Waiting Shade
Dyeing young
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Ni Bobbie Malay
Scandalized ang mga showbiz reporters dahil daw pinapabayaan ng kanyang make-up artist ang "Star for All Seasons" na si Vilma Santos.
In her latest film "Bata, Bata, Pa'no Ka Ginawa?"-where she plays a modern-day Filipina struggling for her personal liberation; it's based on Lualhati Bautista's well-known novel from the '70s-Santos apparently got into the mood of the character, and let a certain sag and her laugh lines show. OK, her age lines. After all, she has never tried to hide the fact that she's now well into her 40s.
If there's someone who can pull it off, it has to be Vilma Santos. She actually looks much better now than in her sweetie-sweet youth, when she had to do things (like sing) that really they shouldn't have made her do.
Today she projects the image of a woman with her own mind, who is finally comfortable with her own self. Even with her kulubot. A more mature look might even be working to her advantage as she earnestly tackles the demands of her new job as the elected chief executive of Batangas City, a major urban center.
As for the rest of us, thankfully we aren't obliged to look like movie stars at the age of 50 or whenever. You're lucky if you were born with the right genes, but it seems you still need to exercise and watch your diet for those to do their work!
Better, as the feminists say, to accept the facts of life and just get on with being happy and creative as you were meant to be.
Take the matter of dyeing one's hair. Since deciding to let my uban grow out over a year ago, I now claim the satisfaction of giving people the chance to appreciate me as I really am. To tell you the truth, however, it wasn't easy.
The fateful act of throwing away the tubes of hair dye, perfectly good as they still were, followed one or two years of indecision during which I would sound out my husband every so often. Since his answers were always noncommittal, I figured out that maybe I should wait until his own gray hairs grew as numerous as mine. Finally, I took the plunge even though he still isn't as conspicuously gray-headed as me. He has probably gotten accustomed to my new look, although I know it's useless to ask: he'll just deny it ever discomfited him.
Bakit ang mga lalaki, kapag pumuputi ang buhok ay sinasabing distinguished-looking at macho pa rin ang dating? Samantalang ang babaing 58 na mukhang 58 ay pinapayuhan, "Ba't ayaw mo nang magtina, puwede ka pa namang magmukhang bata." Sabi nga, life's not fair.
But, of course, one asks for it. I know that fewer explanations are needed by agreeing to keep up the illusion of youth. Curiously, people my own age appear to be more perturbed by my graying head than the ones 20 years younger, though I laugh and say: "Hoy, ha, pinaghirapan ko ang bawat isa sa aking mga uban!" Yes, I do want to be proud of every single, hard-earned strand that has turned white.
Come to think of it, maybe I still want Vilma Santos to keep looking younger than her real age, as long as she doesn't try too hard. Think Anita Linda. Now, Mae West wasn't she pathetic?
Si Bobbie Malay ay propesor ng pamamahayag sa University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. Dati siyang reporter ng The Manila Times at Taliba. Siya at ang kanyang ina na si Paula Carolina S. Malay ay nagsalin sa Filipino ng America is in the Heart ni Carlos Bulosan, at ang obra nila'y nanalo ng National Book Award mula sa Manila Critics' Circle. Kasali rin ang kanyang mga sanaysay sa mga antolohiyangTelling Lives at Coming to Terms.
