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Link-Springer-Com-Chapter-10-1007-978-981-16-3579-3 11
The President as Macho: Machismo, Misogyny, and
the Language of Toxic Masculinity in Philippine
Presidential Discourse
Authors Authors and a몭iliations
Gene Segarra Navera
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79
First Online: 02 September 2021
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Abstract
This chapter interrogates the unsettling language of Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte, particularly his decidedly misogynist or antiwomen rhetoric. It specifically
examines a series of speeches containing what the president and his spokespersons
regard as “rape jokes” against the backdrop of a macho rhetoric that has developed
and evolved throughout the rhetorical history of the Philippine presidency. Using a
schema theoretic framework informed by critical discourse studies, metaphor
studies, and rhetorical theory, the paper argues that Duterte’s sexist rhetoric is not
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Weunique. It is merely a reaffirmation of longstanding misogynistic rhetoric that has
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been sustained and reinforced by presidents and a complicitous public before
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Duterte took power. Duterte’s rape jokes should then be seen not as a unique feature
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of the president’s individual rhetoric, but as an extension and recontextualization of
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rhetoric that had already been established over time. The chapter concludes by
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recommending that while the president needs to be called out for his unpresidential
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use of language, critical discourse analysts should also work towards unsettling the
broader discourse within which the president’s utterances are instantiated.
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About this chapter
DOI: 10.1007/978‐981‐16‐3579‐3_11
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