CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

IN THE PHILIPPINES

Concept is synonym for an idea, notion, or thought. It may also refers to a perception, conception, or
impression of something – a theory or perspective.
Concept Paper is an essay that explains the essence or whatness of an idea or concept. It begins with a
basic definition and extends or amplifies this to look at the cultural, the writer contributes to the dialogue
about concepts and to the knowledge – production of these concepts.
Before-Reading Questions
1. What does the “baduy” mean to you?”
2. How would you describe the clothing and behavior of a person you would label as “baduy”?
3. Do you know any other terms whose meanings are related to “baduy”?

Text 1: Pinoy Baduy

In 1976, in the late, lamented Ermita magazine, it was defined by Mercedes R. Prieto and Gilda Cordero
Fernando as the part of custom that made being Filipino “a bit of a drag,” even though “we’ve all felt proud
of being truly Pinoy at one time or the other.” Pinoy Baduy, they felt, was being overly accommodating
(excessive hospitality, bring pasalubong, seeing people the airports, hunting down every last bilin). It was
also being a creature of fads, aping the latest fashion (e.g henna), the latest name brand, even the latest
business (remember hot pan de sal? And now ihaw-balot?).
Baduy was also branding everything, (a) with one’s name (car door, dashboard, book, ballpen); or (b) with a
dropable one (e.g. on pants pockets false or true); or (c) for identification/assertion (pictures with family or
the near-great, under glass). It was also making a big thing of pregnancy hilig and sufferings; using such
body language as lifted eyebrows to greet; overfeeding guests, even at hospitals and funerals; women
setting up tindahan in offices, ladies’ rooms, university basements, fashionable subdivisions. It was the
omnipresent basahan (on jeepney driver’s neck, on the sink, in Chinese restaurant in the guise pf a hot
towel). It was palusot – not lining up when singit was possible, cutting through gas stations instead of
turning corners, giving vague instructions when unwilling or unknowing. It was being late so as not to seem
overeager; chronic filching, from mangoes on the tree to manhole covers; beign captivated by giveaways
and extras.
Last year, my student Ditas wrote in a composition of Definition: :Baduy: is wearing mustard-yellow pants, a
violet printed shirt, a wide belt, chunky-heeled shiny brown boots – all at the same time. And just last April
Mia exclaimed; “Tita, how baduy! When I lit a Hope Cigarette in the lobby of the peninsula Hotel in
Hongkong. What, then, is pinoy baduy? Peachy and Gilda, it was doing the obvious, the over-eager, the
non-classy thing – something that the foreigner or the upper class or the old rich would never do, but which
the Pinoy does because: (a) he does not know any better being cianong or uneducated and poor; or (b) his
and the country’s poverty make giveaways and shortcuts desirable and even necessary; or (c) certain
values – e.g. pakikipagkapwatao – are expressed in ways (OA hospitality, seeing off at airports) that the
Western sophisticate finds uncomfortable, awkward, or in bad taste.
To Ditas and Mia, it is obviously not being “in the swing,” fashionable, in the know, hip. It is being out of step
with fashion, being Provinciano or, well, baduy. To both generational groups – the teenager and the “older
adult,” it means not being “with it.” And what is “it”? the Westerner, of course, since bing “with it” is
obviously being Western. Thus, not being baduy is smoking blue seal, and knowing how to put (Western)
Clothes together. It is knowing when to wear Topsiders without socks; what the Preppy look is, and when it
is in or out; when to be studiedly casual and when downright sloppy; when the three-piece suit is right and
when unthinkable; where to go and eat and disco and shop, and what places to avoid like herpes; just
which guys and coeds are sosyal, dull, bigat, okay without trying too hard. It is knowing the name brands to
sport, the names to drop, the campus organizations to join, the current length of skirts and the rights with of
plants; legs. It is the way of the well-to-do teenager, the one who does not have to work for a scholarship,
or take a part-time job, or slog at his English in order to stay in a private school.
For the elder writers, it is being cool enough not to see a husband off at the airport, ir bring home
pasalubong (“because I am in and out too often”). It is not flaunting obvious brands like Gucci and Gloria
Vanderbilt, because one uses the uncommon, unobtrusive (more expensive) Fendi, or Roberta di Camerino
(the tiny R almost invisible, and unrecognizable to most except the cognoscenti). It is not talking about the
details of one’s pregnancy, labor and delivery but looking elegant before, during and after, like Princess
Diana. It is an understated wedding, at which there are only two sponsors – both of impeccable pedigree –
and very plain invitation (without the onionskin insert with the sponsor line-up) printed by I. Magnin. It is
being impatient with the chaos of Philippine life, because in the U.S, traffic is neat, people line up at
supermarket checkouts, no one drives the wrong way down a one-way street, and people arrive on time.
It is, in effect, being more oriented to life abroad than a patchy existence in this developing country. Does
this imply, then, that the native, non-Stateside Filipino, member of the majority educated in public schools
rural or urban, who barely understands English and only speaks Pilipino, is necessarily baduy? And if
baduy is, as it seems to be, a term at least slightly prejorative – is then the majority of the Filipino nation to
be looked down upon as not hip, not in the know, not in the swing? If, further, with the world economy the
way it is, and the Philippine economy even more lamentable and lamented; with survival the highest priority
such that fod is more important than lifestyle and any clothing something to be rateful for, even if not in style
– does this not mean that most Filipinos will always be baduy? At least until the quality of life changes? And
will most Filipinos therefore remain objects of amusement and pity even exasperation in the eyes of the
