Play Time

Playboy Philippines is about to hit the stands – and I’m amazed at the noise made by authorities of the Roman Catholic Church.
Even before the official released, the mag was already being crucified, as the higher-ups began taking turns denouncing the ‘immoral’ publication and casting stones left and right. 
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.  What else should we expect from the Church?  We could have hardly expected the eminent cardinals to sponsor a holy Mass honoring the Playmates in their off-white frocks.  What’s puzzling for me is, where was all this noise when, say, Maxim or FHM was introduced to the Philippine market?  Apparently, Playboy Philippines will contain less exposed flesh than Maxim or FHM (trust me, I haven’t tried comparing).  So, why is it that Playboy deserves this negative sentiment very loudly expressed, and the others don’t?
And just look at even ‘legitimate’ news shows.  Every day of the daily news, there’s a segment where they focus on whichever sexpot talent the network’s trying to promote.  There are cheesy shots of the starlets posed, wearing almost nothing – and that’s being beamed into households all over the nation.  Do we hear an outcry from scandalized church leaders?
And, what gets to me is, why all this sudden flurry of activity by these church leaders?  They say that this mag will add to the already heavy burden that they’re carrying fighting existing immorality – but hey, I don’t seen them getting so agitated with existing sources of immorality.
Like, where are the pickets in front of prostitution bars and massage parlors?  Where are the prayer rallies combating white slavery?
I understand there are also trained lawyers within the Church, busy defending or prosecuting applications for annulments of Catholic marriage.  Heck, if the Church really wanted to uproot immoral activities, I’d start training these legal ammunition against shady entities fronting as legitimate businesses.  Overseas employment recruitment centers where young females are enticed into prostitution.  Travel agencies offering more than sight and sound, but also taste and touch.  If you really wanted to start locating them, they’d actually be easy to find.
With these legal resources, it would be so easy to expose these, and file lawsuits against these flesh-caterers.  That’s where their activism should be seen – not against a magazine that’s tame compared to what’s out on the market.
(As you can see, despite many years of hedging, I’ve actually seem to have taken the same moral position as Filipino women’s organizations - that prostitution is wrong.  I know I will now face the wrath of many friends who subscribe to the view that a woman or man is free to determine what to do with their body, including selling it.  In my defense, I just think that island girls with barely six years of education can hardly make an intelligent decision what to do with their bodies.  Much less ever emulate the success of Heidi Fleisch.  Ok, I don’t want to go into an argument as to what level of education suffices for a person to be equipped with enough decision-making capabilities to decide whether to go into prostitution or not.  To shut people up, I would say at least a law degree, considering all these lawyers who’ve sold their souls to the devil.) 
Maybe it’s my long-buried economics degree working – it’s an inefficient allocation of resources that’s so objectionable here.  (Yey, you see, I actually imbibed something useful during college.)   Or, to simplify matters, I’d describe it as a case of barking up the wrong tree.  There’s a real war to be fought.  Go woof against the real evil, not glossy pics and posed shots.  Leave the criticism of Playboy to the experts, to those with years and years of leafing through innumerable tv, fashion and lifestyle magazines catering to all sorts of shallow pleasures. 
(A few more years of combing Vanity Fair and QG, I’ll qualify as an expert).