When the eye sees the beautiful

I first saw her at a restaurant beside the school. It was about one PM. Ian--a co-boarder and a classmate--and I were having our lunch when she went inside. Forgive the cliche, but I thought I saw an angel. She was just so astonishingly beautiful that, for a while, my eyes were glued on her.

I have never seen such beauty, or to put it in another way, I've only seen Kate Winslet on television. But, boy, this girl's real!!! Her eyes are like my eyes (as friends describe them) "solemn and beautifu". And her nose! And lips--great God, she's really an angel!

Numerous studies indicate that human beauty may not be simply in the eye of the beholder or an arbitrary cultural artifact. It may be an ancient, hardwired, universal, and potent behavior-driven, on a par with hunger or pain, wrought through eons of evolution that rewarded reproductive winners and killed off losers. If beauty is not truth, it maybe health and fertility: Halle Berry's flawless skin may rivet moviegoers because, at some deep level, it persuades us that she is parasite-free and consequently good mating material. Acquired, individual preferences factor, but research increasingly indicates that their influence is much smaller than many of us would care to know.

I later found out that she works (in) a bookstore nearby. So, I visited that bookstore always...or, I visited that woman in the bookstore always.

Landmark studies show that attractive males and females not only garner more attention from the opposite sex, they also get more affection from their mothers, more money at work, more votes from the electorate, more leniency form judges, and are generally regarded as more kind, competent, healthy, confident, and intelligent than their big-nosed, weak-chinned counterparts.

She is in charge of the school supplies. So I drew near her and asked for a number of things inside the glass cabinet, when the truth is: I just wanted to be near her, smell her, hear her voice.

'It turned out that the way an attractive female face differs from an average one is related to feminity,' says psychologist David Perrett of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. 'For example, female eyebrows are more arched than males'. Exaggerating that difference from the average increases femininity,' and in tandem, the attractiveness rating.

I don't know how she took my presence. But she made me feel as if the bookstore were my house and she my maid.

For psychologist Nancy Etcoff, (author of the 1999 book Survival of the Prettiest), 'female makeup is all about exaggerating the feminine. Eye makeup makes the brow thinner. It makes it look farther from the eye'. Which, she says, is a classic difference between male and female faces. From high hair to collagen in lips to silicone in breasts, women instinctively exaggerate secondary female sex characteristics to increase their allure.'

I was convinced that to know her name was really a must. But, every time I bridge our distance, I seemed to be levitating...out of myself.

As a rule, I never did approach anyone, when I yet can't figure (out) how I feel. In short, my heart never gave me the chance to at least introduce myself to that lady. Until...

'Human beauty really has three components,' says bio-psychologist Victor Johnston. 'In order of importance, there's natural selection, which leads to the average face and a limited age range. Then there's sexual selection,' which leads men, at least, to be attracted to exaggerated feminine traits like the small lower jaw and the fuller lips. 'Finally, there's learning. It's a fine-tuning mechanism that allows you to become even more adopted to your environment and culture. It's why one person can say, 'She's beautiful' and another can say, 'She's not quite right for me.'

One night, together with my friend, I saw an angel together with her co-workers waiting for a ride. On the very jeepney they took, we rode as well.

One by one, along the way her colleagues went down. Until, we were the only passenger left.

Before she could even step down from the jeepney, a friend went down ahead of her. And on that most beautiful night, we exchanged names.

Female preferences in male faces oscillate in tandem with the menstrual cycle, suggests a study conducted by Perrett and Japanese researchers published last June (1999) in Nature. When a woman is ovulating, she tends to prefer men with more masculine features; at less fertile times in her monthly cycle, she favors male faces with a softer, more feminine look.

When I told my girl friend that I seem to be drowning in her beauty, and I would like to make her my wife, she laughed at me and said, "women at that age (she's around twenty five years old) are looking for financial security. That's why she's working--but you? What are you, yet?"

