LOVE

Love is universal. There are many kinds and they say that the highest form is agape which is about sacrificing one’s interests. Our educational system is still wanting in teaching and inculcating love of country or even love of humanity.


The sociobiologists say that love is a mechanism for survival. Love, of course, is an institution in itself related to various institutions such as the family, market, religion, etc. One of my agendas in this blog, is to make this a space for social & linguistic discussion & exploration of female bodies & sexuality towards the promotion of rights & bodily autonomy.



For now, in these times of financial crisis, lets explore the relationship between the romanticization of the market & the marketing of romance. The romantization of the market refers to the way commodities in the market like perfume, shampoo, resorts & spas, etc acquire a romantic aura through movies & advertising.


The marketing of romance is the way in which romantic practices have evolved into the buying of leisure goods & services offered by the market. We see these on television everyday : the image of conjugal bliss and love are related to a beautiful home, good housekeeping, the woman in latest fashion & jewelry representing glamour & luxury. The purchase of leisure & moviegoing are marketed as romantic moments.


In Philippine television, our movie stars have marketed milk in violation of our Milk Law. Movie stars are advertised as symbols of family & romantic perfection in caring for children through the milk formula. The danger is that these kinds of advertising translate into social learning because the source of the behavior or model is prestigious or famous, the behavior is associated with reward of child intelligence & beauty in the case of drinking the infant & milk formula and because there are no alternative sources of learning. Feminists & breastmilk advocates will be monitoring these violations as we promote breastfeeding for our children. We are saying that cow’s milk are for cows and not for our children.


This is not to say that films, movies & advertising cannot be a discourse and fora for the promotion of our well being and all things good such as human rights, autonomy & freedom and love itself.


Sigmund Freud, when asked, what a normal person can do, said in German : “Lieben, Arbeitin” or translated as To love & To work.



This to me is the theme that runs through the film, A Revolutionary Road, a film where Kate Winslet won as best actress in the Golden Globe Awards. It is a film about a young couple who do not feel fulfilled by work and makes the dream of going to Paris the escape hatch. It is a story of a woman who is trapped by unwanted pregnancy and finds her catharsis & solution in a tragic decision that resulted in her death.




Eve Ensler’s The vagina monologues (TVM), a stage production & worldwide movement marketed by women all over the world and which has come to Davao City, Philippines recently, is an example of one of the ways that women want to be represented on stage.

In TVM, as Sea Ling Cheng writes, “…. the anatomical female body – encapsulated in the vagina- is proclaimed as the universal site for women’s solidarity regardless of class, ethnicity & religion…. TVM are stories which unveil women’s private thoughts on & experiences with their own vaginas, virginity, intercourse, orgasm, pregnancy “ and as well reproductive rights, women’s pleasures & pains in intimate relationships , and their struggles against violence committed against them” and, yes, our embodied experiences on love.







photo credit by One Billion Rising