•••

[chidtalk-blog]

Final Reflection

Also, I'd like you to reflect a bit more on the goals you set for yourself at the start and whether and how you met those. How will you evaluate your work? If you had to offer yourself a grade for "participation/engagement" over the quarter, what would it be? What overall grade would you assign this yourself for this process considering the thought, intentionality, effort, energy, reflection you gave this quarter?

 -------------------------------------------------

At the beginning of this quarter, I said that I would try to stop looking at things from an American-centric view, and to continually remind myself of the privileges I possess. To avoid that point of view, I tried to focus more on my own personal stories, so I didn't have to rely on what I'd learned in school as much. I also, as much as possible, tried to find texts written by Filipin@s, to provide a look at Filipin@ culture from within.

 This was particularly difficult when talking about feminism--feminism in the Philippines takes form in different ways than it does in the United States, and it was hard for me to look at some issues without thinking about it in that way. Overall, I think I did pretty well. 

For this quarter, I would give myself a 4.0. Since I didn't have anybody to discuss these issues with, aside from my family, I spent a lot of time this quarter thinking about how I fit into this community, what I contributed, and how I interacted with the community. It was rather difficult, at first, since I'm used to just walking around, not really thinking about anything else apart from my destination. This quarter, however, I had to focus on the language I used in interactions, even my body language. In addition, since I didn't have any set readings, I went out and tried to find resources on the internet that were available for me to use. I'm glad I had that opportunity, since it gave me the freedom to explore avenues of thought that I may not have seen with a set reading list. 

As I said at the beginning of the quarter, the blog format doesn't really go well with giant walls of text. So instead of writing out essays week after week, I decided to create some form of art (or find some other form of media) for each week's topic, then write a short essay explaining the project. This was a lot more challenging in that I had to think of a topic, come up with a way of illustrating that topic, and then make it. However, I really enjoyed the design aspect of the projects, and I learned a lot from those, too. 

Although I learned a lot this quarter, I feel like I haven't really learned anything yet, and that all this is just scratching the surface. I still don't know enough about Philippine politics to understand the RH bill, or the ongoing conflict in Mindanao. I only know what  I've read, and I feel like i haven't read enough to be able to form opinions on these topics. There's still so much that I don't know or understand about Philippine politics (among other things) but I'm looking forward to learning more in the future. 

[chidtalk-blog]

Media Representation

This project was inspired by Knock Knock Notes. I think they're pretty funny, and I wish I'd had some of these to hand out a few years ago. I've had the unenviable privilege of having some of these directed at me before, and the rest I've heard or read in reference to fellow Filipinas.  

This quarter, while trying to look up articles and essays, I kept running into the same type of questions, over and over again. I'd google something about Filipinas, and the first page would invariably have some sort of advertisement for "Young Filipina brides" or an ignorant question over at Yahoo Answers asking if "all Filipinas were sluts." I don't even know how many travel blog entries I've read, talking about how all these young Filipinas are eager to serve themselves up.

I know that the main stereotypes for most Asian women are the sexually ignorant and subservient virgin and the dragon lady, but it doesn't seem to apply to Filipinas. Instead, Filipinas are stereotyped as being money-crazed, promiscuous nymphomaniacs. What's the difference? Does it go back to skin color, just as so many of the topics I've looked at this quarter have? I think so. 

Maybe our brown skin evokes a sense of "the exotic savage." As Margaret Hunter says in  "The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality," 

"The maintenance of white supremacy (aesthetic, ideological, and material) is predicated on the notion that dark skin represents savagery, irrationality, ugliness, and inferiority. White skin, and thus, whiteness itself, is defined by the opposite: civility, rationality, beauty, and superiority."

To add on to that, Maxine Leeds Craig says in Evelyn Nakano Glenn's Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters that "Exotic, when associated with women's bodies, connotes a fusion of beauty, sexual availability, and difference. The difference inherent in the label exotic is difference from the unmarked, white woman's body." 

By calling us exotic, we are thus labeled "Other," and pigeonholed into a stereotype that we have no control over and ignores our personal histories and cultures. When somebody describes me as being "exotic" or saying that I "look exotic," they are saying that I'm different based on what they see about me, and not what they know about me. If I don't feel "exotic," what gives other people the right to label me as such?

Luz Devadason's essay "Tangent Road: From a First Generation Noybian Perspective" (Rondilla, Spickard, pg. 34) has a great quote that completely explains my feelings on this subject: 

"Let's face it. The terms 'American' and 'White' are used synonymously by most Americans. If this was not so, I don't know why I get asked what my nationality is all the time. When I reply, 'I'm American,' I get, 'But where were you from originally?' As if I cannot be part of this country because I am Brown. When I tell them 'Connecticut,' this frustrates them. Their reply is, 'But where were you born?' I was born in Connecticut (a state in the United States of America), I speak English without an accent (maybe a California one, because for most of my life I have lived out here), I wear jeans and tank tops, and I love watching TV and eating pepperoni and mushroom pizza with the occasional beer. I am American. It's just that I cannot be viewed as such because I'm not White. My appearance to many people is foreign—exotic."

