It’s good that my article “Yellowtards trying to cover up the FACT that Leni Robredo is now fat” generated a lot of healthy debate about the proverbial elephants (pardon the pun) in the room. The whole trouble with having a no-go-zone around which we need to tiptoe is that they don’t go away unless they are confronted. Left unaddressed, these slow down or even paralyse the more real conversations we need to be having about the politicians who have put themselves out there for Filipinos to scrutinise in the lead up to an important election. Worse, efforts to whitewash or, shall we say, pinkwash a gaping matter begging to be acknowledged only serves to highlight said matter even more.
First of all, it is a fact. Leni Robredo is fat. Did I say there is anything wrong with being fat? Perhaps not, but health experts do have something to say about excessive weight. That’s beside the point, however. The real points are the ones that the Yellowtards who rabidly defend Robredo consistently miss — those two points I cite above; i.e., (1) tiptoe around a no-go-zone in the discourse and that zone only gets bigger (pardon the pun again), and (2) cover it up and you end up with a dike springing holes here and there that you need to keep scrambling to plug. The inconvenient thing about facts is, well, they always emerge one way or another and ruin people’s plans to come across as all sugar and spice and everything nice.
So on to Fact Number Two. Bam Aquino was one of those who brought all this to light in a tweet where he exhibited a campaign meme that made use of what looks to be like a 2017-era photo of Leni Robredo all glammed up in a slim-fit dress and high-heeled shoes.
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As Borat would say, izza-niiiccce, right? Maybe I’m reading too much into that meme and Mr. Aquino’s choice of photo for it. But one thing’s for sure, that choice was a conscious one. We may, of course, never know what really motivated that choice because Yellowtards see themselves as too uppity to respond to child-like questions such as mine, so that perhaps gives us some license to assume that he chose that photo because Robredo looked better at the time it was taken. That is, of course, fair enough. Who, after all, consciously posts unflattering photos of themselves when they want to win a presidential race, right?
Then again, I could be mistaken. Robredo seems to want to come across as being “one with the masa” (plebes) and goes to great lengths to craft that persona. We can see this in the way she is not above hamming it up with the likes of star vlogger Mimiyuuuh (a.k.a. Jeremy Sancebuche) — basically upholding a tradition of campaigning to the lowest common denominator by tapping into that easy space where a lack of a strategic vision for the nation is of no consequence.
parang tanga pic.twitter.com/UdJUjNSv1G
— #ShennaAll (@jessie4895) November 11, 2021
Thing is, when you engage the public via a medium like TikTok where visuals trump intellectual payload, well, one necessarily opens one’s self to judgement on said visuals. After all, there isn’t much to evaluate beyond the visuals so, guess what, one’s appearance becomes fair game.
If Robredo wants to be taken seriously and be regarded for her ideas and vision rather than her hairdo, her choice of shoes, the colour of her threads, or, yes, her increasing girth then she needs to give the public something to work with. As far as we have seen, Robredo and her camp have given out nothing beyond loud colours to gawk at and big elephants in the room to awkwardly ignore. Act like a clown and you will be regarded as such. Talk about other people and you will be responded to with whataboutisms. Have an actual vision and a strategy to take Filipinos on a journey to achieve it and there will be less need, if at all, to engage shamelessly in the earlier two.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
From what I observed to Leni. It’s like she’s walking like a famous actress and everything feels like a show business instead of typical election campaign like the other candidates.
It’s a sign of prosperity. Lugaw plenty. 🙂
“Who, after all, consciously posts unflattering photos of themselves when they want to win a presidential race, right?”
Oh, benigno, c’mon man, give the woman a break! It’s the campaign season and everyone should be shown at their best. Who has seen a boring circus? Who’s going to vote to one looking like Pennywise? ?
Which reminds me of something to offer as advice to other contenders. Since Leni is doing it, why not join the fun? Brushing up one’s image is a good campaign material to start with. Here we go.
For Manny Pacquiao, the people’s champ should remind people he’s still the chump, este champ. Showing him running up and down the Mayon volcano in his boxing shorts in full regalia with Buboy in tow with the timba would be a sight to behold. It will remind voters how he seriously trains hard for the presidency. A special appearance by Freddie Roach could add another push. Ala-Rocky, talaga! Malacanang, here we come! ?
Bato posing like a WWE wrestler mimicking the Rock will be a big promo for the balding police turned senator. Let’s face it, he’s not that famous. Every time people look at him he reminds them of the Pugo and Tugo era. Sure, the tummy side can either be photoshopped or no half body pics for him. All close up, all highlights on his the baldy head and face that says, ‘what am I doing here”? ?
BBM needs no image enhancing. Compared to Bato and Manny, oh boy, he’s the real macho man. With a lean body, well-combed hair, fresh-smelling looks and boyish charm, all he has to do is stand in the stage with the hologram of Apo Lakay and the race is over! ?
Ping has to show more flesh, that is, more human projection. He always appears to be feeling cold and clean and robotic. Covered all over. Show some muscles, roughness and swag ala-FPJ. Growing a beard, even a stubble, is not a bad idea. If he’s hairless, ask some from Erap or try photoshop. A little muscle here and a little muscle there makes for a chewy Ping even if just in pics. The perennial school-boy look looks awkward to one aspiring to fight criminals and solve the country’s life and death problem. Totoy ka na no’n, totoy ka pa rin ngayon? Ping, not good. ?
Another candidate that needs no enhancing is Isko Moreno. His showbiz looks is enough to draw votes. All he has to do is stop talking about his jologs days because he’s no jologs now. And it’s boring. Imagine talking jologs stories in front of jologs audience? ‘kaka-asar! ? I know he has to sell his self but he has to sell it in a way that people will think they’re getting a new and good product. You cannot do that by starting to mouth “masarap ang pagpag”. Stop the cosplay, Isko! ?
Back to Leni. Obviously, it’s a good pic. I think they’re trying to sell the pic and say ‘sexy’ at the same time, which to me spells c-o-u-g-a-r. It’s not Imeldific in proportion and just right to show her as ready and going down to meet the challenge. My issue there is the accompanying texts. It says, ‘Kalma lang pero matapang’. Doesn’t sound right. If spoken, it might be misheard as ‘Karma lang pero matakaw’. I don’t know it’s just me. ?
Anyway, political candidates, at this time, are like actors auditioning to get an important role. They have to show the best physical angles and exploit the positives to get the plum role. And one way to do that is fix things up either by CGI, photoshop, etc. and hide the ugly.
Speaking of ugly, those avatars of ours here in Get Real, I tell you, a lot of people behind that avatars are thankful you’re not asking them for their real pics! ???
The saying “it’s not over till the fat lady sings” is very apt. ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_ain%27t_over_till_the_fat_lady_sings
Those retards who have been protesting digong’s vice presidential bid to be unconstitutional, will now be actually BEGGING for him to run against sara..