All the uproar on the Hayden Kho –Katrina Halili and 40 others sex video scandal going on for some weeks now has made me think that we are after all a nation of prudes, or perhaps a combination of a prude and a voyeur (pruyuer, anyone?).
Well, one couldn’t blame the public’s curiosity that was piqued by the personalities involved in the scandal. Who wouldn’t be curious on what transpired between this well-known, good-looking actor wanna-be/medical practitioner/gigolo/playboy turned into a pervert & persona non grata stud, a sexy actress , another one, a supposedly star-in-the making commercial model /professional doctor turned porno sensation plus another prominent doctor, heiress and business lady turned into a lovestruck sugar mommy of sorts? Throw in a few other scenes and sidelights involving more famous people and influential personalities in the mix and naturally, you get a blockbuster in your hands. If this whole sex video scandal (with sub-plots on drugs and psycho-sociopathic shebang) were a movie, it surely would be a big hit.
Anyway, the fame, betrayals, scandals and violations aside, there is also something to this scandal issue that is causing some stir on the Filipino psyche and also raising a few questions on the nation’s morality and how we treat our women.
Our reaction and attention to the sordid tale unfolding before our eyes somehow shows that we Filipinos are still collectively a conservative lot notwithstanding a few advances in technologies and our modified acceptance on society’s norms. If these sex videos prompt us to react vehemently in a way as to reach the senate halls, then we can safely assume that we are not used to these sexual perversion or blatant abuse of women. Pity our nation if we were to just shrug this whole case off as just one of those daily events, relegating the plight of the ‘women victims’ as an ordinary way of life. So this reaction, this news about the beleaguered doctor’s maltreatment (not on medical terms) but an abuse against women now holding this nation captive is indeed called for. Even the emphatic privilege speech of Senator Bong Revilla was a welcome relief. At last we have somebody in the Senate sensitive enough to its citizen’s problem or a sexy star’s problem for that matter. Briefly, we were diverted from the never-ending bickerings of our politicians. Somehow that is one positive note to all this ‘Hayden-Kho-mera issue.’
On the downside, we couldn’t help but notice our penchant for voyeurism much as we care to admit it or not. Why else will this sex video proliferate and reach mainstream if not for the unrelenting uploading and downloading of the videos? Just hearing about the existence of such tapes made us turn our necks to see where we can find and view it. Or maybe we are just naturally curious to see how these attractive people do it and even more curious to know if these truly are the personalities involved as they say. Still, I believe that everyone had different reactions and feelings while watching those videos. Others might feel disgusted at the victims and the perpetrator, others feel pity or envy (?), others are laughing, others still are either enraged or aroused – all these mixed reactions pointing to one thing: we actually took the time to watch those footages, some even rewinding it over and over and a lot more are passing them on to friends, burning them into CDs, blue-toothing like crazy, etc. Admit it guys, we are all guilty one way or another of being sex voyeurs. And why else would they even sell these scandalous videos for millions of pesos if Pinoy voyeurism is not a target market? Or perhaps, we just enjoy the whole exchange, the sex thing?
Still, the brightest side to all this is that Filipinos as a nation still value our women and even sexy stars however much her reputation has been ruined still deserves some dignity and that no one has a right to trample on her rights. Whatever they say about a woman being immoral for getting involved with an otherwise attached man and having sex with him, she still has her rights to her own privacy. And that private acts like that should have been kept hidden. For all intents and purposes, I also direct that phrase to those kiss-and-tell guys. You know these types of insensitive, immature guys who makes love with a girl and then brags about the whole thing to his friends. Although not exactly showing a video of their sack session, still letting others know about your ‘bumping and grinding’ is equally embarrassing to the lady concerned and is also a violation of her rights, with or without the presence of a camera. That would certainly feel like a slap on any woman’s face.
And being involved in a sex video without her consent and suddenly finding the whole country watching it is more than a slap or a kick in the stomach. Just wait and hear the whole country say oucchh! and you will realize the extent of what you have done. And hey, guys! It’s never a macho thing to kiss and tell anyway.
And for us who got ‘curious’ over the videos, there is nothing wrong with watching two people making love as long as it’s a scene from a movie, nor is there anything wrong for two supposedly dating couples to engage in such activities. But if we start to enjoy these things despite knowing that someone has fallen prey to another’s perversion, that’s where the real problem begins.