However, I don't think that skin color and the fetishism of that skin color is the only reason for this perception of Filipina women. A large part of this is due to the presence of the American military in the Philippines. Military ports and brothels go hand in hand, and an entire sex industry has sprung up around these bases, to cater to the needs of these soldiers. The term "Little Brown F*cking Machines" has another version: "Little Brown F*cking Machines Powered By Rice." This disgusting term was coined by American soldiers to refer to Filipina sex workers, and is still in use today. By referring to Filipina sex workers as "machines," this term dehumanizes them, reduces them to mindless machines, there only to satiate the sexual needs of American soldiers. It also manages to encapsulate all brown women within that same stereotype. There is a reason why the image of the South Asian prostitute is so prevalent, why Filipinas still get called things like this. 

No, I am not your exotic-tropical-hothouse-flower-island-goddess, and no, I will not "love you long time."

[chidtalk-blog]

Feminism

I tutor some kids from a nearby school in English, and we've bonded over our shared love of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time. They caught me doodling some characters from Adventure Time while we were waiting for the rest to arrive, and that set us off. I think every single kid I've talked to watches Adventure Time, which delights me to no end. Unfortunately, I don't know much about Filipino-based cartoons, since we don't have a television. In Jonathan Corpus Ong's essay, "Children Watching Children: How Filipino Children Receive and Represent News Images of Suffering," he says that "Television ratings data reveal that Filipino children are high consumers of the news...with national news programs 24 Oras and TV Patrol among the top 10 overall programs for children 2 to 12 years old." When I was younger, I remember entertainment channels often had educational children's programs in the mornings and afternoons. 

For this project, I made some gifs of a scene ("Lady and Peebles", Season 4, Episode 10a) the kids and I talked about, since we all agreed that Princess Bubblegum and Marceline were awesome characters. One of the things I like so much about Adventure Time is the portrayal of female characters. For example, Princess Bubblegum fits the standard "princess" mold: pretty face, high-pitched voice, kind, wears pink, etc. However, she also happens to be a genius scientist, and is fiercely loyal and protective of her Candy People. Adventure Time's female characters aren't there just to prop up the male protagonists—they have their own narratives, and are more than simple one-dimensional characters. In this scene, Princess Bubblegum has been taken prisoner by Ricardio, who wants to marry her. I just loved this scene so much because it tells kids that, someday, they might have to deal with the possibility of sexual coercion/abuse (with the emotional manipulation that often goes along with that abuse) and it also tells them to fight back and to stay strong. 

As G. Fitzsimmon's said in this essay, "The Philippines is a country of sharp contrasts and paradoxes." Female empowerment is a concept that has been easily accepted and supported by the people in this country, but noontime entertainment shows like Eat Bulaga! use scantily clad female dancers as decorations. Granted, Eat Bulaga! also uses male dancers, but not to the same extent. 

I'm glad that the kids I tutor have found positive female role models in Adventure Time, and I wish I had more knowledge about Philippine media and television. Philippine history contains figures like Gabriela Silang and Teresa Magbanua, who fought alongside men for the freedom of the Philippines, so I'm sure there are more to be found.

[chidtalk-blog]

Shadeism and Colorism

This quarter, reading all these texts on shadeism specifically within Philippine society reminded me of a phase I went through when I was younger. At least, I thought it was a phase, until I realized it must have been some sort of internalized colorism. 

I was a lot darker than I am now when I was younger (for some reason, going to college meant more staying inside instead of playing in the sun), and I absolutely hated my skin color. To this day, I'm still not sure why I felt so strongly about it then.  Maybe it was because I was going to a school that was predominantly white, and I was one of three brown people in my entire grade. Or it was because I had internalized a concept of "light skin = beauty, dark skin = ugly" that I had been hearing, in different ways, since my childhood. Whatever the reason, I spent those months covered basically from head to toe, wearing long sleeves and pants even in the summer. I wanted to be pale so badly, but no matter what I did I was still darker than my classmates.

As Rondilla and Spickard said in Is Lighter Better?, "It may not be that Filipinos who yearned for lighter skin were wishing to be White, but certainly they were wishing to look like members of the Filipino upper class, who were mestizo." I guess another part was my being one of the kids who got free lunch—I'd watch enviously as my classmates handed over their dollars and quarters, wishing I could be like them. I'd seen enough dramas to know that the rich people were always white and the servants were always brown.

I think I went so far into this hatred of my natural skin color that I eventually came out on the opposite side (13 was a tempestuous age for me). I eventually decided that if I was going to be brown, I may as well be the darkest brown I could get. I mean, my trying to be pale wasn't having any effects on my status, so there wasn't really any point to it anymore. So I played outside, went to the beach, wore shorts, and basically spent as much time in the sun as I could. I got so dark that my face was makintab (shiny). However, I still didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. This whole trying-to-be-as-dark-as-I-could-possibly-get was a sort of rebellion against the beauty ideals that said I was not, and could not, be attractive. Then, I figured out that I still wasn't comfortable because I wasn't doing this for myself. I was doing it for them, the faceless arbiters of what a Filipina should and should not look like. "For many Asians, the implicit message that they are fed each day is that they are not white enough. Their noses are not pointed enough, eyes are not big enough, and, although pale, their skin is not the right kind of light." (Rondilla, Spickard).

