In which I talk about teeth. Then Osterizer. Then wriggly men.

So we have a question of whether or not Filipinos truly experience alienation, not having had a Great Depression or Industrial Breaking or some such. But then we did have three hundred thirty-three years of puff-chested Europeans forcing us into n layers of clothing, decades of ridiculously tall white men trying to get us to climb them for a high five and rid us of our dental tongue, four years of Not Tall White Men with bayonets and an even more dental language we could not comprehend, twenty-one years of a High Machiavellian who would only succumb to the pointy heels of his wife, a reputation for indolence, poverty, corruption, pollution, pathetic ambitiousness, mass rebellion, icky skin, and thank God we're a happy bunch of people.

Which is probably why they say we are never alienated. (Though Westerners may say that that is only because we do not know what the term means.) These things we have experienced have made us quite adaptable - resilient - people. Filipinos don't feel left out. We have a way, a quick way of blending in and becoming part of the crowd. And if we don't, there's always home. Filipino culture is a mixture of cultures, and this makes us able to belong in different ones. However, our diversity may also cause confusion, and some may find that they don't know who they are. And especially in our culture, people might think of each other as deviants.


Here is a test, if you are interested. :p

On a slightly similar note, being a person who's into fandom and slash fiction, I've experienced people looking at me like I'd just sprouted multi-coloured bat wings and telling me to STFU GEEK a lot (okay, maybe a little less of the second one; people do not enjoy making me hostile.) Six years of my life in my fandom (which I shall not reveal; I want it for myself mine mine mine! XD) have been spent in quietude from the Real World while my friends chatted merrily about Hollywood gossip, facial wash, and the cutest boy in class. I suppose, for people in the same "subculture" as I am, experiences such as these count as being alienated for one's interests and fantasies. I've seen a lot of drama about this actually, some of it more serious and due to all the stupidest reasons than the others, oftentimes from people "outside" the fandom, oftentimes as well from within. Personally, I am not affected. What I always say is that I like what I like, and I don't care what people say about what makes me giddy with glee.

Probably, alienation in this sense is a little (or a lot) silly. Maybe alienation should not even be an issue at all, if people suck it all in and laugh it all off. Life's a bitch. So slap it. Then walk away with a smug smile on your face, and go get a dose of your equivalent of pr0n.

Pas porwar.

Stories from the canon are of times where the country's turmoils are very much evident. These in turn are exuded greatly in the plot, characters and theme of the writings. It seems the depression of Filipino setting those days, though indirectly, play across your mind as the words pass through your eyes. They usually focus on family, rural life, commonalities broken by unexpected things. In terms of structure, these unexpected things follow a rather long line of narratives (which may be dragging or seem pointless for a first-time reader) until towards or right at the end: BAM! you either realise what needs to be said, or become even more confused by the sudden change. (This may have something to do with, again, the colonial regime - specifically the Spanish - which lasted a slow 300 years before the revolution gave its blast. Again, the evidence of the times.)

We had discussed a good amount of stories centering on women, from the canon to the first of our contemporary readings, and from those we can already see a transition between the two eras of literature. Rivera-Ford and Tiempo both discuss in their stories how women were stripped of choices, Tiempo giving them a step forward through a less helpless (somewhat headstrong) choice. Then Estrella D Alfon brings us a woman that is more than just an observer, and much so more than one who takes in without complaint. Magnificence shows not only a woman who defends what is important to her but a woman who does so with strength and dignity. (I could also include Joaquin's Summer Solstice here, based on how readers may mis/interpret it, as the ambiguity of feminist intent.) We are then brought to the contemporary by another story of womanhood.

This time, though, in Noelle de Jesus' Games we meet a woman with, yes, more control of her life than the aforementioned but still with much struggle in the world. From the medium-scale focus of the bigger problems of Filipinos, we zoom in to a smaller, seemingly more trivial point of conflict. Seemingly, because the language is now more familiar, the "depression" less evident (partly because the Depression of these times are not so world-scale and damaging anymore - which isn't to say they are less important.) The themes of contemporary fiction, then, may be preempted as being closer to the current readers' own problems and understanding. Something which could play a double-edge sword, really: familiarity goes along with rejection, after all, and we might find something that we already "know" less significant once we've read it. Hopefully, we become re-awakened instead.

Point of his story. Or, of skirts cut short of freedom.

Eve stole an apple (or some other fruit that may or may not represent a woman, bane of man's existence), and tricked Adam into tasting it. Because of this, Adam lost his deed to paradise and had to be sent away, running through the marshes, hiding his great folly.

For this reason, men came up with the Bible (cunning bastards), and rendered women faceless in generations to come (pah, such weak hearts!) The peoples of our country would have been saved from the ignorance and imbalance, though. But the tall, stocky white people had to come.

A short disclaimer before I go on: I have nothing against faith in God, and living a good life to get to Heaven. I only believe that the so-called wonders of Christianity as a religion are overrated.

Love in the Cornhusks and The Corral both speak of women in the face of limited to almost no choices. Tinang and Pilar both face heartache, lack of confidence, insecurity. And it's not because 'Amanda' from next door has prettier legs than them but because patriarchal society has made innate to them the feelings of constant disturbance, loss of hope. There is a progress between these two women's situations, where Pilar is given an actual choice as compared to Tinang who simply submits to what is laid in front of her - though Pilar is still not happy with either option faced. And that doesn't make her any different from Tinang's tragedy.

"Lahat tayo, mga prosti sa lipunan." -- Sigfried Barros-Sanchez
(Hindi siya babae pero sang-ayon ako sa mga sinabi niya. u_u)

I do believe that times have changed drastically, and women now have more freedom and opportunities in society but we are fooling ourselves if we think that we have achieved equal footing with men. Women are still very limited and considered weak, incapable, and the scary thing about this is that we might not even notice it at all.

Recently I had an argument with my father about dorming in Diliman for my OJT. He didn't want me living so far away from home, away from his protection - he even found it hard to allow me to sleep over my (very female) best friend's house (which had been in the same neighbourhood.) That frustrated me a lot.

A friend of mine would always get scolded for staying out late (9pm), even if it had been for school work, because "hindi gawain ng babae yan!" Another seems to be prohibited from even showing her shoulders - because she happens to be more endowed than most girls. One more got -accused- of being a -dyke- because she happens to treat herself as the female counterpart of a metrosexual, and I still laugh at being ridiculed for not wanting a boyfriend to "care for and nourish me" at the moment.

Thing is, people still treat us like women and we still see it as a bad thing. And while we still worry about what 'Tony' might say about our new hairstyle, and while we are still phased by Amanda's attractive curvatures and flawless skin, we're far from free from the banes of patriarchy.