Kalaswaan at kabadingan sa pelikula at programang Filipino

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Kabadingan and kalaswaan in Philippine cinema
January 5, 2012
by benign0
Roughly translated in English and taken out
outside of the context of homosexuality that it is
commonly associated with, the Tagalog colloquial
word kabadingan in a cultural sense is a
contemporary concept that describes a spectacle
of loud contrived crassness or obnoxiousness in
both behaviour, design, and aesthetic sensibilities
that is indulged in for its entertainment
(attention-grabbing) value. The Tagalog word
kalaswaan , for its part, goes back in history a bit
longer and refers to a spectrum of unsavory
sensibilities ranging from unwholesome at its
better end, to smuttiness at its worst end.
Why do I use the two words in the same phrase
as Philippine cinema? To answer that I defer to
two pieces of insight that I cite in my book:
Isagani Cruz on the state of the Philippine
entertainment industry in an Inquirer.net editorial
dated 16 June 2006:
Benjamin Franklin said that if the people
misuse their suffrages, the remedy is not to
withdraw the precious privilege from them
but to teach them in its proper use. The
entertainment industry, which has the most
available access to the [Filipino] people
through the movies, television, radio and the
tabloids, is instead purposely miseducating
them.
The Philippine entertainment industry is not
only a vast wasteland, as television has
been described in America, but a vicious
instrument for the abatement of the nationâ
€™s intelligence. The shows it offers for the
supposed recreation of the people are
generally vulgar and smutty, usually with
some little moral lesson inserted to make
them look respectable, but offensive
nonetheless. On the whole, they are
obnoxious and unwholesome and deserve to
be trashed.
[The above snippet is also quoted in a Film
Academy of the Philippines website article here .]
University of the Philippines sociology professor
Michael Tan commenting on the occasion of the
Sixth International congress on AIDS in Asia and
the Pacific held in Melbourne, Australia from the
5th to the 10th October 2001 cited by Diana
Mendoza in her article “Between
Sensationalism and Censure” ( Philippine
Journalism Review , April 2002, pages 35-37):
Commenting if the Philippines could be at
the forefront of education on sex and
sexuality Tan said no, because “media have
very sensational coverage but they still have
this patina of moralism which is strange.” He
said this brims over to the film industry that
churns out movies carrying the “crime and
punishment” theme — for instance, movies
with pots of adultery that run steamy sex
scenes but which towards the end, mandate
that the adulterer, who is always the female,
gets shot or imprisoned.
“With these endings, movies become a
morality play after two hours of titillation,”
he said.
[…]
Tan said Filipino movies also carry the
“crime and redemption” theme, in which a
sex worker eventually realizes there is a
better life outside prostitution, but only after
the audience [have] been treated to several
sexual episodes.
So are Messrs Tan and Cruz being fair in their
assessment of the Philippines’ entertainment
industry — in particular its film industry? Am I,
myself, justified in making a generalisation that
the collective products of the Philippine film
industry are, in fact, malaswa and filled with the
kabadingan that many point out has come to be
the signature character of the industry?
Harsh questions perhaps, but the obvious answer
happens to be a subjective take on the matter
that I happen to agree with. A friend of mine
quipped, “ Why can’t indie film focus on good
story telling?”. To me, it seems that in the
subset of Philippine cinema that tries to pass off
as serious artistic stuff, the race is not for the
telling of the best story but for who encroaches
the furthest into the rapidly shrinking let-not-go-
there zone. Over the last several decades, that
zone lost territory to the race first with its
coverage of nudity, then on-screen copulation,
then gay sex scenes. Pretty soon, the indie film
industry, perhaps under the banner of it being
indie and, being considered so, licensed to be
“artistic” will breach a milestone that will make it
qualified for the distinction of being compliant
with Rule Number 34.
If you gotta make a movie with sexual themes,
why does it have to be malaswa? Sex is
obviously no longer taboo in Philippine society
and one can weave a story around sex that does
not have the trademark morality dose and
peeling-of-the-taboo-onion thematic structure
that consumes precious minutes in many Filipino
movies. I have yet to see a Filipino movie
containing sexual themes where the sexual
themes are merely incidental to (rather than the
main point of) the message or its value
proposition to the audience.
If it isn’t sex that these film producers are trying
to use to appeal to our sensibilities with, it is
“social relevance”. Another friend of mine made
what I thought was a very insightful observation
that “local indie film makers are superficially
focused on having something socially relevant to
say. It takes effort to watch their movies. It’s like
you are watching a symposium”. Ouch! As such, I
beg to differ with Ilda’s viewpoint slightly.
Perhaps Filipino films do make me think — of
things that really entertain me. And the minority
that at least try to make me think of serious —
less really entertaining stuff — do so in a way that
makes the experience just a notch above a visit
to the dentist. Last I heard, it is possible to be
both socially relevant and tell a good story while
you are at it. But then that takes creativity.
Mainstream Philippine cinema obviously reflects
the character of the greater part of the society
that forms its audience base — an audience that
gleefully laps up kabadingan and kalaswaan . The
market that supposedly “serious” film makers are
gunning for, on the other hand, is a sophisticated
one with well-rounded tastes. As such social
relevance or sex alone will not necessarily be a
strong enough come-on for these folk — there is
already enough of that baked into good story-
telling in the global library of content — both
mainstream and eclectic — that they draw upon
for their viewing pleasure. This means that serious
Filipino film makers will have to compete at that
level — at world-class levels — to reach their
target audience. Being “better” than mainstream
Filipino movies is not good enough. You have to
be good in absolute terms.

