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Beauty, Despite by Sheangel Morales

Beauty, Despite is an artwork made by me, a non-artist, as an attempt to express my feelings and thoughts on female empowerment. I drew myself with a very colorful background alongside white drawings to portray different stories.

A tear on my face attempts to echo my life experiences as a woman, especially on my story when I found out I had PCOS. This is something I never really brought up with a lot of people because I was too shy and nervous. However, I now feel the need to tell my story to others in order to empower and encourage everyone to consult with their doctors if they feel the need to do so.

It took me years before I had the courage to consult with my OB-gyne but I finally did during quarantine. I was so scared with the results as to why I keep on having irregular menstruations. ”Is there something wrong with me?” I always asked myself but never really faced it until recently. After my check-up, I found out that I had PCOS. It was very saddening, but I expected it already. I had to take contraceptives for this too, which can be seen in the top left of my artwork, and I was just hesitant to tell my friends about it.

This is where I saw the importance of educating women about their reproductive health and breaking different stigmas & taboos enforced on women. Not just about sex, but about our own bodies in general. I drew many Xs over an eye and a mouth to showcase how women are often blinded and muted when it comes to these things. We were left with almost no knowledge on what to do with our bodies and health until we experience a problem.

Multiple societal norms need to be addressed. “Dalagang Pilipina” doesn’t necessarily mean we should be “conservative” nor quiet. A true “Dalagang Pilipina” is whoever and however she wants to be. Hence the reason I drew a flower with an X. This is to showcase how a woman’s femininity and freedom is not maximized, not celebrated. In a world where patriarchy still prevails, women still need to speak up in order to attain certain rights.

Nonetheless, beauty is everywhere. Even despite the tears and the Xs, I still chose to make my artwork colorful in order to celebrate women. Because despite all the hardships we are experiencing and trying to get rid off, the beauty of being a woman is still worth celebrating.

[Opinion] Much Left to Do (Final ver)

I could not think of a worse mixture than an incompetent government and a pandemic. During these trying times where a lot of people’s lives are affected, the more we need to have a government we could trust and depend on. Unfortunately, this is not the case for our country. Other than the lacking Covid-19 response, another issue that poses a threat is the scarcity of reproductive health services to women, the disruption of family planning, and maternal and newborn health services.¹ For clarification purposes, the distribution of RH commodities and services was a problem even before the pandemic, but because of the lockdown, various threats are encountered. This hampers the — already insufficient — distribution and accessibility of such. This would then lead to higher cases of unplanned pregnancies, maternal and infant deaths, and spread of sexually transmitted infections throughout the country.

I believe this is a huge deal and must be addressed by the country immediately. As a woman, growing up in a conservative country was hard enough. Girls were taught to be conservative and wasn’t really knowledgeable with their reproductive health and sex in general. This is still an ongoing problem until now, just this year Sen. Hontiveros is still pushing for the approval of the bill for the mandatory sex education in schools.² This is a factor why the country has the highest rates of adolescent fertility in Asia and is expected to grow from the indirect-effects of the pandemic.³

And to make the struggles of women harder, we have the most powerful person in the country make sexist and misogynistic remarks here and there. Even with the latest improvements on women’s rights on legislations such as Universal Health Care Act, Expanded Maternity Leave Law, Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act.⁴ I still shudder everytime the President makes a rape joke, and I am sure a lot of people in the country as well. It is not only disgusting but it also perpetuates and incites a culture of female oppression. It just proves the country has a long way to go if mere respect for women can’t be given by the President of the country.

There is a greater need to fight for women’s rights. Other than their honor and reproductive health, due to the pandemic, there is a possible increase in physical and sexual violence. There should be an urgency in addressing women’s vulnerabilities as it involves not only one’s dignity but also lives.⁵ We aim to have an open-minded community in which women know their rights and can easily access reproductive health services without being ostracized by the community. It should start with breaking different stigmas and taboos with regards to reproductive health, and by condemning ill-behavior from anyone who oppresses women. Because, even with the improvements in the country’s laws, much still remains to be done.

