Saturday, August 04, 2007 Editorial: Of sex and love
IT MIGHT have been unintended, but the front page of a leading national daily newspaper last Thursday was full of sex. And love too.
One of the paper's sky heads (titles of stories above the paper's name plate) was about the disbarment of PBA (Philippine Bastketball Association) Commissioner Jose Emmanuel "Noli" Eala for adultery. The Supreme Court en banc disbarred Eala, that is, removed his right to practice law, for grossly immoral conduct and violation of his oath of office and the Code of Professional Responsibility.
The woman's husband filed the complaint using a love letter sent to her on her wedding day.
At the bottom of the paper's front page was a one-column story about three women who love the same man -one of the 10 Marines beheaded in the Basilan ambush on July 10. One of the three women was a Dabawenya with whom the deceased Marine soldier -Cpl. Russel Panaga - sired a child. All three attended a ceremony honoring the fallen soldiers.
The third interesting story was about the cleavage of Senator Hillary Clinton, a leading Democratic presidential aspirant, who is admittedly still very attractive to men at her age. Washington Star's award-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan commented on Hilary's cleavage during the July 18 campaign debate and unexpectedly sparked a hot public discussion. The Washington Post actually published a 746-word article about the cleavage.
The fourth story just below Hillary's but inside the same box was an account of the results of a study wherein survey respondents were asked to answer the question "Why have sex?" Quoting Associated Press, the national daily listed some of the 237 reasons why people engaged in sex.
College-aged men and women surveyed have the same top 10 reason for having sex. It is more for lust than love. The 10 reasons for men to engage in sex are:
1. I was attracted to the persons
2. It feels good.
3. I wanted to experience physical pleasure
4. Its fun
5. I wanted to show my affection to the person
6. I was "horny"
7. I was sexually aroused and wanted release
8. I wanted to express my love for the person
9. I wanted to achieve an orgasm
10. I wanted to please my partner
On the other hand, women interviewed gave the same reasons, except for two: I realized I was in love and I was "in the heat of the moment."
Don't laugh now, but many of the other reasons were unbelievably materialistic, even disturbing and deadly. Among the bottom five reasons why men and women have sex are: "I wanted to get a job," "I wanted to get a raise," and "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease (STD)."
It's uncanny, but these stories on love and sex came out at the same time that the National Statistics Office started its census of the country's population for the current decade.
