Wicked Winks: Your kiss is on my list

When President Digong eagerly pressed his lips to the lips of a younger but married woman on stage in South Korea during his state visit there, it created uproar especially from his unflinching critics and the ultra moralists few. It was disgusting, “unpresidentiable” and “bastos”. Lips-to-lips kissing is unacceptable especially when done in public and performed by the highest official of the land, according them. Blabbermouth Kris Aquino and burlesque queen Mocha Uson joined the skirmishes and wouldn’t budge at all in their stance as to whose kiss is nobler and eventful between their two admired heroes. One hero is obviously a fervent kisser and the other was tempestuously kissable, they both argued as contrasting as in the interpretation and rationale of who initiated the kiss is the predator, and the “kissed” is the prey. But, Crispy Kris and Mocha Yummy have the right to exercise their “freedom of speech”, says no less than the recidivist kisser—end of discussion. So, let’s just focus on the common categories of kiss from among many; First—a romantic kiss. It is done in different ways. It depends on the culture of the people. The Americans kiss their love ones tenderly in the lips. Europeans indulge in a more intimate kissing by munching their mouths in a mouth-to-mouth kissing. The French particularly, raised it a notch higher to a more passionate avant-garde tongue-to-tongue, hence the term “French Kiss” (others call it erotic and torrid kissing). They all do it in their own different ways and styles at the privacy of their homes, or in public—it doesn’t really matter where they are because that’s the way they are. In contrast, Asians, especially Filipinos never had this Western cultural practice of kissing on the lips until the Americans came and influenced us with their movies with this kind of kissing scenes. However, even with the proliferation of these movies, their local counterpart took time in adapting to this Western culture, which was considered offensive and taboo then. Fernando Poe, Jr. would turn his back from the camera when kissing his leading lady supposedly in the lips never showing the real kiss, if at all, otherwise, the conservative moviegoers would rebuke him and the cinema screen would suffer bullet holes from his Muslim fanatics in Mindanao losing a lot of fans in the process. Second—a kiss of respect. When the ruthless Spaniards and their pompous and ominous friars rule the Las Islas “Felipinas” (before the vernacular corruption of that correct spelling—now spelled Filipinas) they brought with them the aristocratic gesture of a gentleman kissing the hand of a lady—a typical European act of respect. The natives—the indios, in their own impersonate way, extended this to their elders, particularly to closest relatives, and of course to the most revered, but feared padres, obispos and arzobispos. As time passed by, it changed. Now, the practice of Filipinos is for the greeter to just draw the hand of the elderly and gently touch it to his/her forehead—as in “mano”. However, many upper class families and the “trying-to-be-ones”—those that rather speak “Tag’lish”, (Tagalog-English mixture) in their homes than their native tongue, have switched to “beso-beso”, or kissing the cheeks of their love ones as a new and classy way of greeting and saying their goodbyes. This, nevertheless, is a kiss of respect. Third—an unconditional kiss of love. This kiss is planted on the forehead of the children by their loving parents, or by adult children on their elderly parents. Even chimpanzees kiss their offspring in the forehead as observed—a meme that existed long before humans started to walk upright. Remarkably, this is something humans inherited from them, as kissing the forehead became human nature as well and an expression of strong bond between blood relatives. Indeed, we are descendants of the apes! Fourth—a kiss of generosity. The most controversial of them all. Many matronas will raise their eyebrows for sure, but this is really a compelled kiss on the lips by a younger and attractive woman to an older man, particularly to a soliciting D.O.M—Dirty Old Man. This usually happens to a hapless and helpless girl in an awkward position when faced by an imposing, powerful and wealthy D.O.M. wanting so much a kiss—“a kiss that she must, a kiss she can’t resist”, like the lyrics of a popular song. There is nothing wrong with this kiss really as long as it is done in good taste, pundits “generously” explain and justify it as if “good taste” is similar to a sumptuous meal they salivate badly. End of discussion.