So, I stopped forcing myself into the sunshine everywhere I went, and didn't mind enjoying the shade if it got too hot. But I didn't shy away from it either. I know I look good when I'm darker, and that I look sickly when I'm pale (especially in the winter). I've also tried not to let media dictate to me how I should feel about myself, the way I did when I was younger.

[chidtalk-blog]

This is Real This is Me | Take II

For this project, I added a second circle, a blue one, to the original that had words and phrases that I used to describe my self-concept. The red circle is how I saw myself at the beginning of the quarter, and the blue circle is now. The most notable difference between the two circles is that, in the blue one, I am looking at myself through the lens of Philippine culture, while the red circle was through the lens of mainstream American (USA) culture. 

In the blue circle, I didn't put the word "Pin@y" because here in the Philippines, my identity as a Filipina is never questioned, and I never need to say, "I am a Filipina." On the other hand, in the United States, my identity as a Filipino-American is constantly called into question. I don't know how many times I've been asked, "Where are you from/What are you?" "Where are you from?" is particularly galling, since I speak English without an accent and I don't walk around in a baro't saya. In the US, since I am brown, I am automatically seen as an outsider, not-American. Although I immigrated from the Philippines, I've spent most of my life in the United States, and any children I have in the future will most likely be American citizens. However, I (and any future children) will continue to be treated as strangers in this country. 

The Tagalog words, "kapatid" and "anak" are qualified by the word "babae," as in "kapatid na babae" and "anak na babae." "Kapatid" and "anak" are genderless words that mean "sibling" and "child," respectively, and so "babae", meaning female/woman, needs to be tacked on to the end. "Anak" also implies a familial connection, since "bata" can be used to refer to any random kid. "Kayumanggi" is a Filipino term that is used to describe brown skin, and I've adopted it as a part of my self-description because I need to remind myself that my skin color isn't anything to be ashamed of, and that I should take pride in it. 

Speaking Tagalog here in Mindanao is very different from speaking it in Manila. Here, Tagalog is associated with wealth, since people assume that you come from the big city and are therefore rich. When we ride the tricycles, my mom is always the one who talks to the driver in Bisaya because he might charge us more if he hears my sister and I speaking Tagalog. In addition to that, I speak Tagalog with an American accent, so I tend not to speak out loud when we're walking outside, so we don't draw the attention of kidnappers or bag-snatchers. The kids I've been tutoring in English have been very patient with my inability to speak Bisaya, and don't mind translating for me. I've even learned some words and phrases, and can kind of follow along now. 

Although the two circles are separated, I put arrows pointing at the phrase "This is Real This is Me" because, in spite of the differences, both of these identities are still me. 

I tried to make the circles look like large peel-away stickers, since people seem to use them as a easy way to show parts of their identities, like bumper stickers. I was inspired by all the stickers I have decorating my laptop cover, for shows that I really like. And if I consider fandom a part of my identity that can be demonstrated by stickers, why not the rest? 

[chidtalk-blog]

Reflection

This entire quarter has been challenging, in many ways. I've had to step out of my comfort zone, like speaking a language that I haven't spoken regularly in over 10 years, and trying to think in ways outside of what I've been taught. 

I've also tried expressing myself in different ways, and not just sticking to the essay format. Although writing essays is hard, trying to portray an idea in a different way is both easier and more difficult. Coming up with a medium and how I'm going to demonstrate a particular concept or idea isn't too bad, but actually making it takes way longer, and it's more time-consuming than just sitting down and punching out a paper. I've also spent a lot of time learning Photoshop techniques this quarter, which has been really fun. 

Using a blog as a means of posting assignments has also been interesting. I'm used to a more formal format when it comes to school assignments, and blogging (at least, the way I'm used to it) presents the information in an informal, and often very personal way. I have noticed my writing style change this quarter, though. I started out with more analysis of the texts and articles I read, and then it changed to a more introspective style, with more of what I thought about the texts and how I related them to my experiences. 

I've learned so much this quarter—I knew some of this stuff going in, but reading detailed texts and actually seeing these concepts in action has been great. 

For the final assignment, I'm going to continue with this theme of stepping outside of what I know and am comfortable with. I've come up with these topics, and I'm going to select quotes from the readings that pertain to each subject, then create some form of artwork for it. 

OUTLINE

Continuation of "This is Real This is Me"

Talking about if/how my self-concept has changed when looking at myself through the lens of Philippine society, instead of a Filipino-American lens. 

Shadeism

"She is dark and therefore ugly" Rondilla, Spickard; Is Lighter Better? 

