MILF

As news of recent fighting between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front blared on TV, I checked “MILF” on YouTube and was surprised to see that the top entries were all videos of gorgeous hot moms.

There’s a video of a mother’s day party with not so young women frolicking in bikinis, a still shot of a woman licking a man’s toes and a self-help short film on “how to pick up a milf.” Only after a few more clickable video icons of moms in skimpy underwear did I get to an Al Jazeera interview with the late Hashim Salamat, the founder of the secessionist movement in Southern Philippines.

In fact, it gets even dirtier if you try it on Google, which lists down a lot of sleazy sites that start with “MILF.”

I then remembered that as an acronym, “MILF” now means something else for young people. It stands for—well,let’s just say—Moms I’d Love to Friend.

It has ceased to be an acronym and has since become a word, set in lower case and pronounced straight like you’re just saying “milk.” “My mom’s an milf,” a friend once posted on Facebook, along with a picture of her mom in a two-piece at the beach or pool. (Sorry, I can vaguely remember. For me she’s a Mom I’d Like to Forget.)

Seriously, the milf, like the former yuppie and metrosexual, is quite an interesting phenomenon in contemporary pop culture. We see the emergence of another stereotype, subculture or market segment. I suppose, inspired by some milf professor, a lot of young college students out there have taken it up as research topic along with the urge to spice up their presentation with risqué slide shows or videos the like I’d rather forget on YouTube.

It brought me back to the essay “The Graying of Naughty” forwarded to me by a friend who himself loved watching milfs in “Sex and the City” and “Desperate Housewives,” TV series that, according to the writer, exemplify the rise of hot 40 and above sex icons.

“Cougars,” they’re also called now. Preying on handsome young boys looking for a mother figure, these aging but still seductive ladies definitely fiercer than guerrillas hiding in the jungles of Sulu.

They lure their prey with promises of maternal warmth and material wealth, which most of them have at their age. They exude confidence and wisdom which come from years of wear and tear, from love lost and won. Indeed, like guerrillas fighting a protracted war, the milfis battle-tested.

That probably accounts for half of their beauty; the other half has to do with science. Yes, in no other time has eternal youth been a popular preoccupation, inspired by what modern dietetics and medical technology can do to slow down aging or hide it.

I remember Vicky Belo once told the audience during her talk in the Advertising Congress that the woman’s beauty reaches its peak at the age of 25, after which it goes all the way down. In other words, after that you have to start going to her clinic.

Indeed, more and more people are going to cosmetic surgeons these days. And, according to a recent survey, these clients are getting younger and younger. Remember Charisse’s botox controversy?

This proves Belo right, after all. We all want to stay as young as 25. The impact of this age denial stage on contemporary popular culture is called “juvenilia” or the extension of one’s youth. In fact, the old generation gap is almost closing now as parents also try to adore the same music, fashion, gadget or celebrity that their teenage kids consider cool.

This intellectual youthfulness can now be matched by a physical one, thanks to modern science. You can stay young in both mind and body. This can be an added boost to the more mature predator, who can now claim to be wiser and also just as pretty (as the younger but generally more naïve contenders in the love chase).

Now that’s a position of strength the cougar mom can command. As to the other MILF commander shown in YouTube, I’m sorry but I didn’t click it.