References:

[1] https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/significant-rise-maternal-deaths-and-unintended-pregnancies-feared-because-covid

[2] https://mb.com.ph/2020/09/06/mandatory-teaching-of-sexuality-education-in-schools-pushed-by-risa/

[3] https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/significant-rise-maternal-deaths-and-unintended-pregnancies-feared-because-covid

[4] https://pcoo.gov.ph/news_releases/president-duterte-reaffirms-ph-commitment-to-women-empowerment-gender-equality/

[5] https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/women-s-groups-call-unhampered-delivery-reproductive-health-services

Much left to do

I could not think of a worse mixture than an incompetent government and a pandemic. During these trying times where a lot of people’s lives are affected, the more we need to have a government we could trust and depend on. Unfortunately, this is not the case for our country. Other than the lacking Covid-19 response, another issue that poses a threat is the scarcity of reproductive health services to women during this state of calamity and the disruption of family planning and maternal and newborn health services (source: https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/significant-rise-maternal-deaths-and-unintended-pregnancies-feared-because-covid). To clear things out, the distribution of RH commodities and services was a problem even before the pandemic, but because of the lockdown various threats are encountered hampering — the already insufficient — distribution and accessibility of such. This could lead to higher cases of unplanned pregnancies, maternal and infant deaths, and spread of sexually transmitted infections throughout the country.

This is a huge deal and must be addressed by the country immediately. As a woman, growing up in a conservative country was hard enough. Girls were taught to be conservative and wasn’t really knowledgeable with their reproductive health and sex education. This is still an ongoing problem until now as Sen. Hontiveros is still pushing for the approval of the bill for the mandatory sex education in schools (source: https://mb.com.ph/2020/09/06/mandatory-teaching-of-sexuality-education-in-schools-pushed-by-risa/). This is a factor why the country has the highest rates of adolescent fertility in Asia and is expected to grow because of the indirect-effects of the pandemic (source: https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/significant-rise-maternal-deaths-and-unintended-pregnancies-feared-because-covid).

And to make the struggles of women harder, we have the most powerful person in the country make sexist and misogynistic remarks here and there. Even with the latest improvements on women’s rights on legislations such as Universal Health Care Act, Expanded Maternity Leave Law, Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act (source: https://pcoo.gov.ph/news_releases/president-duterte-reaffirms-ph-commitment-to-women-empowerment-gender-equality/). I still shudder every time the President makes a rape joke, and I’m sure a lot of people in the country as well. It is not only disgusting but it also perpetuates and incites a culture of female oppression. It just proves that the country has a long way to go if mere respect for women can’t be given by the President of the country.

This is why there is a greater need to fight for women’s rights. Other than our dignity and reproductive health, there is a possible increase in physical and sexual violence because of the lockdown, it can even cause lives (source: https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/women-s-groups-call-unhampered-delivery-reproductive-health-services). We stand for having an open-minded country in which women know their rights and can easily access reproductive health services without being ostracized by the community. It should start with breaking different stigmas with regards to reproductive health, and by condemning ill-behavior from anyone who oppresses women. Because, even with the improvements in the country’s laws, much still remains to be done.

hellobluebirdx

Guess That Fallacy!

Test your knowledge of fallacies with these scenarios.

Fallacy 1

Kanye West comes up on the stage, grabs the mic from the host and says, “Taylor Swift is not a good singer because she is blonde.”

Fallacy 2

Your DDS uncle messages you regarding your vocalness on Facebook criticizing the current administration. Your uncle gives you an ultimatum, “Either you support Tatay Digong or you do not love the Philippines.”

Fallacy 3

The local government of Tacloban wants everyone to install a contact tracing app. Your neighbor posts on Facebook, “I will not download that app. Next thing you know, they will be asking to read our messages, know our passwords, and monitoring everything we do.”

Fallacy 4

A Youtube beauty guru tells her audience to wear sunscreen everyday because it causes fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots. This claim is backed up by scientific literature. Your sister refuses. “Look at mom. She has never worn sunscreen in her life and her skin is amazing! Sunscreen is not necessary.”

Fallacy 5

You tell your baby sister to clean up her toys because her room is a mess. “Your room is much messier than mine. I don’t need to clean my room,” she replies.

sheangelmorales

#1 - Ad hominem

#2 - False Dilemma

#3 - Slippery slope

#4 - Overgeneralization

#5 - To quoque

Guess this fallacy

Guess me #1

Duterte had a SONA last night, today I’m in a good mood. Hence, Duterte’s SONA is the reason I’m having a good mood today. :)

Guess me #2

My mom say’s I’m pretty, I believe I’m pretty because my mom says so.

Guess me #3

Me: I plan to graduate college, get a job, and be successful.

Amy: So are you saying that only college graduates can be successful?

Guess me #4

Oh you’re from Davao? You must be a DDS.