"It may not be that Filipinos who yearned for lighter skin were wishing to be White, but certainly they were wishing to look like members of the Filipino upper class, who were mestizo." Rondilla, Spickard; Is Lighter Better? 

"For many Asians, the implicit message that they are fed each day is that they are not white enough. Their noses are not pointed enough, eyes are not big enough, and, although pale, their skin is not the right kind of light." Rondilla, Spickard; Is Lighter Better? 

"It's okay to be Asian as long as you're the right kind of Asian." Rondilla, Filipinos and the Color Complex

So while it is socially more acceptable to be a White person than to be Asian or anything else, it seems to be attractive in pop culture to have a darker, tanner shade of White people's skin.

Feminism

"With the women's movement, women turn their private troubles into public issues by telling their own stories about life. In the process of listening to one another, they are able to discover common themes that bind them more intimately as sisters. And by means of naming their own experiences, and asserting their own worth and dignity as persons, they are able to engage in moral, and not just therapeutic, activity." [source]

Media Representations

"Exotic, when associated with women's bodies, connotes a fusion of beauty, sexual availability and difference. The difference inherent in the label exotic is difference from the unmarked, white woman's body." [source] Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Chapter 5: The Color of an Ideal Negro Beauty Queen by Miss Bronze 1961-1968, Maxine Leeds Craig

"Let's face it. The terms "American" and "White" are used synonymously by most Americans. If this was not so, I don't know why I get asked what my nationality is all the time. When I reply, "I'm American," I get, "But where were you from originally?" As if I cannot be part of this country because I am Brown. When I tell them "Connecticut," this frustrates them. Their reply is, "But where were you born?" I was born in Connecticut (a state in the United States of America), I speak English without an accent (maybe a California one, because for most of my life I have lived out here), I  wear jeans and tank tops, and I love watching TV and eating pepperoni and mushroom pizza with the occasional beer. I am American. It's just that I cannot be viewed as such because I'm not White. My appearance to many people is foreign--exotic. This makes them think I am Un-American." Rondilla, Spickard, pg 34 Tangent Road: From a First Generation Noybian Perspective by Luz Devadason

Our media projects women-of-color-as third-class citizens. Rondilla, Spickard: pg 37 [NOTE: "our" referring to USA]

[chidtalk-blog]

Filipin@ Representation in Other Media

The latest Bourne movie, The Bourne Legacy (2012), was partially filmed in Manila, and used Filipino actors. I was excited to see it, but ended up being disappointed. Plotholes aside, I was mostly disappointed by the fact that they didn't subtitle the Tagalog used in the movie. Although the Filipin@ actors in the movie were minor characters, their small lines turned them from background characters into human beings. For example, the landlady arguing with the policeman in front of the building they're about to storm talked about how she just had it renovated. From my point of view, these Tagalog lines fleshed out the characters, and gave them at least a little bit of depth. But while I was watching the movie, I realized that I (as a member of the audience) wasn't supposed to understand what the Filipin@ characters were saying. This movie was made for an American audience, and I wasn't supposed to care about it, since it was "just gibberish."

For this week's project, I took some scenes from the movie where Tagalog is spoken, made them into gifs¹, then subtitled it in Tagalog and the English translation. I apologize for the choppy nature of the gifs—Tumblr only hosts gifs in sizes up to 1MB, so I had to reduce the number of frames. Note that in the first gif, anak translates into the rather formal "my child" because the Tagalog word for "child" is the same for all genders, and anak can be used as a term of endearment, the way it is in the scene. 

In all the other times I've seen my fellow Filipin@s and the Philippines in a foreign film, the Philippines has been shown as either a war-torn jungle or a huge slum. In this forum thread, user azyanghost asks for "good american movies that were filmed in the philippines that did not include ninjas, martial arts, world war 2, and sex tourism," and the really sad thing is that I couldn't name any, apart from The Bourne Legacy. 

Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 war epic, Apocalypse Now, was set during the Vietnam War. He needed Vietnamese people to play the part of the Montagnard, but used Filipino actors instead. I don't have a problem with that—filming in Vietnam at that time wouldn't have been a good idea at all, considering the time period. However, I did take issue with his using Ifugao natives to stand in for the Montagnard. Instead of putting Filipino actors in costumes, they went out to the rice terraces and hired around 250 people to "act Vietnamese" while wearing their traditional clothing and performing their traditional rituals. The Ifugao have no connections to Vietnam, so how could they accurately portray the Montagnard by "acting natural"? Asian culture is not a monolith, and assuming that different indigenous tribes can stand in for each other because they're both "primitive" or something is ignorant and racist. 

___________________

¹ gifs: Graphics Interchange Format (GIF); bitmap image format that supports animations

[darklovelyandsouthasian]

I was delighted to find this tumblr.

My name is Joy Hui Lin, I’m a half Thai and half Chinese entertainment writer and poet. My Thai family is considered dark/tan which we’ve always said must mean that we’re part South Asian from a long while back. In Thailand being a Chinese-Thai which are the fairer skin citizens is the ideal. All the women on the TV programs or commercials are fair skinned and of course there are skin bleaching creams galore advertised nonstop. As I’ve gotten tanner my cousins on both sides tell me “You’re like a black person …” in a tone of equal parts insult and dismay. My sisters and I stand around while our other Asian friends remark with disappointment to their children, “You’ve gotten so tan,” after a frolic in the sun.