HOW DIRTY IS THE POLITICS IN THE PHILIPPINES(code yellow)

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Why was PNoy DESPERATE to accelerate
disbursment of public funds from
2011-2012?
getrealphilippines.com

Kubetal:
(President Pnoy, nothing like his father Benigno Aquino Junior)
Like i said in this case, it’s obvious, he is so
afraid, because of the budget will go to the
yellow ribbon committee which is the yellow
propaganda, and this committee insist of their
black nobility in this very poor country..like i
said earlier, It seem like it’s a Legacy or
Nobility, since the wife of Juan Luna’ The
Cojuanco’s, their candidacy and political
strategy lies on this kind of fraud and
hypocrisy if you are familiar with the secret
societies like the illuminati, they are the closest
depict of it’s portrayal. their only difference is
they are not bankers but corporation, as long
as they have the blood of Cojuanco, this kind
of folklore in politic will unrest in our system,
combined now with the blood of a bright
politician Ninoy Aquino, one of the most
respectful politician in the Marcos Regime who
is believed by many activist that was victim by
a political nobility fraud of the Cojuanco’s, now
Pnoy’s trying to restore the left Legacy of his
mother and his ancestors, don’t you see?
every time when a Cojuanco died comes a
newly voted Cojuanco blood Presidents, check
the history from Juan Luna’s wife up to the
present, they use this method to caught the
heart and sympathy of every Filipino resulting
into a victorious candidacy only Pres:
Ferdinand Marcos broke this method and won
against them, even the snap election, Cory
Cojuanco Aquino never won the said elections,
but unfortunately the EDSA revolution which
was the only 2% of the population and with the
help of the US government (which was
threatened to the credibility of Marcos) forced
Marcos to step down, and to make sure for the
protection of the throne, Cory threw Marcos
away out of the country, which was so
injustice with wrath of contemporary
vengeance using the opportunity of Ninoy
Aquino’s death. Plus the issue of Hacienda
Luicita , the genocide within, Corruption beyond
limit, plus the issues of today with the
executive and the justice, the corruption, porky
barrel, and nothing but a good to be true SONA
of the President Pnoy.
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/07/
why-pnoy-was-desperate-to-accelerate-
disbursment-of-public-funds-from-2011-2012/
comment-page-1/#comment-623723
Why was PNoy DESPERATE to accelerate
disbursment of public funds from
2011-2012?
getrealphilippines.com

Divorcing the Robot

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Ok this is getting a little out of hand

Campaign for Boring Development

It’s only tangentially related to the topic of this blog, but just so you know: my ranting, bitter denunciation of Facebook is live today here.

(For reasons I don’t understand, Google isn’t indexing the post on Medium.com, so I’m copying it after the break here. The original is much nicer to look at, of course.)

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