can come up with for Heaven’s sake?
I can only lament at what the idea of a good story has become for the common Filipino. What happened to the works written by Jose Rizal and Luwalhati Bautista? There’s nothing wrong with cheesy romances as they tend to be everywhere today anyway but they’re surely not the only thing worth adapting. Are they?
I HAVE RETURNED TO LAY WASTE TO OUR ENEMIES!
Haaaay, one of the effects of corruption (dumbing down the people, the youth) which is just one of the consequences of oligarchy… of corporatocracy…
Sad to say filmkakers know it. They know what is wrong what is not. Morality, legality issues are not on their agenda. Filmaking is mostly about business. They wont make a movie that will not guarantee their profits!
With the possibility of People’s Television, i hope abs and gma step up their acts instead of fighting it. Kalandian, kabobohan, at mediocrity ang priority nila. Where is their social responsibility? Having a program that donates to the poor is not enough. I miss Channel 9, Harry Gasser et al. Can they please bring English news reporting back?
Mr. Grimwald maybe writing on the “Wattpad” too. It is free pornography. Anybody can just write a sleazy sex story. Then, put some sexual action in it; with outrageous theme…you don’t need to buy porn. Pornography writers will be driven, out of business.
If our country does not have Telebasuras…we are now having : Wattpad…to dumb down us further…
This is now a dumb down country. Populated by dumb down people !
No, according to Wattpad rules, you can’t write porn there. I write porn in other outlets. Instead, I just write stories on WP similar to those found in GRP’s fiction section.
Efforts are already being made by the desperately progressive to normalize pedophilia in the West – see Salon.com’s ‘I’m a pedophile, not a monster.’
Bad news for the Philippines if it loses that valuable tourism stream.
Dave,
If it wasn’t for the human trafficking industry (sex trade), the Failippines wouldn’t lose more than half of its tourism market. This country is the Dirty Old Man’s paradise. Everything is for sale in this country.
Aeta
Well to be fair about topics related to obscene stories/themes that’s readily available to ALL members of society,cheap porno rags and pirated DVDs are on the same level of accessibility as your WATTPAD story. Even if that material is free on the internet, the internet connection itself costs something. It cannot be contained. Hell, even Rappler is into porno disguised as “intelligent risque” crap. That’s why things like that found on Wattpad do not shock me. Anyone with a mobile device can come across something lewd and obscene even if the person is not actively looking for it. So no, Wattpad is not the problem per se: Net access is. But railing against that is unfashionable these days. Just go to your average piso net shop and you’ll see gays ogling different varieties of penises on Facebook; or a guy alt+tabbing between Jobstreet and Pornhub. The quest for lewd material or its presence was always there. Net access just made it more easier. And in a society populated by a majority with stunted mental faculties like the Philippines, internet access is a loaded gun given to a four year old child to play with.
The best comedy on earth shows up when an immoral person talks about the morals!
I know, but what choice do I have? I might be “immoral” as you say, but even I know that there are boundaries to be considered. Boundaries that are there for good reason.
I dig you on that, brother. It’s also called, drawing the line. This is similar if I’m a captain,commanding a vessel.
Sometimes the moral obligations of command are less than clear. I have to weigh the good of the many against the needs of the individual and try to balance them as realistically as possible. God knows I don’t always succeed.
I believe Pedophilia and other mental disorder is not considered as a sickness in the Philippines. Although I’m starting to see some institution for it.
Like having a depression is just considered as a fad, a temporary feeling of sadness which is supposed to be considered as a serious illness.
Mental health should really be a concern soon. If not, this country will have a population of people with their brains not functioning properly.
Corruption of minor and incest being normalized. It’s a scary world that we live in now.
just did a quick google search of “wattpad incest” to try to look for the conversation talked about in this article. I didn’t find it but… WTF. They have plenty of incest stories on wattpad. Well, they have pedophile stories too.
It’s not just wattpad. Internet browsing itself is dangerous for kids. EVERYTHING could be looked up easily. It’s unwise to entirely depend on the regulation of websites with regards to its contents. Heck, even facebook, instragram, TWITTER, and other social networking sites would often have malicious materials. Nasty post could reach thousands of kids around the world and it would take uncertain amount of time before site admins can take it down. It is then the responsibility of the parents and/or guardians to control of how much time and to regulate of what sites their kids can utilize.
This begs for another question: Where are you?
Each WattPad story has a ‘report button’, and it’s there for a good reason. What are you doing here, asking rhetorical questions like ‘where are the WattPad authorities’ instead of calling them to take action? And while we’re at it, why aren’t you telling others to press that button too? Why are you here when you could be rallying them, getting them together and telling them to flood the staff with violation reports?
It’s everyone’s responsibility, you know. The staff, you, me – we all have means to combat this, and we need to cooperate to do it effectively. Ranting about how no one solves your problems is not going to get you – no, wait. Actually, judging by your other posts, you know perfectly where it’s going to get you.
Actually, I didn’t know what that button was for. Thank you for pointing that out. Gimme a minute.
I’m a writer too, I’ve been at Wattpad and incest stories are really existed there, I remember we helped to report one with my co-writers, I assume the people who wrote them don’t really care of literature but just attention thugs. I stop at that site, it’s just waste of time. I rather submit my work at publishers directly.
When I was young, my parents always told me: “Dont do this or you will get spanked” and “always look (first) left, (then) right and left (again) when you are about to cross a street/road”.
Now when I was young, it was always fun to do something that was ‘forbidden’. In a different language “to eat from the forbidden fruit”.
