Shameless

Jessy Mendiola will never be sorry for actually loving the body she’s in. What she’s pretty embarrassed about is this: In a time of fearless feminism, we are still getting a kick out of bringing women down.

- Larissa Joson

When popular men’s magazine FHM named Jessy Mendiola as 2016’s Sexiest Woman in the Philippines in August, the 23-year-old won the title, for the very first time, at the expense of other actresses whose fan bases were thirsty for comebacks and back-to-backs. The top spot, discreetly coveted, is secured via a public vote, but the results don’t always sit well with everyone in the public. It’s just a fact: You can’t kill 100% of germs, and you can’t convince 100% of your audience that you’re the hottest woman in the land. Totally normal, nothing to see here, let’s move on.

But then, after doing her Sexiest Woman’s walk during the annual victory party, Jessy was asked the inevitable question of how she deals with haters in a televised interview. Her now famous, gone-viral answer: “I’m not the only one who’s being bashed. I’m not the only one who’s being hated. But, hell, I’m the sexiest woman right now and I’m just really happy.”

When this happened, Jessy was literally just recovering from blows of unreasonable accusations that she had caused the Angel Locsin-Luis Manzano breakup (which Luis refuted to The Philippine Star: “Even my family knows the reason why we broke up and Jessy was never in it.”). But, unbelievably, it was what she said during her interview that brought on a new flurry of unadulterated hate worse than the last.

According to the highest court in the country—the Comments Section—Jessy Mendiola was a fat, man-stealing bitch who also moonlighted as a slut. And that’s putting it lightly. The general reaction proved a sad, sad truth: to this day, we cannot stand it when a woman is confident.