There's an 11-page photo spread called Boyfriend Video (where "the sexiest lingerie finds its ultimate audience") in this year's double issue opener of Preview magazine. I wish there was a way for me to scan some of the pictures, but that would mean buying just another glossy that isn't worth the clutter in my home.

Of course, it's nothing new - the usual commodification of "sexiness" - or more like what magazine editors and fashion photographers mediawhoring for Summit's line of women's magazines consider sexy. However, someone over at their camp thought that appropriating the aesthetics of those "scandal videos" whilst peddling "the sexiest lingerie" was a good idea.

Cashing in on intimacy is one thing. Suggesting to take this intimacy a notch higher by documenting the nasty for personal home viewing only is another. Only this is not "home viewing" because there's an audience involved - us. And when there's an audience for "scandal videos", nothing is as sexy as it looks, unless you actually get off on watching a pair of real (read: unglamorous) genericos having a go at each other under the natural lighting conditions of a dimly lit motel and the amateur camera work of its participants.

Having viewed the "Makati Scandal" or "La Salle Scandal" (or whatever title it bore) awhile back just to see what the big brouhaha was about at the time, I had been primarily curious about how the nasty evidence was "discovered" and eventually mass-marketed at your nearest pirate dealer. But there didn't seem to be anything accidental about it in the "lost and found" kind of way - in fact, the video seemed too calculated to even be considered scandalous, like the couple were aware that they were giving the audience something to see, even if they couldn't seem to get it right. They still looked rather self-conscious, and likewise, camera-shyness affected their ability to perform. So, no real shocker there, as far as scandals go. It also became hellishly boring after awhile.

A friend of mine told me that he had cousins who'd show each other their personal sex videos with their girlfriends, taken with the ease and convenience of the camera fone. Now this variety of family reunion-style social bonding actually shocks me, even if it isn't necessarily played for shocks. It has less to do with the content itself, which I'm (thankfully) spared from seeing, and more of how casually these videos are being exchanged - akin to showing off pictures of their babies or kids or pets, wholesome family trips, birthdays, weddings, graduation and other similar milestones.

Labels: culture, media, technology