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| Photo by Author |
“Lahat kami bakla na” was the comically relieving response of Filipino Gen Z’s on TikTok as reports declared that teenage pregnancy decreased within the country. Somehow, this spruced up a personal inquiry of mine.
Before this period of expressive freedom and perhaps even today, there is a begrudging undertone with which our conservative state has accepted the concepts of gender diversity and fluidity. In other words, prior to the development of our gender consciousness, we were (and sometimes, still are) hard-wired into seeing things through the lens of heteronormativity. What was called "acceptance" was nothing more than a nicer way of saying we tolerated the idea of other genders without ever truly validating them.
But the Philippines wasn't always so heteronormative. In fact, it had fostered gender diversity long before Western liberal ideologies could reintroduce those concepts to us after our colonization. Hence, this case pushes for pondering: what was our nation’s stance on gender prior to its Hetero-Glory?
Currently, the third gender (those who do not fall between the gender binary) is no longer a foreign concept to most Filipinos—though it often comes with the caveat of having to still conform to binarism. As Analyn Garcia’s paper mentions, "favorability will be eminent so long as the bakla follows the stereotypes of masculine and feminine behaviors."
However, if we backtrack to where we inherited these stereotypes, we will find them coming from our first colonizers. Likely, from Spanish Machismo. As Tracy Mae Ildefonso explains, commonly, the reasonable practices of cross-dressing, feminine mannerisms, same-sex marriages, and sexual relations are not out of the ordinary to our pre-colonial ancestors as they themselves, participate in such active roles, which are performed by most babaylans. In fact, these elders were transgender and of gay standing—asog, bayugin, and binabayi.
Spiritually, the practice of femininity regardless of gender identity served a purpose for rituals and burial rites as most pre-colonial paganistic natives noted that prayers were only heard by spirits if women and so-called "women-like" called out for so. This also explains why the free practice of cross-dressing is done during burials as there is spiritual potency in identifying the feminine aspect (regardless of if one is biologically male or female).
These practices would eventually become viewed as demonic, sexual, and sinful. Spanish inquisitors, mostly friars, fervently eradicated these practices as they contradicted the Catholic agenda. Oppression of the babaylans, asog, bayugin, and binabayi became normalized as punishment for these practices. Accusations of black magic and the sinful lure of sexual pleasure, as well as other pre-colonial Filipinos surrendering to the Hispanic Catholic faith in return for privilege, created a nation of devoutly monogamous and binary practitioners.
Similarly, the colloquial term bakla was then transgressed as a slur, referring to men who did not perform tasks adhering to masculine standards like having tattoos, which exuded an air of physical and intellectual supremacy.
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| Photo by Renz Botero, Natu Xantino, and Ram Botero |
Over time, these archaic notions would slowly erode with the arrival of more progressive ideologies. While true acceptance of gender fluidity in the Philippines has yet to be achieved, Filipinos have made great strides in opening themselves to the concept of gender as a spectrum rather than a simple binary.
This time around, sexual consciousness was more embraced. As progressive movements fought for visibility and equal representation, Filipinos became enlightened with the lives of queer people. The nation sought to gravitate around the social revolution regarding sexual and gender identity formation heavily influenced by the West. J Neil Garcia emphasized that sexualization rode several complementary intakes, from public hygiene, psychosexual development, feminist empowerment, and gay and lesbian advocacy.
Being bakla is not a crime. And though homosexuality became heavily linked with the health scare of the AIDS epidemic, no laws during this period connoted that homosexuality was disruptive or violent. These conclusive measures favorably let cross-dressing, same-sex relationships, drag performances, and gay beauty pageants be public, thus, cultivating a whole dichotomy between the homo- and hetero- dynamics of the country
The influence of heteronormativity may yet to be fully visible for others. Nevertheless, even as we begin to explore just how far the ranges and fluidity of gender expression, the machismo and binary gender norms of our colonial rulers are deeply ingrained to our Filipino ideals. It is a long road ahead for true acceptance in the nation, but it is one that we are paving the way for ever-so steadily and surely.
