ISLA,

AINA LAURAINE M. 03/05/2019

11837144 GELITPH A70
Insights on Body and Desire
As beautiful as it is to talk about body and desire, it is difficult to separate it from the
negative impacts and social issues it brings forth. But the only way we would outgrow our age-
old conservative ideologies is to talk about and actually contribute to the discourse of taboo
topics such this.

In the Philippines, contexts such as the correlation of body to lust is alarming. Some
bodies are treated less than vessels of souls and sprouts of life, and that’s where it gets
problematic. From the modern Pinay’s liberation to wear and do whatever she pleases in Dear
Liberated Pinay, in being owned from birth to death by the patriarchal society in What they
Don’t Tell You about your Body, for breaking social and gender norms and stereotypes in Mga
Sayaw ng Dagat at Lupa, to the problematic body-image consciousness due to machismo in Ang
Unang Regla ni John: all the literary pieces that fall under body and desire, it seems that we
never actually own our bodies. Women everyday will always be reduced to sexy, despite
whatever wit or skill they possess, gays will never be accepted nor tolerated by certain
communities, any gender expression that differs from one’ sexual orientation will always be
referred to as gay in different parts of the world, and hair—its absence and abudance—will
always be the measure one’s ick of a woman, and one’s amazement of a man.

I can only tell you a few things about what bodies are, but I’m sure of what it’s not.
Bodies are not mere objects, but still women are objectified. Desire for lustfulness should be
internal, and yet #MeToo stories circulate around the world. Bodies should be instruments of
good yet are the same vessel that commits harassment. Bodies and their individual desires should
be in harmony towards a progressive society, but it is those very desires that cause the deaths and
insecurities of many bodies.

As the Philippines and its people continue to thrive to abolish all the social issues
body and desire brings about, it is with discourse and an open-mind regarding the topic that only
we could ever exist unjudged and owning our own selves. If one is part of the problem, let us
make them part of the solution and help body and gender issues seep through the country.