The marriage of rubbers, mannequins and Lindsay Lohan

MANILA, Philippines - In college, and perhaps even until now, my favorite movie was the Tina Fey brainchild, Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan before she became a public embarrassment. One of my favorite scenes was the one where North Shore High’s Coach Carr was teaching Sex Ed to a class of bored kids. “At your age, you’re going to have a lot of urges. You’re going to want to take off your clothes and touch each other. But if you do touch each other, you will get chlamydia and die!” he said, the word “Klamydia” written on a blackboard behind him.

It was funny back then, but earlier this week while pondering this whole RH Bill brouhaha, I remembered that scene and thought, “Well, what about kids who don’t know any better? What if they actually think that chlamydia is fatal and spelled with a ‘K’?”

Fine, I know it’s a long shot, considering kids have the Internet to answer all their questions about sex that they’re too afraid to ask their parents or their Biology teachers. But just because all that information is out there, it doesn’t mean that they’ll go to the right sources or that they have fully developed B.S. filters.

If you think about it, kids aren’t the only ones capable of making these mistakes — adults do it, too. A pretty accurate instance of this is the RH Bill. I see cars with Anti-RH Bill stickers on them and I wonder how many of these people have actually taken the time to read the bill and understand its ramifications before slapping on those stickers.

At the point of purchase, customers are asked whether they would like to carry either the pro or anti-RH Bill shopping bags. (Cashmere shawls up to 50 percent off.)

There are also a lot of people who claim to be Pro-RH, but only because they identify with its supporters on a personal level. I mean, you gotta admit: Carlos Celdran did make the movement look pretty damn cool. The complete RH bill is on the Internet for everyone to see, but most people prefer looking through a slideshow of famous personalities voicing out their two cents on the issue, and then jumping on either the pro or anti bandwagons based on that. It’s ridiculous.

This course of action seems to be common enough to bother the president of Adora, Emmanuel Pineda. “We’ve found ourselves to be perplexed with every person chiming in with an ‘expert’ opinion just to be in vogue without so much as reading even the first page of the bill where its declaration of policy and guiding principles are contained,” he said in an exclusive interview with Supreme.

The provocative window displays of the luxe department store in Greenbelt 5 feature mannequins with blindfolds over their eyes while holding shopping bags that either state “I am pro RH Bill” or “I am anti RH Bill” and have been a cause for conversation lately. “All we want is to provoke people to be more well-informed and educated before forming an opinion. The RH Bill is now at the forefront of media discussion (and) therefore, a relevant current issue that we wish to lay on the table,” he explained when asked why he chose to single out the issue. 

“All we want is to provoke people to be more well-informed and educated before forming an opinion,” says Emmanuel Pineda, president of Adora. (All merchandise up to 60 percent off.)

“In the end it’s not so much the RH bill, but (the idea of getting) people in the habit of forming educated opinions, whatever (the) issue may be. At Adora, We incentivize this by giving our customers additional discounts and slashed prices to (encourage them to) take a stand. We might as well have a little fun during this sale season while provoking our customers,” he added. Once they reach the counters, customers are then asked at the point of purchase what unbranded paper bag they want to carry: Either, ‘I am pro- RH Bill’ or ‘I am anti-RH Bill’. It’s a completely new way of encouraging people to think about it.

In addition to the mannequins and paper bags, there are also large tarps containing key principles found in the bill. “Public areas such as shopping malls are appropriate places to incite discourse on these public issues.  On a more practical note, if doing this is what will bring a person to be more aware, then why not? We hope that our windows and our campaign will help fill a gap, if any, among the other sources of media such as newspapers, television and blogs,” he said.

Large tarps containing contents from the first page of the RH Bill are on display to help customers make informed choices. (Up to 40 percent off on Stella Luna shoes.)

 “While each member of the Adora Team may have individual (opinions) on the issue, we are all in agreement with this simple proposition: Educate yourself by first reading the bill. Only by doing this can you have an informed opinion and take a stand. Why not start with this bill? Read it then choose, but please don’t stay apathetic about relevant issues such this,” went his final plea.

When I thought about it, those blindfolds on the mannequins were more symbolic than I initially made them out to be. It’s best to educate yourself on these types of issues with an unclouded mind. Free yourself of biases and preconceived notions and be brave enough to make the choice and voice it out on your own.