the objectification of filipino men and the boys who love them

(the following is an intellectual odyssey into the rise of filipino men as, what else, sex objects!)

the subject of men (especially the macho filipino) as sex objects is nothing new.

to my youngish mind,  this phenomenon started way, way back to the time when the young vic vargas appeared in movies wearing next to nothing in the sixtys and seventys. but those movies were few and in between -- like ishmael bernal's classic pito ang asawa ko. 

the phenomenon became a trend in the eighty's when regal films saw the potential of having adonis like young men prancing in front of the camera in their white hanes underwear or tight speedos to draw ladies and paladies inside the dark, cold world of the cinema. thus born the likes of alfie anido, gabby concepcion, al tantay, lloyd samartino, jimmy melendez, mark gil and albert martinez. stupendous!

their movies almost always included scenes that displayed their well sculptured bodies, as if god himself had moulded them. what set them apart, though, was the fact that these actors looked and sounded educated and came from the bueno familia (or commonly known as cono or burgis) like gabby concepcion-- as if they reported to the movie sets in their chauffeur driven limousines and were followed around by their yayas in pristine white uniforms while shooting scenes.

they all had milky white complexions, looked prettier than their leading ladies (especially alfie and gabby) and spoke english with a certain collegiala accent.

oh they looked and felt so unreachable -- the real movie stars.

take note though that in most of their films, it was still the reigning sexy actresses of the time that were the main selling point of their movies -- alma moreno, dina bonnevie, cherrie gil, lorna tolentino.

watch any movie by joey gosiengfiao (temptation island, katorse), ismael bernal (bilibid boys), elwood perez (summer love) and you will know what i mean.

(by the way, have you seen gabby concepcion lately? it's as if he did not age at all. he still looks delectable. albert martinez too. ah, the gods have been very kind to these erstwhile regal boys.)

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it was during the advent of seiko films (remember ang wallet na maswerte?) in the ninety's that filipino actors nearly eclipsed the ladies in the bold department . this was the period when movies like machete starring gardo versoza, talong, patikim ng pinya, burlesk king marketed nearly naked (sometimes totally nude) men (not just women) on the big screen to lure moviegoers.

this was the time when gardo versoza, leandro baldemor, rodel velayo lorded over the film business and were the main attractions of their movies.

unlike their predecessors at regal, the seiko boys looked (forgive the word) common, reachable. some like anthon bernardo looked pedestrian even. as my gay friend loves to say -- parang guapong tambay sa kanto. chos! nevertheless, they were as delectable as alfie anido and company. no doubt about it.

this was also the time when the philippine tabloids and film magazines such as chika-chika featured actors wearing underwear (and sometimes nothing) on their covers and posters inside the pages. when the then number one tabloid bandera had a famous sex column (dear xerex) featuring stories about men's encounter with other men. oh di va?!

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today, with the popularity of blogs featuring all kinds of men (naked or otherwise),  the various bikini contests, indie gay films featuring men in different states of undress, the objectification of men continues and has, in fact, become too common that the thrill (and kilig) of seeing a naked man on the big screen, on stage, on pictures has diminished. it has become too visceral for comfort (as if there is more to it than sheer fun and, uh, lust?)

every summer, for instance, you would see adverts for bikini opens in various bars (not only gay bars, mind you) and even in shopping malls, cities, municipalities and universities. there's ginoong pilipinas, ginoong luzon, ginoong university, all looking for the brazen young men with the bodies that will put even brad pitt in his thelma and louise days to shame.

no wonder the fabulous pink population is looking even more pinkish!

there are also fashion shows (and huge billboards until they were taken down for being "immoral") by underwear brands featuring the hottest actors, models and sports stars in their tiny underwears.

with the increasing competition among movie actors, some of them go to the tried and tested route to stardom -- bare on pictorials and on screen (a route used exclusively by countless movie actresses before -- remember regal producer mother lily's magic kamison made famous  by alma moreno, rio locsin, and even the "sweet" former child actress snoooky serna).

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no wonder then that most of today's young, desirable men can be found in the gym, toning down their bodies to achieve the washboard abs. it's no surprise that most of them dream of being underwear models - the easy route to fame and fortune!

look at paulo avelino. he used to be just one of the generic faces over at gma seven, until he decided to bare it all on those bench billboards and ads and look where he is now. one of the biggest stars at the country's largest television network, abs-cbn. good projects keep on pouring. he is even recognized now as one of his generation's finest actors, thanks to his occasional dalliances with indie films.