Research indicates that, across the board in mating species, a non-good-looking guy can make up ground with status and/or wealth. Anthropologist John Marshall Townsend showed photos of beautiful and homely people to men and women, and described the people in the photos as being in training for either low-medium, or high-paying positions--waiter, teacher, or doctor. 'Not surprisingly, women preferred the best looking man with the most money,' Etcoff writes, 'but below him, average-looking or even unattractive doctors received the same ratings as very attractive teachers. This was not true when men evaluated women. Unattractive women were not preferred, no matter what their status.'

Nevertheless, I went to talk to her often, and later I learned that about a month from now, her baby will turn one.

It's all a bit bleak. Talk to enough psycho-biologists, and you get the impression that we are all rats--reflexively, unconsciously coupling according to obscure but immutable circuity. But beauty researchers agree, that along with natural selection and secual selection, learned behaviors are at least part of the attractiveness radar. In other words, there is room for individuality--perhaps even smattering of mystery--in this business of attraction between humans.

(Italicized portions are excerpts from Brad Lemley's "Isn't she Lovely?" Discover magazine, February 2000)

This article was first published in the Mediator, the official student publication of the College of Mass Communications, West Visayas State University, La Paz Iloilo City, August 2000 issue.

Christian Bautista

Nestor Torre, The Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist and critic, once wrote why "fans" should send comments and reactions to the "performers" if they want the entertainment industry to improve.

One of the TV programs that indirectly supports the cause Mr. Torre is pushing forward is the most popular talent search show in the world, The American Idol.

What makes this show a great watch is the fact that it doesn't only show how bad-mannered and weird some of the American youths auditioning for the Contest are and how talented those who really have the talent, but most especially because, by merely watching and listening to the judges comment on every performance, the viewer picks up and learns a lot about how a song should be sang, what is a boring, edgy and original performance, etc.

So, whatever I shall be saying here against Christian Bautista are the product of every thing I learned from the American Idol show, and my guts to write and publish it right here is born out of the sincerest hope that by doing so, I am contributing to the Entertainment industry of my Country, and not just to criticize Christian whom my girlfriend loves so much.

For the sake of transparency however, let me state on record, that somehow, I have an ill feeling towards Christian Bautista for having Rachael Ann Go as his girlfriend. Rachael is another of my crushes aside from my girlfriend. This may also be another reason for this article.

I do not usually listen to the radio because my training at St. Pius X Seminary in Roxas City made me appreciate more the value of silence. There are times of course that silence is satiating, like everything taken monotonously. Furthermore, there are places where a person has no control with what he hears.

This afternoon, I manned the store next to the bakery of my Tita. While the bakers were mixing the flour salt and water, they were listening to an FM radio station, while I drowsed in my chair.

After a song, the DJ announced that the next song is one rendered by Christian Bautista. "Ok, " I said to myself half asleep. "The Christian Bautista whom my girlfriend has so much crush on. The same guy who has Rachel Ann Go for a girl friend."

But as soon as he sang the first line of the stanza composed and first sang by David Pomeranz, "Oh, my God! What happened to Christian Bautista? If he were auditioning for the American Idol show, will he ever be accepted with the way he is rendering 'Got to believe in Magic'?"

He is obviously out of tune with some notes which seemed so low for his voice. And the whole song seems to be half heartedly sang. It seems that when he sang it, his mind was somewhere else. Or that, I imagine, he recorded it in front of his fans with whom he was busy waving and smiling that he forgot to pay attention to the details of the song and how it should be sang.

If the song were bread, I was made to eat a stale one.

Just imagine my disappointment.

Because I was so disappointed, I picked up a pen and begun writing the draft to this article.

All the while, I thought I lost Rachel Ann Go to a deligent man who is not only an architech but also is very popular because of his cool voice and handsome face that even my girlfriend comes to love.

