MANILA, Philippines ? The thing with super heroes is, they don?t exist. The heroes we look up to are fallible human beings who stand on a pedestal which is hard to live up to. And when they fall short, they’re often torn down and replaced.
Manny Pacquiao made a mistake. He made comments that are ?reprehensible,? as his own promoter put them, and he?s paying for them. He?s lost his relationship with Nike and will have a hard time recovering his marketability with international brands. He drew a line in the sand where he once enjoyed nearly unanimous adoration.
Pacquiao, when asked about his stance on gay marriage by TV5, rationalized that it shouldn?t be legalized in the Philippines as homosexual behavior is not found in the animal kingdom (a claim thoroughly debunked in this Forbes piece).
Following this logic, he reasoned ?Animals are better, they know how to distinguish male from female,? a sentence he followed with one which could hardly have been more ill-advised: ?If we approve male-on-male, female-on-female, then man is worse than animals.?
He apologized shortly after for comparing gays and animals, asked to be forgiven, but stood by his opposition to same-sex marriage. As it’s shown, it’s a hard statement to apologize for.
Pacquiao will have to take his medicine. We live in a free society where no person living a law-abiding life should have to feel marginalized for their race or sexuality. But it?s short-sighted to color his whole existence with this incident and to overlook the years of goodwill.
A lot of the criticism he has received has been warranted: there is no justification to comparing humans and animals.
Still, in the anger stoked, some of it has been ad hominem that advances no cause, like when columnist Shakira Sison wrote in her opinion piece ?The ‘sub-humanity’ of Manny Pacquiao? that she has ?not expected anything intelligent to come out of his mouth in a long time? because he?s a fighter.
The statement portrays an entire segment of young men ? many of whom likewise come from impoverished backgrounds and take up the sport to provide for their families ? as unintelligent because of their profession, which is both denigrating and inaccurate.
In her column, she says she forgives Pacquiao, who is depicted as a caveman, for having only an ?elementary level? education. Pacquiao, like many other poor young people in the Philippines, dropped out of school at age 14 to join the workforce.
He lived under a cardboard box in a Manila park for a short while as he tried to make his way in the world. He is a product of the economic disparity that still plagues this country.
Offering mock forgiveness for his lack of education in turn mocks the many others who have been deprived of the same education which should be a basic human right. It’s elitist, which is how Sison said she didn’t want to be perceived when she wrote her personal condemnation of Pacquiao in Tagalog.