Guess me #5

If you’re not a DDS, then you’re a Dilawan.

Conservative to Conversation

A letter addressed to: Dr. Junice Melgar

[email protected], (02) 926 6230

Dear Director,

I am writing this letter to express my full support in Likhaan Center for Women’s Health. This non-government organization resonates with what I relate in and care for. Especially with your mission in helping women and poor communities in harnessing resources to transform their situations. To go further into detail, your goal to respond to women’s need for sexual and reproductive rights and health services is one of the things I advocate for.

Growing up, I believe a lot of girls were taught to be conservative. This has been a long on-going Philippine culture. We were taught to be gentle, quiet, and to not talk about certain issues, specifically about sexual reproduction or the likes. This is where I am seeing a problem, we should be able to set a distinction between what “conservative” is and what important conversations are not being talked about. Conversations usually being brought up to boys were not brought up to girls. Hence, leaving some of us clueless growing up.

There are many implications to this. To women my age, even talks about menstruation were once taboo before. There even came a point where having menstruation causes shame to young women in the country. Many Filipino women also experience unintended pregnancies and proceed to unsafe and illegal abortion procedures, especially since talks about abortion is highly stigmatized in the country. Access to sexual and reproductive health services were also hard especially for those who cannot afford it.

That is why I highly appreciate the service of your organization. Likhaan Center for Women’s Health has provided women a platform to have a conversation regarding these matters. Your campaign and advocacy, through different projects done on Facebook, has also been very helpful in educating and empowering women in the country. And last but definitely not the least, your free private consultations are of much importance.

However, as these issues are very much still evident in our society. It would be better to push our advocacy to greater heights. Here are are recommendations:

Widening audience reach. As the current target of the organization is middle-aged women coming from the lower income brackets, getting a wider reach could definitely help in addressing the problem in a bigger scale. Catering to younger women would help break multiple stigmas growing up being able to avoid further implications in reproductive health. Being able to also target women from different economic brackets could help further our endeavour.

Start a dialogue everywhere. With the current pandemic, we are limited to our devices for now. Creating different social media accounts, like Instagram where active youth advocates are now using as a platform to disseminate information, would be of great help. Information and projects only being relayed on Facebook could be integrated to Instagram through the different features such as IG TV, IG live, IG posts, IG stories, and so on.

More projects and initiatives. Webinars and talks are already being implemented. However, it would also help to create more initiatives that are easily relatable by majority of the women our age. Activities such as question and answer, podcasts, Stories of different women would greatly help. Also creating online group consultations could aid in creating a discourse especially to females who are too shy to come forward.

As we aspire to spread the message of reproductive health and sex education to Filipino women. Educating younger girls could help prevent further unwanted pregnancies and illnesses and help break multiple stigmas built over the years. From conservative to conversation, we are in the hopes of having our vision of having an open-minded community of women without being ostracized by our community materialize soon.

Respectfully,

Sheangel Morales

References:

Finer, L., & Hussain, R. (2020, August 10). Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in the Philippines: Context and Consequences. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from https://www.guttmacher.org/report/unintended-pregnancy-and-unsafe-abortion-philippines-context-and-consequences?fbclid=IwAR2rj1ZvZfcKBY-wQUEV8-XXSpdLyCAsR1wWgOIaipwPKV2BllPEFMdTWHI

Mercado, W. (2019, November 15). Menstruation is OK: From taboo to acceptance. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from https://www.unicef.org/philippines/stories/menstruation-ok-taboo-acceptance?fbclid=IwAR1aMT1eOkvsJlLYhIYu-dx8kWVGSwCuhYGgh9w-abTxoXYMfKjP-Y7Zd7s

creatureofthesunlight

Logical Fallacies

1. She could not lead a country because she is too emotional.

2. He went out of the house then got infected with COVID 19. He, therefore, acquired the virus because of public exposure.

3. Person 1: A lot of people visited the opening of Manila Bay white sand. They did not observe social distancing and wear proper protective gear. It undoubtedly increased the transmission of the virus among the people who went there.

Person 2: So what you are saying is that the people who visited Manila Bay are going to get infected and are going die?

sheangelmorales

1. Ad Hominem (relatable!) 2. Circular Reasoning 3. Straw Man

biancaferrosjournal

Logical Fallacies

1. If we provide free birth control to everyone, next thing you know, infanticide will become legal.

2. Ana dresses in short shorts and is friends with a lot of men. Therefore, she is a promiscuous woman.

3. Ana: You should not smoke, it’s bad for your health.

Sofia: But you started smoking earlier than me!

sheangelmorales

i think

slippery slope, over generalization, and to quoque

jacisjournal

Logical Fallacies

1. If you speak out about the government, then you must be a terrorist, and you want to destroy the country and burn it to the ground.

