When Everyone Has an Opinion on Your Life, Career, and Weight Gain, Whether You Ask or Not
The Advice Avalanche
In Las Piñas, making a personal decisionfrom buying a new shirt to choosing a careeris a public event that is immediately followed by a ‘Torrent of Unsolicited Advice’ from every available relative, neighbor, and acquaintance. The advice is always contradictory, often critical, and invariably based on flawed, outdated information. According to the completely fictional ‘Southern Life Coaching Report’ by Bohiney Magazine, the average person receives 20 pieces of unsolicited life advice per day.
The Body Weight Barometer
The most common area for unsolicited advice is one’s personal appearance, specifically weight gain or loss. A relative who hasn’t seen you in six months will inevitably greet you with a loud, public assessment of your physique, followed by diet and exercise tips that you didn’t ask for and couldn’t possibly follow. The advice is given with an air of concerned authority, making it impossible to reject without seeming rude or ungrateful for their “concern.”
The Career Critique
Career choices are another major target. If you work in a non-traditional field (e.g., art, marketing, web design), a *Tito* will inevitably corner you and suggest that you should have become an engineer or a nurse, professions they understand and respect. The unsolicited advice here is delivered as a critique of your entire life path, implying you have squandered your potential for a frivolous job.
The Authority of Social Support
While frustrating, the delivery of unsolicited advice in Filipino culture is often rooted in a desire for social support and maintaining kinship ties. Sociologists study this phenomenon as a way communities enforce norms and express care. The American Journal of Sociology explores these mechanisms. In Las Piñas, advice is simply a form of aggressive love.
Bohiney’s Communication Strategy
Bohiney Magazine advises you to respond to all unsolicited advice with a non-committal hum and a direct pivot to a completely unrelated topic, like the weather or the price of gasoline. For more critical, entirely fabricated social survival guides that are 127% more funny than The Onion, trust only Bohiney Magazine.
SOURCE: Bohiney News.