I remembered what my Philippine Literature professor tackled last semester. She told us a poem which is about the women nowadays who are becoming innocent of how men, in reality, see and treat them. Women are becoming fond of this; which should actually be reverted. It was entitled "Sabon" penned by Joi Barrios. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to gather some information about the writer and what I only knew about her is that she is from the University of the Philippines - Diliman. And here goes the poem:

SABON
ni Joi Barrios

Babae ang laging bida sa patalastas ng sabon.

Pag sabong pampaganda, laging nang-iinggit

dahil mapanghalina ang kutis na makinis

"Salamat sa Lux!"

Pag sabong panlaba, masayang ginigiit

na kahit di magkula ay puputi ang damit.

"Salamat sa Ajax!"

Bago magwakas ang patalastas,

lalaki ang nagpapasalamat.

Kutis ng nobya'y kaysarap haplusin,

labada ni Misis, kaybangong amuyin.

Ang babae'y nakakahong parang bareta ng sabon,

sa telebisyon.

The poem is about the girls who are so fond of beauty and laundry soaps in commercials and/or advertisements. We already know how those commercials' storyline flow and I will explain that further later in the blog.

For the beauty soaps, only selected girls were chosen to advertise these products such as Anne Curtis, Heart Evangelista, Marian Rivera, Kim Chui, and other local actresses who are well-known and on the top lists of the most beautiful women in the country. These beauty soap companies choose famous actresses or models whom other girls adore for their beauty and glamour. That is an obvious wise strategy to heighten their demand in the market. The soap product that was mentioned in the poem is Lux which we can barely see in the grocery stores nowadays but was the most widely-used beauty soap back then.

The commercials usually goes like this: a girl who admires a guy so much is feeling very bashful to show-off her feelings fearing that she might be rejected because of her dark complexion. And so here comes this very pretty girl who will recommend her to use the soap (whatever beauty soap is being advertised) to have a fairly white skin complexion in just a matter of days! (Pretty interesting, eh?) And how does the story ends? Well, you exactly know what it is: the guy that this girl admires the most will then notice her and admire her back cos she already got that white complexion which she thought was the only key to get this man's attention and get noticed. Some commercials goes like this as well: a very gorgeous white-skinned girl, without any scars or wrinkles on her face and all over her body, will entice you in that 4-cornered television to use the beauty soap and get the most beautiful man of your dreams. The moral of the beauty soap stories is that using beauty soap is the key to successfully entice and please any men you want in just days.

By the way, I am not against the mentioned actresses above or even the products that they are advertising. In fact, I love those ladies because of their talents. And I also use beauty soaps, so don't respond in a sarcastic way. I will explain this blog later. It was just I needed an example for my blog so I included them.

While for the laundry soaps wherein women are also chosen to advertise these products, the story of their commercials goes like this: the mother will become too anxious on how she will get rid of the stains in the shirt of her husband and make it whiter. Then some magical creatures or the mother from the neighborhood will recommend a laundry soap which is the answer to all her worries. And when the laundries were successfully cleaned and whitened, the husband will be so pleased with the works of his wife. The moral of the laundry soap story is to use a mighty laundry detergent and you will be worry-free from the stained shirts plus, your husband will be surely well-pleased.

This is how almost every soap commercials were shown, either beauty soap or laundry soap. Women are always used as a tool to please men. Men will always get all the benefits at the end of the story. It was like women were just made to work for them; so women could please them. I am not a man-hater neither a feminist. All of these ideas were actually fed by my professor and I just feel like sharing it here because it was a great eye-opener for us women.

Since the colonial times, women are always inferior to men. Women were not allowed to go outside and were even deprived of educational opportunities. Instead, women should always stay at home to do the household chores and serve their husbands and take care of their family and may only be allowed to go outside when doing the laundry or buying the groceries. Biased. Bigoted. Discriminating. Such words were enough to define how women were treated before. There were changes already in this generation. Yes, I can see that. Women are getting the same right and benefits as what men get. Women are getting the same priveleges as to men. Women can look for a job and work their asses off. Women can now rule a home. Women can now go out whenever they wanted. But some women are still deceived; some are still trapped in this one-sided foothold which brings back the horror from the past.

Come to think of it. Are you one of those innocent slaves? Are you one of those innocent women who keep on pushing themselves beyond their limits, not to become legendary women of the history for doing some exemplary deeds, but to please men by becoming gorgeous (according to the standards of media on how to become gorgeous) so these men would notice them? Are you aware that you are becoming one of them yet enjoying the feeling despite such imbalances? Think.