In my days there was no internet yet. But now its hard to have no internet access. So that adds a new task/duty for parents to monitor their own kids. But parents cant and wont monitor their own kids 24/7. All they can do is install software that wont allow pornsites and other sites that seem to be not good for kids. But kids are smart. Kids nowadays can easily side-step that software and still gain access to multiple undesired websites.
As long as I dont know these kids personally, I dont even care what they will write. They are not my kids. And those kids are just full with creativity and curiosity.
So I am really a bit flabbergasted why most or all of you are so shocked (and naive) and want to be in god’s shoes and tell the world what is wrong and whats not. You are not their parents.
Ahhh.
Dont u know my dear fellow.
Gossip and bitching is a filipino past time.
I have better morals or I have a better education then you so i’m holier than thou is so A-typical of the middle class to upper class mindset.
Let he is without sin?
Though if they read their bibles they would see their God is ok with child brides.
According to their bible a woman is ready to be wed and start bearing children as soon as she bleeds……..let that sink in for a moment.
So my question for the readers here….where do there morals come from.
If this sort of behavior upsets you…..why is your GOD not against it?
Nice one, Grim! The part where crappy stories are more popular than brilliant ones to majority of Pinoys, youth or oldies alike, says something about the dumbing down of generation. What’s scary is that the poor quality of the shows/lit being produced is no less than the result of the dumbed down generation asking for and readily consuming it. Also, freedom doesn’t amount to accountability, respect, growth and integrity to some Filipinos. Here one has a free medium that could allow him to express and impart his creativity, skills or knowledge (to entertain, to inspire, to influence good change or teach the youth to dream big or achieve something greater, etc) but is more concerned about popularity and vanity being self-absorb. And like you said, it doesn’t help that our local media support popular Wattpad stories just because those will readily sell to its many following, regardless if it doesn’t make a person use the large part of his brain but mostly appeal to his emotion.
I’m aware we have good Filipino Wattpad stories of different genre from brilliant WP writers like that of ChinoF but we are what we read. That said something about the majority of Filipinos who consume kilig romcoms more than any other type of literature and stories.
Failipino college student logic:
Goal in life – graduate in selected course w/high marks
Normal student study habit – read science,math,history, literature to improve knowledge in chosen degree(other than studying).
Failipino student study habit – don’t have one, don’t care, I’m gonna pass anyway. Reads crap books, watches crap shows 24/7,etc.
We’ll see what the results are in the long term.
no mention of a certain book by a certain Russian?
Lolita?
Oh my god, guess what? The Philippine age of consent is 12. Effing 12! Technically the guy who commented his little “love story” isn’t actually breaking any Philippine laws because 1. The 14-year-old girl is of age according to the law. 2. He is not in any position of authority towards her (parent, guardian,employer, teacher, government official). 3. He is not prostituting her out. His relationship may be frowned upon, enrage others even, and he may not marry her ever (she’s his cousin), but as it is right now, the law is totally okay with it.
How sick is that? No wonder why the Philippines increasingly is becoming Paedophileland, with many foreign sickos on the hunt here. I am so wondering why laws haven’t yet been updated to address this. Like, damn.
And once again, my words ring true. Pinoy pop literature’s only achievement in the Philippines as of now is reducing IQ’s and increasing birth rates.
Thank you for making this blog post, I was waiting for this to exist. Thank you so much.
Oh, I remember this issue! Hahaha! Ms. Robles actually apologized as she didn’t mean to attack the writer. She just wanted to point out that readers should be responsible in analyzing what they read. But I’m actually on her side with this issue. I know the author and I’ve read that particular story, and yes, even if fans would insist that there was no incest that happened there as they are not real cousins, in the eyes of a mature, unbiased reader, there is. They fell in love while they have no idea that they were not real cousins. So that’s incest, right? I was speechless with the other comments defending the boy because obviously, they haven’t read the story well. Maybe, they were just scanning the story and would go directly to the interesting part. I’m not sure if the author has issued any comments about this. I’m not blaming the author as I know she doesn’t have any control over who read her story. Wattpad is free. Even if she writes a warning that the story is strictly for adults, minors would still read what they want to read. Mind you, the more transparent you are in putting a MATURE CONTENT , for adults only label, the more they will be interested in reading the story. In this case, I don’t know who to blame. Maybe, the parents?
Anyway, immorality is present in all types of media even in our teleseryes, not only wattpad and I think it’s not fair to blame the wattpad community as a whole. I think Wattpad has helped many aspiring writers achieved their dreams. I saw a lot of improvement in Wattpad stories recently because of bookclubs and more writers are becoming aware of their grammar and sentence construction, unlike before where you can find emoticons everywhere. It’s a great help for many aspiring writers and it’s not fair for a writer to be judged because she was discovered in Wattpad. I admit that there are stories in Wattpad that are inappropriate, some are not worthy of publishing, and it’s sad that others who have great stories are left unnoticed. But publishing is a business. Of course, as a publisher who’s main aim is to make money, you won’t publish a book that won’t sell in the market no matter how good it is. If you want to publish a non contemporary novel, there are other publishing companies that can cater to your genre. It’s up to the people if they’re willing to buy that book. But it’s unfair that Wattpad/ wattpad writers/ publishing companies who published wattpad stories are being blamed for the so called “fall of literature” when they are giving opportunities to writer ( and job opportunities to others). I read both English and Tagalog books of various topics. But I also find Wattpad very entertaining. I’m sorry to say but even if I agree that the stories of Jose Rizal (especially Noli Me Tangere) and Luwalhati Bautista are masterpieces, I won’t read them for entertainment and I’m not going to question the IQ level of other people who find them boring.