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even if it's no longer summer in the philippines, there are still a lot of flesh feasts around (bikini contests, anyone?) that make the stormy days and nights simmer and sweltering! i have friends who hop from one bar to another in a single night just to watch these different bikini searches for mr. whatever. some of them even serve as judges and donors for the cash prizes to the winners. lovely!

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and so we come to ponder and answer the most important question of the season: who are the current boys that are making manille's flooded streets boiling?

in the showbiz front, after paulo avelino decided to hang and seal his tiny underwear inside his now golden closet until further notice, younger and equally brazen * gerald anderson is hogging the sexy spotlight. gerald sizzled at his most recent teleserye at his home studio, abs-cbn, playing leading man to the latest incarnation of the mermaid who fell in love with a man. hohum.

baring his torso under the glare of the summer sun was probably one of the wisest moves by this young fil-am boy -- whose career was slowly fading into oblivion after his recent projects both on the small and big screens flopped as a result of his controversial break-up with a not so pretty starlet and his hooking up with her best friend, a prettier, talented actress -- because let's be blunt about it, he can't really act. the same thing can be said of his co-stars in the summer soap, the starlet playing the title role and the other, older leading man forming the love triangle. chos!

true enough, after the teleserye, the public's interest on gerald was rekindled, paving the way for his star to sparkle once more like diamonds in the sky. hopefully, this time, he will be wise enough and hone his acting skills (that can be done, you know) so he could morph into another piolo pascual, still the leading man to beat this side of hollywood based on the box-office success of his most recent movie, the aptly titled starting over again.

then there's former varsity basketball player turned model turned movie star * miko raval, who is likewise baring his washboard abs in a sexy afternoon soap also at abs-cbn.

miko certainly looks dreamy and has a bit of a resemblance to the young jay manalo, one of the hottest male sex symbols several years back. look at the bushy pit. hope he makes it bigger in the industry because it clearly needs stars like him who are every inch a man, so to speak. the better way to get rid of those closet fairies pretending to be straight men that are currently dominating the biz landscape.

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over at the fashion scene, it's the meaty * john spainhour and the leggy * vince ferraren - both sumptuous -- who are still grabbing everyone's attention due mainly to their exposure to the public's consciousness in their underwear only, thanks to the country's leading underwear brand, bench.

john, of course, exploded into the local modeling scene and into the many gay man's fantasies after he won the century tuna sexiest model a few years ago. since then, he has graced a number of billboards, fashion shows and pictorials wearing only his tight underwear to the delight of his mostly gay and women fans.

he even made the already hot season more scorching with his latest commercial (don't know if it ever comes out on tvs) for bench, showing him taking a shower. hot!! here it is:

then there is vince. who came out of nowhere. no, he did not win any beauty title unlike john, but his boy-next-door looks and numerous bikini advertorials, editorials and pictorials easily captured the not so easy to please tastes of the pink community.

john and vince, if i am not mistaken, are again heralding bench's fashion season this year.

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still on the "fashion scene", everyone's excited about tonight's bench underwear and denim show at mall of asia with stalwarts john spainhour, paulo avelino, and newcomer but uber hot jeff langan (hope he's invited to grace the event).

this early, jeff has awakened the earthy desires of a million pink sisters, which bodes well if he decides to stay longer in the country to pursue his modeling and even showbiz career. as they say, strike wihle the iron is hot, right?

jeff, a filipino-american and based abroad, has modeled overseas, thus, his ease in going sexy in front of the camera. he led the bench's back-to-school marketing campaign last may.

and of course, there are the twinks, cute young stars who have yet to make a mark in showbiz but already attracting the attention of the country's top underwear brand.

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then there are the thousand other bikini contests in manille, whose candidates look as delectable as the following:

from the looks of it, these boys can give the bench men a run for their bikinis.

that's all fairies, bitches, queens, princesses and wannabes. keep the boys coming! (pun intended, double chos!)

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(ps: all pictures were taken from different web sites and facebook accounts. no copyright infringements intended. please inform the blogger if you want your photos taken off this site. thank you.)