I wanted to submit my picture because when I was 18, the whitest most popular football jock in my biology class asked me after a long and sunny tennis season, “Haven’t you ever heard of sunblock?”

And this is for my niece who wishes she had blonde hair like Princess Aurora because “she’s the most beautiful.”

I’m happy to be considered “dark and lovely.”

Photo credit: Tobias Kinnebrew

Submitted by Joy Hui Lin

[chidtalk-blog]

SM Gensan

Giant strip malls have become a marker of the Philippines, with 3 of the largest in the world found here. As the number of public parks and plazas declines, Filipin@s flock to the brightly-lit, air-conditioned halls of the mall. The malls here are privately owned, and belong to chains that cover the entire archipelago. The 4 main malls here in General Santos are SM (ShoeMart), KCC, Gaisano, and Robinson's. These malls aren't just department stores—they're supermarkets, clothing and shoe shops, art galleries, and furniture stores. This quote (from here) describes the phenomenon best:

"To many Filipinos, the mall is the ultimate tambayan ng bayan, the glorified sari-sari store that has something for everyone, including those who only want to watch the world go by, the best destination for a people with a penchant for going out in packs."

I visited SM Gensan the other day, and noticed an unusual amount of pictures of white people on the walls. Not just pale skinned Filipin@ celebrities, but white people. Or extremely white-passing people, with Anglo features. Not all of the pictures and advertisements were of white people, but there was a high enough percentage. In a country of brown people, this definitely wasn't an accurate representation of the population. 

I was just going to chalk it up to shadeism/colonial ways of thinking, but I couldn't figure out why they would put pictures of random white people, instead of actual Filipin@ celebrities. Both were pale-skinned, and the celebrities were more well known. It just didn't make sense. Then, my sister came home from school, saying that her teacher had shown the class a picture of "sad/poor people" and a picture of "rich/happy people" for a marketing exercise. The poor people were Filipin@s, and the rich people were white. 

Margaret Hunter says in her essay that "The maintenance of white supremacy (aesthetic, ideological, and material) is predicated on the notion that dark skin represents savagery, irrationality, ugliness, and inferiority. White skin, and thus, whiteness itself, is defined by the opposite: civility, rationality, beauty, and superiority."

I've seen so many Filipino dramas where the main characters are all pale skinned, and the maids, servants, and bad guys were the only brown ones.  I kept thinking about the movie poster I saw (first picture). All the actors in it appear to be of mixed Filipino descent, judging by their names: Anne Curtis, Derek Ramsay, and Andi Eigenmann. Derek Ramsay is noticeably darker than his costars, which is a common trend among Filipino male actors. But if darker skin is associate with "savagery, irrationality, ugliness, and inferiority," then why are the male actors dark? Maybe they're trying to tap into the sex appeal of the "savage"? Younger Filipino actors tend to be paler and less muscular, which supports that theory. The older and "manlier" actors are the ones who get sexualized on a regular basis. 

I guess I just want to see a brown-skinned character that's just like the others. Not a servant, not a thug, not some sort of sexualized savage. 

[camarada-carapulcra]

“Bleached”

Director Jess Dela Merced | USA | 14 min

Swayed by the prospect of attention from both her image-obsessive mother and a cute boy, Lenny, a Filipino-American girl, concedes to using a skin-lightening cream at the price of her identity. The comedy Bleached follows the journey of Lenny to reclaim herself from the struggles in relation to beauty, race, and American identity.

This short is showing part of the Asian American International Film Festival in NYC. July 25-August 5th. 

[pag-asaharibon]

Bleached the Movie Facebook Page

BakitWhy.com: Discussing the Movie “Bleached” with writer/director Jess dela Merced

[chidtalk-blog]

Shades of Brown

For this week's project, I wanted to look at how Filipin@s are represented in the media. I know that most of the celebrities are light-skinned, but I wanted to look at how their skin tones compared to mine and other people in my community.

At first, I was going to include both men and women in the sample. However, I noticed that men (both celebrities and people in my community) tended to be darker skinned than the women, and so would have needed a separate set. Also, I didn't want to go out and find 50 people in my community instead of the 25 I originally planned on. So, all of the skin tones in this post are from women.

I used the color-picking tool in Photoshop to select colors from the photos. I tried to avoid faces, because makeup could mess up the colors, and tried to go for areas like the shoulder, since necks are often shadowed. Some of these colors may have been skewed, since celebrities are are airbrushed to a crazy degree. And that's not taking into account bright lighting, which can cause a person to look lighter, and the fact that so many of today's Filipina celebrities are of mixed race. 

For the celebrity photos, I just googled "filipina celebrities" and got them from here and here. The women from my community whose photos I used for this project are ones that I see on a regular basis, so they didn't mind me asking if I could take a picture. It took me all week to get photos of 25 different women—25 is a surprisingly large number of people!

