|
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Wenceslao: Exploiting women
By BONG WENCESLAO
The issue involving American national Daniel Machanik and his interactive dating website is not only about legality but also about a community’s attitude towards women. This is the reason why Machanik and his friends, Vice Gov. John-john Osmeña and Provincial Board Member Victor Maambong, are getting the flak from Cebuanos.
Actually, I initially thought that Osmeña and Maambong knew more the attitude of Cebuanos on this matter than the American Machanik. What is clear to me now is that the officials’ view on women is not rooted on firm moral grounds—which was bolstered by an e-mail I received that mentioned some of their “extra-curricular” activities.
As far as I know, there are two main viewpoints that lead to the oppression and exploitation of women. One is when they are considered as mere objects. There are cultures, for example, that treat women not much different from furniture or slaves. Their rights are suppressed, meaning they do not have a say in family and societal affairs.
The other viewpoint considers women as mere commodities to be sold for profit. Here, women become adjuncts of the market economy. The swabe form of exploitation is when they are used as “models” to increase the sales of products like drinks or tabloids. The more oppressive and degrading is when they are made goods of the sex trade.
If we were to believe Machanik, Osmeña and Maambong, the controversial interactive dating website was not into pornography—the women were merely “sexy but not sleazy.” I think that argument is not much different from the one used in show business, where going “bold” is being differentiated from going all out or “bomba.”
But whether the website is pornographic or merely sexy, or a film is bold and not bomba, they all have the same basic element: the exploitation of women for profit. This goes, too, for the use of the term “models.” Whether a woman in a bikini “models” for a whisky or she “models” for a “sexy” interactive website, it’s the same exploitation.
There is, however, the other side of the coin—that of the women volunteering to be exploited. This, I would say, is the perspective Machanik, Osmeña, Maambong and the others wants people to dwell on: that the website is first and foremost a business proposition, and by the same token, is a source of income for the so-called “models.”
But this is basically why the problem persists in the first place. The iniquitous setup consisting of the few haves and the many have-nots have spurred people to endure degradation just to earn money, whether for basic needs or for luxury. But that does not free the exploiters from blame; rather it makes their crime even worse for the double-kill.
P.S. An e-mail sender, Sari Quezon, reacted to my column yesterday about the death of lawyer, Vicente Balbuena. Here’s a portion of the letter:
“Through your column, please send my condolences to Ma’am Alice and Annie (whom I personally met in the mid-‘80s) and the rest of the family.
“Balbuena, whom we called VicBal some two decades ago, was an official of several militant cause-oriented groups, among them the now-defunct Coalition Against People’s Persecution and the Protestant Lawyers League of the Philippines. He served as the Mass Struggles Commission director of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Cebu. He also ran as Partido ng Bayan Cebu sixth congressional bet in the 1987 elections, but lost to another Bayan member and cause-oriented lawyer Tingting de la Serna.
“VicBaL will be missed not only by those whom he worked with in Bayan during those heady and difficult days but most especially by those whom he had sincerely worked for.”
(e-mail: khanwens@yahoo.com; text: 0927-4912362)
(January 15, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
