Trends of the week: Social media and the SONA

MANILA, Philippines - Hours before President Noynoy Aquino’s fifth State of the Nation Address, we were talking about dresses. With no presidential pronouncements yet to deplore, Twitter took out its coiled energy at Nancy Binay’s dress instead. In the anxious interim, social media broke out the memes: Binay as a hot-air balloon, as Brazilian flag, as a Datu Puti pack. The floodgates had opened at that point, setting off a deluge that not even a quick costume change could stop, the replacement white terno gown still being dissed as an Easter bunny costume.

Perhaps as rampant as the odd coverage and general fascination with SONA red carpet fashion on Twitter was the distaste for SONA red carpet fashion on Twitter. The revulsion spilled over into the next day, spawning the #NotoSONARedCarpet hashtag. The display of wealth, the sheer absurdity of a red carpet in Congress — these were too much for social media to stomach, a day after it fawned over Heart Evangelista’s Joey Samson-designed terno. Social media was calling out traditional media, whose attention to SONA fashion over the years has now finally culminated in an actual red carpet, where actual elected officials are encouraged to pose like Hollywood stars on Oscar night. It has become one big sideshow, a seemingly non sequitur glitz and glamour prelude to the main event.

But sartorial nonsense aside, isn’t the State of the Nation Address all about appearances anyway? What is the SONA speech if not one long parade of facades, an hour-long public relations spectacle, less an update on facts and figures and more an image-building exercise?

Favorable Response

Instant social media reaction to Pres. Aquino’s SONA speech was largely favorable, a far cry from its uproar against his DAP defense two weeks earlier. How did he do it? For starters, there was no mention of the DAP or the PDAF this time around. If you don’t like what they’re talking about, the PR aphorism goes, change the conversation. P-Noy didn’t just change the conversation — he took it back to the warm and fuzzy halcyon days of his campaign.

It was a smart move, considering that a nationwide disillusion had been growing. We were promised a major shift in leadership, away from the crooked roads of the past, and into the straight path to redemption. Most of us chose to believe Noynoy, the son of Ninoy and Cory, the literal offspring of all our post-Marcos hopes and dreams. His invocation of his parents in his speech was equal parts desperation and earnestness — it harkened back to the purity of his campaign, that pristine pre-Yolanda, pre-DAP period, and it is sincerely and fundamentally all he ever had.

It worked, too. Social media ate up his “The Filipino is definitely worth fighting for” quote, proving that the public is nostalgic as well for that time when words were all that mattered because there was plainly nothing else. Philippine politics is a lot like social media, just a collection of words that have little to no bearing on reality. P-Noy’s speech was essentially more of the same: blanket rejection of criticism and the usual tones of infallibility. But all the familiar kinks — his revisionist retelling of Yolanda and insistent disregard of the Freedom of Information bill — were all covered under piles of fluffy emotion.

Words can be powerful, but when they do resonate, it is because they serve as a glorious memento of something historically important. Ninoy’s death will forever give “worth dying for” its gravity and meaning. The jury is still out on what P-Noy’s “fighting for” will ultimately mean. While his legacy remains up in the air, he has to make do with a paraphrased quote, hoping that words, like political cachet and votes, can be inherited, too.

Sex videos are still called ‘scandals,’ apparently

It’s been a while since the Internet had a celebrity sex video to throw around, so I guess this was due to happen. Still, it was strange to see news anchor Paolo Bediones involved, and stranger still to see the most common reaction on Twitter: “At least we now know he’s not gay.”

Pinoys all psyched for 2015 papal visit

It’s official: Pope Francis will visit the Philippines in January of next year, 20 years after the beloved Pope John Paul II was greeted with feverish adoration in the streets of Manila. Pope Francis, widely considered “The People’s Pope,” is expected to draw the same type of reception here. Still, “We love you, John Paul II!” is a tough chant to follow. We have time, though, so better start brainstorming.

Twitter goes ‘whoa!’ over new Wonder Woman

In one fell Comic-Con swoop, Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. obliterated the default image of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, as they released a picture of Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot as the Amazonian super heroine in the much-awaited Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. It was a nice run, Lynda. Keep your head up.