PUBLIC SCANDALS-DU30:This President Invited A Woman Onstage And Asked To Kiss Her. She Shook Her Head, But He Did It Anyway.
The woman initially shook her head, but Rodrigo Duterte persisted. His actions have been condemned online.
Rappler
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WATCH: Duterte kisses OFW based in South Korea | http://rappler.com/nation
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has sparked anger for kissing a woman on the lips after inviting her onstage with him.
During an event with the Filipino community in South Korea on Sunday, Duterte asked two women to join him onstage to present them with books critical of the Catholic church.
After kissing one woman on the cheek he gestured he wanted to kiss the second woman on the lips. She at first shook her head, but Duterte persisted and, according to the website Rappler, asked her if she was single before kissing and hugging her.
Gabriela, a national alliance of women’s groups in the Philippines, denounced Duterte’s actions as the “disgusting theatrics of a misogynist president who feels entitled to demean, humiliate or disrespect women according to his whim.”
While the incident was greeted with cheers from sections of the crowd in Seoul, it was met with disgust online.
Nk.@dailygasmsBefore y’all start slut shaming the woman Duterte kissed HE SHOULD NEVER HAD DONE THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE- as president, as somebody’s significant other (hello did you all conveniently forget Honeylet), as a father, as a fucking public servant. Anong klaseng tao gagawa nyan.
paulina christine@piaescanogoing off twitter for a while. imma wait until that disgusting photo of duterte’s death kiss dies down. that shit is puke material
hez@bedisturbedHi. This is what male entitlement to women’s body and affection looks like.
fuckin hell im so tired of this obscene, sorry excuse for a president dehumanizing women in every chance he gets. THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED
https://twitter.com/PhilippineStar/status/1003233428685275136 …
hez@bedisturbedAnd even if the woman consented to giving the kiss, Duterte asked for it to mock the church (who has criticized him for his war on drugs). So in this context, she was used as a tool for him to prove a point and affirm his fragile ego. Im sorry guys, women aren’t means to an end.
In exchange for a book, Duterte kissed a random woman. Jusq. Speechless talaga ako. I dont know kung anong irereact ko.
I feel like I need to pour bleach all over my twitter feed now just to cleanse it of this disgusting video BUT HOW
The woman Duterte kissed was identified as Bea Kim by the state-run Philippines News Agency, which quoted her as saying there was “no malice” in the kiss.
Risa Hontiveros, a senator representing the opposition in the Philippines, called it a “despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority. President Duterte acted like a feudal king who thinks that being the President is an entitlement to do anything that he pleases. Even if the act was consensual, it was the President, possessed of awesome, even intimidating power, who initiated it.”
She added that “uneven power relations were clearly at play. And president Duterte took advantage of that severe power disparity.”
Pool New / Reuters
Duterte and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Duterte has a history of inflammatory behavior. Earlier this year he was criticised for telling soldiers to shoot female rebels in the vagina, while during the 2016 presidential campaign he called the 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary a “waste,” and suggested he should have been “first” to sexually assault her.
Matthew Champion BuzzFeed News ReporterLooking For Right And Wrong In The Philippines