But no. Based on his performance on that song, Christian is not as deligent as he used to be. Because if he is deligent, he should not have forgotten that when you sing a song, you sing it with all your heart and soul. In short, with all your attention. And before he recorded, or if that was a live performance, before he decided to perform that song, he should have at least made sure that he could reach the lowest notes.

Yes, the lowest notes.

I can only think of one theory that explains what is happening to him, and that is, Christian is beginning to sit on his laurels. He is handsome, he is an architech, he has a cool voice, he commands audience, why bother about the songs he sings or the way he sings them?

Correct! Christian Bautista does not have to bother because indeed, to the unthinking audience, every song is a beautiful song if sang by him, no matter how it is sang and no matter what song he sings.

How about us, Christian? How about us from whom you stole our girlfriend's attention? Isn't it but fair that you at least pay attention to the songs you sing and how you sing it? Isn't it but, for the interest of justice, you at least sing well in exchange for taking our girlfriends (and Rachel Ann) away?

I hope he listens to me and stop singing like the way he sings the David Pomeranz song. I would even suggest that, again, in the interest of justice, he at least removes that song from the airwaves. By playing that song he does not only remind me how less handsome I am compared to him (that is why, instead of my girlfriend having a crush on me, she is having a crush on Christian), he also pollutes the world.

Otherwise, I'll just sit here and die of envy because, as I said, to his unthinking fans, every song he sings is beautiful no matter what song and how it is sang. So his income may not be affected.

There is a twist however. A twist which is goodnews to me and bad news for Christian.

Few days ago, his valentine concert with Rachel Ann was aired on TV. My girlfriend says, after hearing Christian sing the first song, she went to bed.

She went to bed not because she wants to imagine Christain with her on the bed. Very, very, very, very, very far, far, far, far and away from that.

OK, Christian. Keep on singing the way you lousily sang that David Pomeranz song. I don't care about your money anyway since you will not give me any. Promise I will not write an article as lousy as this again also. But thank you in advance because, it seems that my girlfriend is beginning to hate you already.

Cesar Montano

I once thought about writing a screen play and giving it to Cesar Montano in exchange for an acting role in the movie.

I have not started on the script yet as I am busy speculating about my future as a lawyer or will I ever become one.

Last night, I was amused by Cesar Montano's honesty on TV.

He did not know how many posters and other campaign materials he needed for his bid for the Senate. Logically, he did not know the amount a candidate had to spend for a national campaign. He heard it is around 200 million to 400 million pesos, or, according to a grapevine, 500 million pesos for a sure win.

He is glad that there are people who are sponsoring his TV and radio advertisements. He is however thinking about not having the ads because a TV ad, for example, costs around 40 million pesos to make. He is aware that the Country has a lot of immediate needs. The money for his adds could be used to address those needs. There is, for example, the families who do not have decent homes. Cesar is aware that Bahay Kalinga needs only 50 thousand pesos to build a new home.

He was in Cebu and, unlike his fellow candidates, when he announced his candidacy there, he had no headquarters and staff.

Cesar admitted he was not prepared to run.

He disappeared from the public for sometime to do what he calls a "one step backwards" so that he could make a "two steps forward" move.

Once he is elected, he will be too busy learning the rules and regulations of the Senate and, unless he plans to sleep for the cameras, like Robert Jaworski did, also learning the pending bills so he could participate in the deliberations.

If he losses, this election will be the longest days of Cesar's life. He will grow older and of course wiser after these.

If he wins, however, Cesar will have a hard time in the Senate. By the time he learns the logic of the law and by the time he and his staff come up with a draft of a bill, he might realize his six years are over.

It takes one to fail in exams and to be humiliated in the presence of his peers to realize that laws have logic of their own. One can not just guess or rely on his lay man's conclusions.

Four years in law school are not even enough for most of us, law graduates, to know the laws and therefore pass the bar exams.

I admire Cesar for the transparency he has shown in the news last night. As a fan, however, I am very disappointed that he allowed himself to be involved in politics in such haste.