Three Filipinx Feminist Icons
There are so much things in the world that are left unnoticed by people, especially the causes that women tend to fight for. I do believe that women have more power in the world that are left unseen by others. We have a voice that most women are afraid to use online because people are reluctant to say that things that they have been dying to let people know. I do think that there's some sort of feminism in the Philippines but whenever I see my family watch The Filipino Channel. The idea of feminism isn't there or is portrayed as something that's bad by the media when it's not.
The structure of a Filipino film is roughly the same as a Fred and Ginger film. Boy meets girl. Boy courts girl. Girls falls in love. You get the picture, right? That was the norm with how a Filipino woman gets courted. The man is the one doing the courting but there's a problem with that. The problem with Filipino films is that most of the directors are men. They're the ones that tells the general audience a romance story while female directors are left to tell the audience a story about family and how family is important. As a Film student, I am disgusted by that. I think that women can tell the story of what they find valuable to a universal culture. I also think that women can tell an action story without noticing it. The stories that I've heard from my family about the entertainment industry is brutal but does the brutality of an industry matters too much to storytelling and the powers that film has? No, it doesn't. I think that women do not see their full potential as Artists, Scientists, and dare I say it, Doctors.
Take this scenario for example: a family of four living in a Suburban neighborhood. The wife is a Doctor and the husband is a nurse. Is that normal? Is an okay situation? Because for me, it is. It's okay for the husband to get paid less than the wife. It's okay to live like your family lives normally. It's okay for the wife to have to go away for a while because of her work. Equality for the sexes. It's there! And this scenario that I just told you about is a fictional one but it's also reality for some of us.
This might be hard to believe but I grew up being told that equality for the sexes is there and that I just have to believe that it's there. But why don't I see it? Why don't I see that people are equal with one another? On my side of things, I see so much sexism in Philippine media. I see that women are being sexualized. Yes, I'm repeating myself here but it's there. It's not going away if we just keep quiet about it. It's only going to make things worst for women in the entertainment industry.
For starters, I didn't knew that Filipino Feminism exists because I grew up only knowing what the men did to fight for the Philippines. I was never told about the women. However, I was born around the time of Fidel Ramos' presidency and left the Philippines around the time of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's presidency. During that time, I was taught at a young age that my voice didn't matter to the Government. I was also told by my grandfather that Corazon Aquino was the worst president that was ever inaugurated as the political leader of the Philippines. However, she was handed the country at a bad time. She had to work her butt off just to bring the country back on its feet. She was an inspiration to many people during the time that she was alive including me. Corazon did so much work to help the Philippine economy.
Filipino Feminism began when the Spanish colonizers started raping Native Filipinas. Most women kept quiet because they didn't want to get killed by the Spanish for telling someone that they were being sexually assaulted by the Spanish. However, the idea of colonism would not let anyone kill any women for fighting for their rights and freedom. In the 18th Century, the first documented female resistant was Gabriela Silang. After her husband, Diego Silang was slain, she took matters onto her own hands to reign as the Philippine resistance's commander-in-chief.
The woman who I gravitated towards was Leona Florentino. Leona Florentino was a Filipino poet during the 1800s. I considered her to be the Nellie Bly of the Philippines because she showed people that women could also be writers. Just like Nellie Bly, Leona was born to a wealthy and prominent family but she wasn't allowed to receive a university education because she was a woman. Instead, she was tutored by her mother and then a series of private tutors. But it was an Ilocano priest who taught her advanced Spanish and encourage her to develop a voice in poetry. Her poetry included some of her feminist views and feministic ideas. It was because of this that she was shunned by her husband and son. She was forced to live alone in exile and away from her family because she might influence their daughters (if she and her husband had any) to anti-Philippine values.
In her poem Blasted Dreams, she talked about how she was stucked doing a woman's job. The stanza that stood out to me was "shall I curse the hour when first I saw the light of day would it not have been better a thousand times I had died when I was born." I could heard the pain that she was in because of how much I believe in the idea of equality for the sexes. She was a woman who wanted to educate people with the things that a woman does a man couldn't suffer through even if they tried to. I think that she had her reasons why she wanted to pour our all of her pain into poetry. It's women like her that I've always love art and using art to say what I wanted to say. I also think that her story is one of the Philippines' greatest untold stories of the 1800s.
The second woman on my list of feminist icons is Aurora Quezón also known as Nene. Nene was the First Lady of the Philippines. She dedicated her time as First Lady to defended women's rights and prioritized the public's medical needs. She also served as the first Chairperson of the Philippine National Red Cross. On April 28, 1949, Aurora Quezón was on her way to Baler for the inauguration of the Quezon Memorial Hospital with 11 other people. They were gunned down by 200 armed men. This shocked the entire nation and people immediately pointed their fingers towards Luis Taruc, the leader of the Hukbalahap. He and several other Huk members were charged for the assassination. But her unfortunate death still remains a mystery to Filipinos.
Lastly, Marjorie Evasco is one of the earliest Filipina feminist poets according to Wikipedia. She writes her poems in two languages including English. She is also a supporter of women's rights, especially for female artists.
