A simple post on Instagram made Jessy Mendiola stop checking her social media account for a while. In what supposed to be just a fun photo that celebrates her being comfortable in her own skin elicited a barrage of hate comments with trolls calling her fat and her photo deceitful.
For one thing, no editing was done. It was shot that captured her flattering angle.
Two months have passed and Jessy was declared the sexiest woman in an online poll conducted by FHM.
According to the Kapamilya star, she did not campaign to be part of the list more so to becoming no.1.
With all the bashing on social media in the previous months, did she feel somehow vindicated after being declared the sexiest woman in 2016?
In an interview with Manila Standard, the 23-year-old Kapamilya star said what she felt after hearing the news that she was leading the poll, which lists the most desirable female celebrities in the land, was more of self-love.
“Vindicated, that’s a very strong word. Not really, I’m just grateful. But I think of it more of as self-love. I mean when I got all the hate comments and all the bashing and when FHM chose me to be no. 1, I think people were looking for something different,” she said.
She further explained that it’s been common that when someone talks about being sexy, more often than not, the person is referring to a woman who has the perfect shape, who is flawless flow head to toe. Think of the impossible-to-achieve figure of the models that strut the Victoria’s Secret runway.
“I’m on the curvy side. I represent a different kind of sexy I believe, voluptuous probably,” she laughed.
With her winning this year’s sexiest title, it’s only natural for her to think that she really is one. But what really makes her feel sexy? It’s the compliment she gets from people who look beyond her physical attributes – when they find her personality more attractive than her appearance.
“It’s the journey of accepting myself finally…of how I look, of no matter what my size is. When people come up to me and say ‘Hey you’re so sexy.’ It feels unreal. I guess it’s not just the physical thing, I think it’s still about the personality of how you carry yourself and I think that’s sexy,” she elaborated.
Jessy sees her sexiest title as an essential step toward a more exciting showbiz career, at the same time an avenue to affect young girls to feel comfortable in their own skin.
A jazzy week at the CCP
The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) envisions to stage a bigger jazz festival that will serve as a platform to budding jazz artists and other community bands most people have hardly heard of. At the same time create a community of local and international jazz acts to encourage cultural exchange.
That is why, five years ago, the CCP launched the International Jazz Festival.
Now, on its fifth edition, the CPP is holding the international music fest until the end of the month at the CCP Main Theater, Little Theaters, Silangan Hall and outdoors at Harbour Square.
Called Winds and Jazz: The CCP International Band Festival, it combines the vibrant sounds and harmonies of the symphonic band and the sophisticated rhythms of jazz in a musical treat that appeals to a variety of listeners and music enthusiasts.
The festival highlights various symphonic bands from across the country and abroad. It also features various jazz styles, including Asian ethnic fusion, as performed by local and international jazz figures and groups.
Besides the main evening, pocket and sunset concerts, the festival also has collaborative components that include lobby pre-shows, trade shows, band clinics, and instrument-repair sessions.
Highlights of the festival include: entrance and opening sunset concert held yesterday at Harbour Square, featuring some of the participating bands; and masterclasses, workshops and lecture-demonstrations conducted by foreign artists from today until July 30.
Tickets are at P200 and P300, and festival passes at P600. Senior citizens and people with disability can avail themselves of a 20 percent discount, while students can get a 50 percent discount.