To be honest, I didn't expect such a huge color difference. Just knowing that the women on television are a lot paler than myself is isn't the same as seeing my own skin color juxtaposed with theirs, and how they're on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

I can see why skin-lightening products are so popular here, as well as in other parts of Asia. Light skin is seen as a marker of wealth, since it means that you're rich enough to sit inside all day and not have to work outside in the field. Throw in 300-some years of colonization by white-skinned Spaniards and a 44 year occupation by US military forces, and light skin became conflated with power, as well as social status and wealth. 

I just want to point out that pre-colonial colorism is different from postcolonial colorism—while postcolonial colorism may have built on those pale-skinned ideals of beauty, the effects of colonization on what is considered beautiful aren't just limited to skin tone. Pre-colonial colorism said that dark-skinned people were the ones who had to work out in the fields, and that light-skinned people were rich enough that they didn't have to. However, postcolonial colorism says that being light-skinned/white means you are automatically accorded privileges, just for being pale. 

So, people do everything in their power to stay out of the sun. There are entire aisles dedicated to whitening products. Here are two of the names I see the most: Watsons and Pond's. 

There's nothing wrong with being pale skinned. However, spending so much time and effort in trying to reach a standard that, honestly, will be forever out of reach isn't healthy. And this attitude isn't just limited to darker skinned people. Even Tricia Gosingtian, one of the celebrities I used for this project, has said on her blog that she wished she could look like Japanese model Fuji Lena, but that "the only way [she] could ever look like her is to magically inject [her]self with American genes for that perfect Vivi Eurasian look."

It's a bit depressing to think that even celebrities aren't satisfied with the way they look, because if they're not happy with themselves, where does that leave us normal people, who are even farther from that "ideal?" 

[chidtalk-blog]

Jeepneys | Part 2

"Jeepney" by Bambu, from his ...I Scream Bars for the Children album

Bambu is a Filipino-American hip hop artist whose songs focus on social consciousness and community activism. 

The third stanza of his song, "Jeepney", calls for Mindanao¹ to be freed, criticizes the deaths caused by the violence, and also calls out the exploitation of Mindanao's natural resources.  

I grew up hearing news reports that said things like "the war on terror in Mindanao" and "the Abu Sayyaf have declared a jihad", interspersed with reports of bombings and hostage situations in Mindanao. I knew that Muslims in Mindanao were fighting to secede from the Philippines, and that they were all shown as terrorists with possible connections to Al Qaeda. I didn't really pay much attention back then, and I didn't question anything. 

I finally started looking up articles about the Mindanao conflict a few years ago, after I heard Jeepney. I'm a bit ashamed to say that, until then, I hadn't really cared about the situation. I hadn't even considered that there could be another side! 

The Moros², led by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were granted an autonomous region in 1996 (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao), but a new faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, continued fighting. In Rizal G. Buendia's article, he says that MNLF Chairman Misuari's stint as ARMM governor

"did not bring about the promised peace and development in Muslim areas of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan" and so lost the support of his constituents, although Misuari "inherited the sociocultural, economic, and political problems that resulted from more than half a century of negligence and gross inattention of the central government with regard to the welfare and rights of the Muslims in particular and Mindanaoans at large."

He then goes on to say, 

"Apart from the MILF, the Abu Sayyaf ('sword bearer') Group (ASG), estimated to be between 300 and 1,000 armed guerrillas (mainly young and disgruntled elements of the MNLF and MILF), constitutes another bloc of Muslim rebels (largely composed of Tausug and Samal³ ethnic groups) battling the state...ASG intends to set up an Islamic state through extremist means."

Reports of the Abu Sayyaf bombings are what I remember hearing, and although the reports clearly stated the people behind the attacks, they didn't really clarify what the distinction between the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF were. I don't think they ever fully explained why the Moros wanted independence. Buendia quotes the late MILF Chairman Hashim as saying, 

"'[T]he agreement never touched the core of the Bangsamoro⁴ problem which is the illegal and immoral usurpation of their (referring to the Moros) ancestral homeland and legitimate rights to freedom and self-determination.'"

In the wake of the 9/11 attack, US soldiers were deployed to Mindanao to "rid the country of its Islamic terrorists," and dozens of civilian Muslim Filipinos were killed. There has been a constant presence of US military forces in Mindanao for the past 10 years, and the fighting still has not stopped. 

There's a great quote from Amirah Ali Lidasan, National President of the Suara Bangsamoro Organization in Mindanao:

"My hope is that at long last we will have our treasured freedom and justice. As Muslims, we are prisoners of the national government: we cannot assert our rights as Muslims or Moro people, we cannot assert our identities, we cannot claim our ancestral lands and we are limited in our representation through various governmental means.

"We are being discriminated against, and yet we are told that we have an autonomous region, but we do not have any control over our resources, and the military is crawling all over our oil and mineral-rich communities.

