Friday, March 7, 2014

Real Beauty?

I never thought I could learn something by watching about Imelda Marcos for two meetings. I always saw her as an evil political someone, but this is probably because I know next to nothing about Philippine politics. Seeing the documentary made me rethink the way I view her (although there will always be that negative first impression I have of her).

Imelda’s target was always beauty. She wanted everything to be beautiful. She wanted this country to be beautiful. She wanted to be the embodiment of beauty in this country. Heck, she even complained that she didn’t want to be killed by an ugly bolo. I guess being beautiful has its perks. Imelda was able to put up beautiful buildings like the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Manila Film Center. She was able to initiate a lot of social programs that were supposed to make the Filipinos beautiful. She had thousands of shoes and dresses to show that even a person from a developing country can look beautiful.

Beauty has its downsides, too. While she may be seen as a powerful political figure, she is also viewed as someone who spent so much of the country’s money on unnecessary things. She could have been so much greater and the country could have improved a lot if not for her lavish lifestyle. Her hunger for beauty couldn’t be satisfied, so she craved for more. This turned into greed, and, well, we know what happened after that.


Seeing both sides of Imelda in the documentary made me realize that there is some good in everyone even if you think certain people are entirely evil. It’s just a matter of finding that good within that person to be able to see him or her in a different light.

Hannah Dungca
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