I have nothing but love for Charice. No, I am no fan really, but I find it infinitely interesting when popular culture icons give their mass audience the unexpected or taboo, or something difficult to talk about, something against what we know to be proper or consider as important.Or beautiful. This is why I appreciate that Sharon Cuneta is Sharon Cunetain all in her full glory, doing advertisements for television and on billboards, reminding us all that weight shouldn’t matter more than everything else – unless we are talking about health of course. This is why I am such a fan of Judy Ann Santos, who lived through being called too plump for TV and too un-pretty for the movies, and yet has refused to change the way she looks and sell any form of fakery. Instead she has gracefully aged before her audience, now even daring to show her laugh lines and crow’s feet, something few other celebrity dares do.
Charice walked this path to international stardom with almost no one paying her enough attention in this country. She had joined a singing contest and lost to a boy who the TV network would take on as its own star. She would prove, meanwhile, that once again local TV and showbusinessis far from being all about who is talented. Instead it’s about how one looks, and Charice was far from the stereotype that the beauty industry and the local celebrity industry had created for girls such as her.