"The national government limits our quest for knowledge, especially when it comes to our religion. Our madrasahs⁵ are being watched and even targeted as terrorist schools if they are supported by Arab missionaries and relief agencies. But the government does not give us adequate resources for school buildings or books. In the media, they make a big show of the computers donated and schools built by the US soldiers, but [those are] not schools with Arab ties.

"We have become suspicious of gifts from the US soldiers because we know that they ask something from us. They ask us to not complain about their presence and that we tolerate their “little wars” in our communities. Instead of an education budget, the government maintains a bigger budget for war in Mindanao. And most of our schools in conflict areas are being used by the military for their detachments, otherwise they are turned into evacuation centers. No wonder we are one of the areas of the Philippines with poor literacy."

The thing I've noticed about these articles is that they paint this huge divide between Christians and Muslims, as if this whole war is about religious differences, when it's not. Granted, a large part of it is about religious differences. But Mindanao (although it has a large Muslim population) is also full of Christians, polytheists, etc. Simply separating the entire island of Mindanao from the Republic of the Philippines isn't a feasible option. 

Having heard one side of the story my whole life, I can't claim to understand this situation after reading some articles. And as a Christian, I don't think I'll ever be able to understand the struggle that the Moros are going through. Christians don't get lumped together under the title "terrorist," and Christians don't get looked at funny on the street for wearing symbols of their faith.  

I don't know enough about both sides to form a concrete opinion—however, this issue is definitely something that I'll be looking at in the future. 

_________________________

¹ Mindanao: the southernmost group of islands in the Philippine archipelago. It was never fully colonized by the Spaniards, which is the reason for the high Muslim population. 

² Moros: Muslim, non-Hispanicized inhabitants of the 'unsubjugated' southern islands. The Spaniards called the indigenous Muslim people 'Moros,' like the Moors. Contrasted with 'Filipinos' (called 'indio' until 1872), the Christianized, Hispanicized, and subjugated people of the Philippines. (Buendia, pg. 1)

³ Tausug and Samal: two of the 13 Muslim ethnolinguistic groupings in the Philippines. The others are: Maranao, Maguindanao, Yakan, Sangil, Badjao, Kalibungan, Jama Mapun, Iranun, Palawani, Molbog, and Kalagan. (Buendia, pg. 3)

⁴ Bangsamoro: The term 'bangsa' or 'bansa' is a Malay word that usually refers to nations, castes, descent groups, or lines, races, or estates. The composite term 'Bangsa Moro', refers to the 'Moro Nation'. MNLF and MILF prefer to use it as one word, 'Bangsamoro.' (Buendia, pg. 1)

⁵  madrasahs: school; institute of higher education

[chidtalk-blog]

Jeepneys | Part 1

Original pictures: [1] [2]

All the examples of colonization I've shared so far have been rather negative, so I thought a positive example of colonization would be a nice change. Although, jeepneys aren't really positive examples of colonization so much as they are an example of how Filipin@s took a remnant of colonization and made it their own. 

There aren't that many jeepneys here in General Santos (lots of tricycles, though) so instead I found the two pictures above through a google search of the term "jeepney," then edited them in Photoshop. The colorful backgrounds made it hard to focus on the jeepney details, so I grayed out the background and left the jeepneys as the sole source of color in the pictures. 

After World War II, hundreds of American military jeeps were given or sold to Filipin@s, who then stripped them down, added roofs, and decorated with with brightly colored paint and hood ornaments. Now, jeepneys are one of the most popular forms of public transportation (fares are pretty cheap, at 8 pesos a ride), and have become an easily recognized representation of the Philippines. 

These aren't just brightly painted vehicles, either. I've seen some on the streets that look like moving works of art! There's even an entire festival dedicated to jeepney art, which is really cool. 

[chidtalk-blog]

Found Poem

I made this found poem last quarter, but I thought I'd share it here too, since it fits this week's topic. 

[chidtalk-blog]

Filipin@s and Feminism

This week, I made a found poem using these lines from three articles:

News From the Tropics: Is there Feminism in the Philippines?

The changing role of women in Philippine society by Zakiya Mahomed

Early Feminism in the Philippines by Athena Lydia Casambre and Steven Rood

The role of women in Filipino culture is always something that has fascinated me. Filipino culture is pretty conservative, due to the influence of Catholicism (brought over by Spanish colonizers). However, the roles are a bit different. For example, in my own family, although my father is the breadwinner, my mother handles all the money and budgets it for our needs. She also makes most of the decisions (one of my dad's standard responses is  "Go ask your mom"), but my father is the ultimate decision maker in the family. 

Women in the Philippines gained suffrage in 1937, nine years before the Philippines itself gained independence from the United States. Since then, the Philippines has had 2 women become presidents (Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and a host of other women elected to office. This easy acceptance of gender equality (unlike the attitudes of the two colonizing nations) is probably due to ① pre-colonial Filipino culture, since women were considered equal to men in all ways, and were able to own land and lead communities. 

