Tales of Love and Power

As Cristin Hidalgo puts it in her book Over a cup of ginger tea .

Analyze four short stories written from 1937- 1960 , not as love stories which i
s how they are usually read but as narratives of power, involving gender and cl
ass issues.
Estrella Alfon, Aida Rivera, Kerima and Tiempo are not generally regarded as pol
itical writers , these narratives antedae both stundet activism and the feminist
movement of the late 60's and the earlty 70's , by exploring power relations w
ithin the family and in the larger society and in the larger society of which t
heir female protagonist are a part.

The position of spinster in Philippine Society is a difficult one. Society claim

s to value virginity in a women. In fact in only values virginity in a young wom
n. A middle aged women who is still celibate becomes an object of fun. Smilarly
society admires children who help their ageing parents.
A women who sacrifices her youth to take cre of a sick parent and then finds her
self alone after the parent's death becomes a pathetic figure.

OVER A CUP OF GINGER TEA. Conversations on the Literary. Narratives of Filipino

Women. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo. 2007, 148PP. 978-971-542-524-7 PA ...
women writers= struggle to find a way for women not only to reject
the social roles that men have imposed on them and women have too
often accepted but also to actively participate in deconstructing and
reconstructing definitions of femininity, and to get beyond gender
divisions.