Ploning vs. Dominatrix in Leather, Who Wins?

If you were a guy and you were Ploning’s boyfriend, would you want her?

A conservative barrio lass, modest, nice...

...SAFE...

Someone your mother would love to spend hours with, cooking, someone you could depend on to give you three, square, enjoyable meals, someone who would mother your children the right way.

As a postmodern man, would you want her?

Most males would say, “No! I want a Cosmo grrl who would make my blood boil!”

But do you, really?

Not to be feministic, or to be Ploning-istic, but just as an argument; just hear me out. :)

Would you like a hot leather-clad, whip-bearing Cosmo girl who can satisfy all your FHM fantasies, BUT:

• At the end of the day you worry if she slept with another guy in transit to giving you a hug and a kiss then cuddling up to you in the evening.
• At the end of five months, the cutesy-ness just got old and you just want something more... Substantial.
• At the end of two years, all you can think of is just hanging out with your buddies to escape her annoying vanity.
• At the end of five years of living together, you are sleeping so apart on the bed, because she doesn’t know how to cook... Or budget... Or keep a handle on her credit card spending.
• At the end of ten years, the fire has died, because you had not been able to understand her perennial like of jewelry and shoes, and she had not been able to understand your need for alone time.

Okay, these may well be such extreme scenarios, and these are based on stereotypes, two-dimensional characters that are created when reality is magnified. But I wonder if you would consider:

• A woman whom you can come home to, who may smell a little of sweat, because you come home to her chopping onions and vegetables for dinner, and your heart melts at the hair sticking to her nape, to the gentle, happy look in her eyes, as she sets down her knife, washes her hands hurriedly, wipes them on her apron, and gives you a hug and a sweet, tender kiss, to welcome you home.
• A woman who greets you with dinner on the slow cooker, ready for serving, and she takes off your shoes, wipes your feet clean, and gives you a relaxing foot massage.
• A woman who makes sure your children get all that they need, that they are well-fed, well-guided, and are armed with up-to-date school books and an adequate computer for their needs.
• A woman, who, at the end of all the nurturing, does not complain, but at night, settles beside you, and nestles her head on the crook of your neck.

Okay, if domesticity scares you, what about:

A woman who would wait for you, and fend off all other prospective lovers, until you come back, and when she sees you, her face lights up, along with her entire being?

I used to think that Cosmo girls are all that glamorous. But at one point in my life, a special man taught me that lipstick is abhorrent, that he won’t kiss me if that yucky mess is on my lips. He taught me that sleeveless blouses are not what make me “sexy.” (I still wear them anyway, and I reason out that it’s hot in this tropical country. :p)

After all is said and done, I think what matters most in a marriage, in a relationship, are love and devotion. Before I would never see myself as a woman who would be... Domestic. I never saw myself as one who would drop my career to take care of my kids. But when your world turns, and “the one” comes along, even your values change.

In a way, I feel like Ploning, fending off all other lovers, because no one else will ever do. In other ways, we do differ. But I think it’s time that women should take courage in different areas. We have proven that we can do anything and everything men can; I think it takes more courage nowadays to find one’s worth in something more than the trappings of a high-powered corporate job. It takes more courage in choosing to discipline oneself than to take a credit card loan in order to buy the gadgets we can flash to our peers, only to feel like fakes later.

I find Ploning to be a refreshing look, compared to our generation’s Charmed and Sex and the City role models. I think it’s about time to go back to basics. I think it’s time to retreat into Ploning the movie, and immerse oneself in the milieu of the bygone, and see what lessons we can take from there, and apply to our jaded, apathetic word.

Shall we? :)


Background of the Ploning Story, from Producer Guia Gonzales' Blog:

PLONING
A Panoramanila Pictures Co. presentation
To be directed by Dante Nico Garcia
Written by Bj Lingan and Dante Nico Garcia


Ploning is the story of one woman's promise, her hope and love from the point of view of a young boy.

Present time. Having lived aboard an illegal Taiwanese fishing vessel for as long as he can remember, 30-plus year old Filipino Muo Sei (meaning "Moses", son taken out of the water), grew up to be a man of brokenness, unpredictable temper and solitary loneliness. Until one morning his boat docks into the shores of Cuyo, Palawan. His adoptive Taiwanese father risks being caught and summons him to find "Ploning" before the sun sets, in the hopes of dealing with his past and changing his ways. No one knows who or what "Ploning" is to Muo Sei and no one has ever dared to ask...And so his search begins...

Muo Sei tours the island, observes the people and place as an outsider, and finally revisits his memories, baring how much he has been part of Cuyo and the life of a woman named Ploning.

1980's. The past comes to life and 30-year old Ploning is revealed as the island's enigmatic belle who cared for 7-year old Digo - short for Rodrigo, Muo Sei's real name - as her own. She is a woman who the town knows as keeping true to the promise of waiting for her beau, the young town hero who left for Manila more than a decade ago. This set her as both exemplary and rumor magnet. But one thing is common, everyone wants to marry her off. And Digo discovers Ploning's plan to leave for Manila. Thus threatened by the sudden prospect of losing Ploning, Digo devises ways to keep her from leaving and gets her to make a promise.

Did Ploning choose closure with the man she has been waiting for half her life or the future of young boy whose life is not her own?

Old pains of rejection and unanswered questions are relived, as backdropped by an ironically beautiful milieu and a community of townspeople who are enamored and affected by the life and love of Ploning.

In Digo's eyes, Ploning is likewise revealed as a dutiful daughter to patriarch Susing, a committed supporter to grieving Intang, an honorary sister to extended family Nieves and Toting a wise ally to simpleton Alma, a co-mother to half-paralyzed Juaning, a dear friend to ailing nurse Celeste, an object of desire to young lad Siloy and a foe to Digo's older brother Veling.

In the end, a secret is revealed to Rodrigo that awakens him into a love he has forsaken and misunderstood. Thus the healing that comes from forgiveness springs forth into his hardened heart.

Will Rodrigo finally choose to accept love or continue to walk in hate?