2. Jo: Are there really health risks in using dolomite sand? Eduardo: There are health risks in doing anything, but who exactly researched these health risks and why would we trust them? 3. I went to Manila bay to see a white beachfront yesterday. Today I’m happy and mentally stable. Therefore, going to Manila bay improved my mental health.

sheangelmorales

1. slippery slope

2. red herring

3. post hoc ergo propter hoc

Rant Account

Seeing Teddy Locsin’s twitter account already brings back so many memories of my anguish whenever I see his tweets on twitter being a twitter active person. I use twitter because this is my online newspaper where I get relevant news and discussions. Hence, that is why I know of Teddy Locsin and his infamous tweets.

Sadly, I didn’t know about this Sabah dispute before reading the tweet. Only after researching about it is when I knew that we had such a dispute with Malaysia. Teddy Locsin’s tweet would have been acceptable for me as it is something our country is (trying) to claim, however, It is not acceptable reading this tweet from him.

Teddy Locscin is a diplomat, a representative of our country and our president. Correcting the tweet would be good but presenting it that way is doing more harm than good.

I probably would have replied saying that is is improper for him to tweet something like that. I would even suggest that he just have his own twitter rant account, rant accounts are private twitter accounts where you can just say whatever you want. Having a rant account would suit him and Donald Trump as they both just tweet whatever is in their heads without filtering it.

Logical Fallacies

Guess me #1

Me: I plan to graduate college, get a job, and be successful.

Amy: So are you saying that only college graduates can be successful?

Guess me #2

If you’re not a DDS, then you’re a Dilawan.

Guess me #3

Duterte had a SONA last night, today I’m in a good more. Hence, Duterte’s SONA is the reason I’m having a good mood today. :)

Think before you click

Fake news are prevalent in social media nowadays, more often than not are being used for people’s political agendas. That is why it is important now more than ever to fact-check every article that we read.

A common thing people do, and I myself admit doing before, is sharing an article on Facebook without even opening the whole article and basing my reaction on the headline itself. This is dangerous because what was something done in good faith can actually lead to something bad if it propagates fake or outdated news.

Since I learned from my past mistakes, I can say that I am indeed practicing fact-checking before sharing anything on my social media. The better term for me would be “Read before you share.”

Letters

3 issues relating to possible advocacies:

Fast fashion and it’s negative effects in the environment and workers

Lost of employment due to the Lockdown

Local farmers needing more support

Then write one letter based on the above choices. Please refer to Canvas for further instructions.

What Are The Issues That Matter in Development?

In your journal, explore a number of questions about your planned advocacy and some of the problems it is facing. As you think about your advocacy, consider any of the following issues that concern you. If your biggest concerns aren't here, be sure to add them to your journal.

Varying levels of Quarantine (Enhanced, Modified, General)

COVID-19 medical issues

COVID-19 law and order (lockdown issues)

Homelessness and poverty

Class wars

Anti-business sentiments

Public transportation

Connectivity

Social Media

Some of the types of writing that are often used to address issues of significance are:

Petitions

Letters to government officials

Letters to the newspapers, magazines, and news websites.

Look up some of these materials. Keep in mind the specifics of your chosen advocacy and its community, whose attention you need, and how you'll get that attention.

Father to Son

I have read this letter before and I was still eager to read it again. I just know for a fact that no matter how many times I read this same letter, I will always end up in tears. It is evident that the writer of the letter is the late Jose “Pepe” Diokno to his son, whom I am more familiar with, Chel Diokno.

From the context of the letter itself, we can very much see that the father is one of many people who have fought for our independence during Martial Law. Upon reading this letter, that is when I realized one (if not the main) reason why Chel Diokno is also a Public Servant just like his father and an aspiring Senator. From Atty. Chel Diokno asking whether to go to law school or not, to who Atty. Chel Diokno is right now. It is a very emotional outcome for me.

Father to Son: I am interpreting this letter as the father passing on the responsibility to his son. The responsibility to become a great lawyer and the responsibility to fight for our rights and our country. This is still very evident nowadays as I idolize Atty. Chel Diokno and what he is doing for our country even without a position in the government.