In spite of all of these advances, the conservative influence of Catholicism has, in some ways, halted the progress of gender equality in the Philippines. The Reproductive Health Bill (also known as the RH Bill) is supposed to guarantee universal access to contraception, fertility control, and maternal care, as well as introducing sexual education in schools. According to the 2009 Children's Fund Report, the Philippines has an average maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 230 per 10,000 live births [source]. 

From my point of view, the RH Bill is definitely a good thing. But it's been in limbo for the past 14 years, since opponents say that it'll promote promiscuity among the young, a loss of traditional family values, contraception methods are abortifacients, etc. In addition, the Catholic church does not support birth control, and instead supports "natural family planning," which includes only having intercourse during periods of infertility and practicing abstinence during fertile periods. 

To me, it just looks like this "preservation of family values" is considered more important than the deaths of hundreds of women in childbirth, which just doesn't make sense. 

___________________

① The phrase "pre-colonial Filipino culture" is a generalization, and is used here to simplify the issue being discussed. The hundreds of ethnic groups in what is now the Philippines had their own traditions, languages, etc.

The term "Filipino" itself is a product of colonization, since the Spaniards named the islands the Philippines after King Philip II. Most of the languages found in the archipelago don't have an 'f' sound. 

[chidtalk-blog]

The T'boli: Part 2

Unfortunately, we didn't stay long. I did learn some things, though. T'boli houses are raised on stilts, with windows that open outward. Since the walls and floor were made of bamboo, the breezes blowing through the house felt heavenly, especially after being stuck in a hot car all day. The entire living area is open, with canopies hanging above the sleeping areas. At night, the canopies are lowered to keep mosquitos and other insects out. There aren't any mattresses or beds, just a banig (woven mat). The ones they had there were much nicer than the ones we had at home—my mom wanted to buy one, but they were out of stock, and it wouldn't have fit in our car. 

The area was absolutely gorgeous too, with a lovely view of Lake Sebu from the windows. I hope I can go back at some point, and maybe stay a little longer next time.

[chidtalk-blog]

The T'boli: Part 1

This week, my family and I drove to Lake Sebu. I'd read something about a T'boli museum in the area, so I was excited. 

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the way some of the pictures have been cropped weirdly—I took some of these out of the window of a moving car. My main problem with this whole excursion was figuring out a way to learn about the T'boli that wasn't all "tourist-taking-pictures-of-indigenous-people-with-no-regard-for-the-customs-and-culture." Unfortunately, my accented and less than proficient grasp of Tagalog wouldn't have been much help there. Thank goodness for my mom! She grew up in Mindanao, and so speaks both Tagalog and Bisaya fluently. She asked the ladies if I could take pictures around the museum, since I'd be using them for a school project. They kindly agreed, and explained the various features of the museum (which was set up like a T'boli home) and talked about how the museum was founded. 

The Cooperative of Women in Health Development (COWHED) was founded by T'boli women, and, according to the website, the proceeds from the museum go towards health projects within the T'boli community. COWHED is affiliated with the People's Global Exchange (PGX), which promotes fair trading in marketing products of indigenous communities.

The ladies at the museum said that the T'boli are indigenous to the region, and were later followed by Ilocano settlers. They also said that the Philippine government had granted them land around Lake Sebu. I was a bit fuzzy on the details, but according to Jose Mencio Molintas, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 

recognizes the indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands and domain, and specifically sets forth the indigenous concept of ownership.  The law recognizes that indigenous peoples’ ancestral domain is community property that belongs to all generations.  IPRA likewise recognizes the customs of indigenous peoples and their right to self-governance and empowerment.

However, IPRA has been criticized as being in conflict with other laws, like the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which "facilitates the entry of large foreign and local mining corporations to enter the mineral-rich territories of indigenous peoples. It opens up the mining sector to 100% foreign control."

In addition, Molintas makes a point of noting the difference between the State's idea of land ownership and the indigenous peoples', saying, "The state's insistence upon formal land laws and policies from the colonial governments to the present administration reveals the longevity of the government's efforts to impose the Western system of land ownership upon all indigenous peoples." As a result, many indigenous people have been forced from their ancestral lands. He then calls for a reform of legal texts to fit indigenous peoples' needs, instead of the other way around. 

The T'boli may have been able to get their land back from the government, but not all indigenous peoples can do so. In speaking of the application process, Molintas says:

the registration process incorrectly assumes that (1) all those interested in applying for titles are literate and able to grasp Western legal practices; (2) that newspapers are readily available even in the most isolated places of the country; and (3) that all applicants have the financial means and the time to go through such costly procedures.  In addition, many indigenous peoples are not aware that there is such a thing as land titling.

Molintas' call for reform does make sense. However, he doesn't really talk about how that reform will take place. Since there are indigenous peoples interested in reclaiming their land who may not be able to read or "grasp Western legal practices" (which I assume also involves speaking and reading in English, at least part of the time), does that mean that the forms will be translated or that a translator will be provided? He also says that the current laws are "biased against indigenous concepts of ownership." If a rewrite is necessary, how would that bias be removed?