IT'S only right that this week’s column be about women. It also cannot be helped that the obvious take is one about the Meghan. There is also something about the whole ongoing “(j)event,” if you will, that is making me revert to college swarkspeak lingo, born in the Dulaang UP, invented by one Rikki Dalu(cious), and root tongue of gayspeak, vekky, and all the rest of it. Because of Meghan Markle and her conduct of that Oprah interview, we can only say, “Bongga ka ‘Day.” Vongga.
The British press, despite itself, has called The Duchess of Sussex a formidable communicator, and that she is. Appear (with matching high five)! Appearing before Oprah’s camera was a cool, calm, collected, and bonggaciously articulate Duchess of Sussex, sporting a baby bump and a pregnant voo-man glow. Odiva. Diva sya diva. It is also lost on no one, even those who pretend not to notice, that the duchess has been beautiful from the onset (crush lang naman ng bayan – someone I know well included -- since Suits days pa, he tells me), and has always been impeccably, tastefully, dutchessily turned out since the very moment she and Prince Harry announced their engagement. Odiva.
The duchess is bongga not just because she is beautiful and clearly registers well on media. There’s that she has since she was 11 been an activist for women’s rights, cut to that Nickelodeon video that documents a young Meghan Markle tackling that dishwashing soap commercial, montage of her various speaking engagements pre-Duchess days and onto Duchess days. Zoom in on the UN podium. Vonggacious. Subtext: Babaeng may saysay.
And on to another bonggacious voo-man. Oprah. Gawrsh, one name status ang lola mo. To get serious, that Meghan-Harry interview reminded us all what a good interview is supposed to be. First, and many a talk show host needs to be reminded (some need to learn), an interview is about the interviewee: her story, what she has to say. Second, an interviewer’s job is to frame questions that will get that story out, with carefully crafted questions. Third, there’s the onscreen management of it all. Oprah has decades of experience with precisely just all of that, and she delivered spectacularly yet again. Bonus: there’s more than an hour of footage left that can still be used. Hhmmmm. Part of why the woman is an empire and called the real queen.
Now to the Queen of England. She is herself a formidable woman, from all accounts. Yet she has allowed the media of her country to bash Meghan and Harry in the guise of defending her and the monarchy. ‘Wag sabihing wiz na truelach yan. Kasi po ob-vee-yus ang kacharotan.
At kung dumis-appear ang Piers Morgan at si Ian kung ano man ang ngalan, at kung mag-rethink na ang mga Commonwealth nations ng kani-kanilang state-yus, ava. Daffat lang.
‘Ika nga, high tea. Este, time.