This letter has also struck my heart because it is about becoming a lawyer. I am from 3 BS Legal Management, and I am highly considering going to law school after I graduate. However, I still have a lot of hesitations in mind. Nonetheless, this letter goes to show the importance of being a great lawyer, in which I aspire to be someday.

Receiving a letter about going to law school and its implications I would want to receive from my dad since he is also a graduate of Law. However, what I do not want to receive is a similar letter in the same context. This would entail that we will be going through martial law again which I hope would never happen again.

Development Communication in times of Pandemic

Reading and learning about development during a pandemic really gives you a different yet relatable experience. While reading the handbook, the primer, and the article, memories just flash in my head of all the things we, Filipinos, collectively went through during our 6 months of lockdown.

No, it isn’t about Dalgona Coffee, VIdeo Call workouts, e-numans, and tiktoks. It’s the events of Maria Ressa’s arrest, ABS CBN Shutdown, Anti-terror law, Online Classes, and the infamous white sand of Manila Bay.

Basing from my observation, there are a few similarities as to what Development Communication is from all the definitions given by the three readings. 2 main elements are what I came up with:

It aims to involve everyone. Words like “common understanding”, “all sectors”, “majority of people” were mentioned throughout the definitions.

There is action. As they want to “Develop initiative”, “Seek change”, “Empower.”

This pandemic serves a great test of Development Communication to our country, especially a test to the government. Upon learning the different concepts of Development Communication, I got to analyze if they aimed to involve everyone and how they decided on their actions over the past few months.

Maria Ressa’s Arrest and ABS-CBN Shutdown

Social Media and Mass media are of utmost importance nowadays with everybody needing constant updates on the pandemic and the new regulations. Especially since the major population do not leave their homes and practice social distancing, their gadgets and the technology is their only form of communication to the outside world.

These two events, the arrest and the shutdown is a problem not just for me, but also for our country. As it is a task of communication media to circulate knowledge according to Quebral, how are we to do so when there are things like this inhibiting our mediums to provide information? How are they also to report events as they happen and to cover all its angles if our Press freedom is threatened?

As ABS CBN shuts down, how then will we spread information to those people who can only rely on the service ABS CBN provides? As Quebral mentioned that rural is voiceless, doesn’t this make them more voiceless and information-less?

Online Classes

Students, teachers, and parents are forced to switch to online learning due to the continuous increase of cases in our country. This is definitely another challenge/problem for us. Even if new media is “finding their way into the classrooms”, it is still not for the majority as we have to take into account internet access, gadgets, electricity, and everything else.

Now, because of the implementation of online classes, the lapses are clear. Not everyone has access, hence, development communication may fail to include everyone.

Anti-terror Law

The Anti-terror bill, now law, has gotten a lot of negative feedbacks over the past few months. Although it is in that law that dissent will not be seen as an act of terrorism, it is still something a lot of people are scared of. I could relate this to the importance of providing a forum (from Quebral) and a safe place where discussion about issues and problems could occur. As communication media also aims to “help create and maintain consensus”, will Anti-terror law be a threat to doing so?

White Sand on Manila Bay???

Lastly, the decision to put and spend money to put white sand on Manila Bay. This isn’t really something connected, but it goes to show why there is a lot of distrust in the government, hence why also things may be seen as a propaganda. Their incompetence and lack of empathy to its people is what’s inhibiting development in our country.

As mentioned in Chatterjee’s reading, producers of development often fails to ask if their audience can receive the message, understand the message, act upon the message, and want to act upon the message. All these things needs to be put into consideration because only then would true and sustainable development occur to everyone.

Vocabulary Quiz

This quiz is just for fun, to see how many of these less-common words you already know. But, as you do the quiz, if you know the word, think about whether you use it in your writing vocabulary. If not, make a note in your journal and use it the next time you write. If you don't know it, use one of the techniques presented in this course to learn it.

Correct:

Arcadian: rural, rustic, or pastoral, especially suggesting simple, innocent contentment

baleful: full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious.

execrable: utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent.

friable: brittle, easily crumbled or reduced to powder; crumbly

gustatory: of or relating to taste or eating (I truly know)

heuristic: encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error

intransigent: refusing to agree or compromise; uncompromising; inflexible

nefarious: extremely wicked or villainous; iniquitous (I truly know)

Wrong:

contumacious - rebellious

dilatory - procrastinating

jejune - dull

lachrymose - tearful

minatory - menacing

parsimonious - frugal

trenchant - sharp

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