Because of how little is taught about Filipino feminists, people are still applying the traditional roles to their family lives. I think that that needs to change because it's unfair for women to keep living that way when the rest of the world are starting to change around them.
Who wants to start to change the world? Will it be you or the future generation?
Till then,
The structure of a Filipino film is roughly the same as a Fred and Ginger film. Boy meets girl. Boy courts girl. Girls falls in love. You get the picture, right? That was the norm with how a Filipino woman gets courted. The man is the one doing the courting but there's a problem with that. The problem with Filipino films is that most of the directors are men. They're the ones that tells the general audience a romance story while female directors are left to tell the audience a story about family and how family is important. As a Film student, I am disgusted by that. I think that women can tell the story of what they find valuable to a universal culture. I also think that women can tell an action story without noticing it. The stories that I've heard from my family about the entertainment industry is brutal but does the brutality of an industry matters too much to storytelling and the powers that film has? No, it doesn't. I think that women do not see their full potential as Artists, Scientists, and dare I say it, Doctors.
Take this scenario for example: a family of four living in a Suburban neighborhood. The wife is a Doctor and the husband is a nurse. Is that normal? Is an okay situation? Because for me, it is. It's okay for the husband to get paid less than the wife. It's okay to live like your family lives normally. It's okay for the wife to have to go away for a while because of her work. Equality for the sexes. It's there! And this scenario that I just told you about is a fictional one but it's also reality for some of us.
This might be hard to believe but I grew up being told that equality for the sexes is there and that I just have to believe that it's there. But why don't I see it? Why don't I see that people are equal with one another? On my side of things, I see so much sexism in Philippine media. I see that women are being sexualized. Yes, I'm repeating myself here but it's there. It's not going away if we just keep quiet about it. It's only going to make things worst for women in the entertainment industry.
For starters, I didn't knew that Filipino Feminism exists because I grew up only knowing what the men did to fight for the Philippines. I was never told about the women. However, I was born around the time of Fidel Ramos' presidency and left the Philippines around the time of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's presidency. During that time, I was taught at a young age that my voice didn't matter to the Government. I was also told by my grandfather that Corazon Aquino was the worst president that was ever inaugurated as the political leader of the Philippines. However, she was handed the country at a bad time. She had to work her butt off just to bring the country back on its feet. She was an inspiration to many people during the time that she was alive including me. Corazon did so much work to help the Philippine economy.
Filipino Feminism began when the Spanish colonizers started raping Native Filipinas. Most women kept quiet because they didn't want to get killed by the Spanish for telling someone that they were being sexually assaulted by the Spanish. However, the idea of colonism would not let anyone kill any women for fighting for their rights and freedom. In the 18th Century, the first documented female resistant was Gabriela Silang. After her husband, Diego Silang was slain, she took matters onto her own hands to reign as the Philippine resistance's commander-in-chief.
The woman who I gravitated towards was Leona Florentino. Leona Florentino was a Filipino poet during the 1800s. I considered her to be the Nellie Bly of the Philippines because she showed people that women could also be writers. Just like Nellie Bly, Leona was born to a wealthy and prominent family but she wasn't allowed to receive a university education because she was a woman. Instead, she was tutored by her mother and then a series of private tutors. But it was an Ilocano priest who taught her advanced Spanish and encourage her to develop a voice in poetry. Her poetry included some of her feminist views and feministic ideas. It was because of this that she was shunned by her husband and son. She was forced to live alone in exile and away from her family because she might influence their daughters (if she and her husband had any) to anti-Philippine values.
In her poem Blasted Dreams, she talked about how she was stucked doing a woman's job. The stanza that stood out to me was "shall I curse the hour when first I saw the light of day would it not have been better a thousand times I had died when I was born." I could heard the pain that she was in because of how much I believe in the idea of equality for the sexes. She was a woman who wanted to educate people with the things that a woman does a man couldn't suffer through even if they tried to. I think that she had her reasons why she wanted to pour our all of her pain into poetry. It's women like her that I've always love art and using art to say what I wanted to say. I also think that her story is one of the Philippines' greatest untold stories of the 1800s.
The second woman on my list of feminist icons is Aurora Quezón also known as Nene. Nene was the First Lady of the Philippines. She dedicated her time as First Lady to defended women's rights and prioritized the public's medical needs. She also served as the first Chairperson of the Philippine National Red Cross. On April 28, 1949, Aurora Quezón was on her way to Baler for the inauguration of the Quezon Memorial Hospital with 11 other people. They were gunned down by 200 armed men. This shocked the entire nation and people immediately pointed their fingers towards Luis Taruc, the leader of the Hukbalahap. He and several other Huk members were charged for the assassination. But her unfortunate death still remains a mystery to Filipinos.
Lastly, Marjorie Evasco is one of the earliest Filipina feminist poets according to Wikipedia. She writes her poems in two languages including English. She is also a supporter of women's rights, especially for female artists.
Because of how little is taught about Filipino feminists, people are still applying the traditional roles to their family lives. I think that that needs to change because it's unfair for women to keep living that way when the rest of the world are starting to change around them.
Who wants to start to change the world? Will it be you or the future generation?
Till then,
Feminism is really underrated in the Philippines tbh.
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