Love and beauty

Say hello to February, the love month. Nowadays we see red decorations everywhere – hearts, cupids, kisses and a lot more all associated with love.

It is said that love makes the world go round. But experts of this occasion mistake love only for an attraction to the one you envision to marry. Single ladies fret this day simply because there is nobody to take them out on a date. Other women who have men in their lives cannot wait for the 14th to arrive.

The history of Valentine’s Day goes way back but we have to admit it has been too commercialized. Same as Christmas, there are a lot of merchandise to buy for your other half. Nobody of course is compelled to but the business industry so demands it.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the commercialization of this occasion, even if there is a downside to every Filipino’s pocket. What I am more concerned of is the woman who stresses herself on her hairdo and outfit for the dinner date.

Similarly as February is well prepared of, women also during try to be the most beautiful this month so their man can be theirs to keep.

As beauty is very abstract, so is a woman. She wears fine clothing yet demands for more. She thinks she is fat when she is already skin and bones. She thinks she’s ugly but really, she is beautiful.

A clear picture of reality distorted just because a magazine cover or a radio advertisement said so.

In fact, this sheer distortion of reality has harmed so many women all over the world. In the United States, young women are suffering from eating disorders just because of their desperation to stay thin. They puke and starve themselves so no extra fat would bulge from their bodies.

The wonder of beauty and how abstract it can be is now destroyed and mutated into some Barbie body fairy tale dream.

I pity every woman who is naturally fair skinned or have a big body build. Not that they are to be pitied at, but their femme is disregarded because the norm says so. They automatically feel unwanted and unloved, enough reason for them to go on a horrible diet and a skin regimen.

Whoever set the norm of beauty into our media must be out of his or her head.

There a lot of women who feel unaccepted and rejected because of how they look. But in reality, every woman is beautiful, every woman deserves a date. There is no need for a diet that would force you to eat what you do not normally eat or to wear skin tight clothes just for curves to come out.

I personally admire the recently crowned Miss UP Cebu Francesca Fernandez who is the irony of beauty pageants. But her irony proved to UP Cebu and to the community as well that beauty pageants are to fight for simply because it uplifts women, especially those who are voiceless.

She admits being insecure of her fellow candidates because of her big body build but she pursued her desire to still be part of the beauty contest. In her audition tape she said, “I want to bring something different to the table.” And she did.

In fact, when she was asked the final question of the role of beauty pageants to state universities like UP Cebu she answered, “It allows me to be who I am and to be free.”

Her winning is a clear manifestation that the stereotype of beauty is now out.


Beauty is about being you and being free. Not being wrapped in a thick cloud of make-up and whopping high heels.


**Published in the Freeman Newspaper on February 5, 2013