On Kris Aquino, Embracing Your Voice, and Powering Through the Mess
On Kris Aquino, Embracing Your Voice, and Powering Through the Mess
Happy birthday to one of my personal icons
Earlier this afternoon, Kris Aquino showed up for a TV interview about her latest health updates. I didn’t watch it, save for reading some snippets about it. However, I can’t help but feel nothing but dread and sadness whenever I read about her life updates on social media.
I know that naysayers of Pinoy pop culture would probably roll their eyes about how people would unapologetically profess their admiration for celebrities. However, Kris Aquino is not just some celebrity, she IS an icon of pop culture.
As someone who grew up watching her on TV through her talk shows and game shows, a part of me wanted to be like her. She would charm guests with her wit, intelligence, candor, and sassiness. I wanted to be smart and well-spoken like her. She never hesitated to speak her mind or express her true feelings about almost anything. Her honesty may throw off some people, but it’s also something that brings her hordes of fans and memes, as well as millions of pesos in endorsement deals. If I could align her candidness with my lived experiences as a neurodivergent woman who is pushing her thirties, the only takeaway I can get from this is that it’s important to nurture your voice and own it. After all, being true to yourself will also bring you closer to relationships that are authentic, grounded, and rooted in a place of love.
That honesty that Kris Aquino brings to the table is also a reminder of the importance of embracing one’s messy truth. As a public figure, she is no stranger to issues left and right. Rather than resisting the mess, she makes do with it. She takes accountability for them, and she comes out stronger than before. I think most of it has to do with her star power, but I also think that’s who she is as a person.
Apart from her outspokenness and resilience, I also like how Tita Krissy (as what stans / casual Pinoy pop culture tambays call her) is very generous and vocal with her advocacies. She was the Queen of Paying Taxes for several years (a relevant fact in the age where our country’s leaders have been mired in tax-related controversies), she’s an advocate for neurodivergent kids, she supports freedom of speech and our civil liberties, the LGBTQIA+ community, and so much more. Not to mention, many celebrities have shared anecdotes of her expressing her generosity in a multitude of ways.
Anyway, I sound like a cheesy fangirl in this post, but I wish her strength and a blessed birthday. Thank you Kris Aquino for inspiring the girls, the gays, and the theys to be unapologetic with their truths.