non-baduy elite few?
Might it not be more accurate to say that baduy means being filipino? Being in the national swim, suffering
with the rest the scarcity, the ignorance, the being out of step with developed nations (and not only in
lifestyle, either) being bearer of the burdens of the history, whatever the name, be it feudalism, oppression,
colonialism, exploitation, imperialism, poverty or capitalism?
To examine baduyness in another direction: why are we so excessively, sometimes stupidly, hospitable?
Probably because, as the receptors of at least two colonizations, we have had to be hospitable, in order to
survive. We took the cross and the sword, the English language and consumerism, even the bowing and
slapping of the Japanese occupation. And we survived.
Why do we see everyone off at the airport? Because so many who have left have never returned, since the
“land of milk and honey” is elsewhere. Because it is a way of makikiramay, of sharing another’s burdens,
something necessary in an agricultural culture, where fields are plowed and houses moved – together. A
family member leaving for Saudi is to be mourned, not only because of dangers, loneliness, hard work
away from loved ones – all because right ere life is difficult, and relief has to be found elsewhere, and at
much cost.
Why the pasalubong? Because to return is to be triumphant and this too one shares. This also seems the
reason we are so noisy, celebrative and joyous at funerals (when the Westerner is hushed and even
ashamed to admit to normal hunger). We keep bereaved family company in grief for as long as it takes –
and it takes noise and games to keep awake. And the bereft appreciate the fellow-feelings, and reciprocate
mist directly – by feeding us all, often and to the limits of his pocket (and those of his lending friends).
Our poverty is certainly the reason giveaways are so enticing, as are contests and prizes and things just
lying around. Why would anyone take a manhole cover? First, because it can be sold. Secondly, because it
belongs “to the government,” and is therefore; (a) really ours; or (b) deservedly ours, since the government
is not doing all it should do for us – and we are in need. Why do we take shortcuts through gasoline
stations? Because mahirap ang buhay, and anything that will make it easier is justifiable.
The term that preceded baduy as bakya. Borrowed from the footwear of the poor, it deserved a style and a
sensibility, as Jose Lacaba pointed out in the essay “Notes on Bakya,” subtitled “Being an Apologia of Sorts
for Filipino Masscult.” It meant anything “cheap, gauche, naïve, provincial, and terribly popular.” Quoting
Leslie Fielder, Lacaba felt it indicated a “problem of class distinction in a democratic society. What is at
stake is the refusal of cultural equaliy by a large part of the population.” He suggested that “the
connoisseurs of bakya . . . need not be ashamed of their affections,” since it made them outsiders to the
exclisivist culture of the In Crowd, and the term of reproach, bakya, could well become as much a badge of
honor as Indio eventually became, shedding attached opprobrium.
Baduy too, is reproach, and it too can become a badge of pride. Because it means being authentic, and not
pretending to know of or like that which others have stamped with approval. Because it means being
embroiled in this human coil, being underprivileged and unable to navigate through elite culture. Because it
means being of the greater many, and “in” – in the national swim towards survival. Because it means being
loyal to likes and alliances, values and needs, even if these have not been canonized by the West (of
whom one is not a devotee); also being careful and constant about the struggle to live, even if
unfashionably so.
If baduy means being out of the Western, foreign mode, then by all means let us stay ourselves, proud to
be emphatically, Pinoyly, baduy. MW
While-Reading Questions (Text 1):
1. What is the author’s central thesis or overall definition of the term “baduy”? how does this relate
to the essay’s life?
2. How did the author extend the definition of the concept? Choose from the following:
a. Definition, that is, basic or neutral definitions from the dictionary or other reference materials
and connotations or more emotionally laden meanings of the concept according to various
sources.
 b. Tracing of the etymology or origin of the concept/term
c. Narration or the use of a story or anecdote to explain the concept
d. Description of the concept or of people/places/objects to which the concept is applied
e. Exemplification or examples that illustrate the concept
f. Comparison and contrast of the concept with related ideas or examples.
g. Explanation of a process related to the concept.
h. Analysis of cause and effect, that is, reasons for implications of the concept’s existence
i. Negation or the explanation of what the term is not. Perhaps by looking at the opposite of
what it means
j. Related terms or synonyms of the concept
3. Which specific development points did you find particularly effective? Why?
4. Was the concept clearly defined? Why or why not?
5. Do you agree with the overall definition? Why or why not?
6. Since the term is an old one, are there new terms that mean the same thing in today’s society?
What are they?
7. What was the conclusion of the author? Do you agree with conclusion?

Text 2: Textual Poachers

Henry Jenkins
American media scholar Henry Jenkins is known for his work on fandom and participatory culture as well as
on the convergence of new and old media. The assigned material, one section of Chapter 1, like his book,
is also entitled Textual Poachers. The five paragraphs of this section explore the concept of fandom and fan
behavior as a form of active reading. The essay is an academic one written for tose in the fields of literary
and cultural studies. Hence, it uses sophisticated language as well as some jargon from those disciplines.
There may be unfamiliar terms in the first paragraph alone, so it is essential to look these up to understand
what Jenkins asserting.
Before-Reading the Tasks (Text 2):
1. Are you familiar with the folowing terms: “fan,” “fanatic,” “fandom,” and “fan fiction” ? consider
your impressions of each term. Are they positive, negative, or neutral?
2. Look up the meanings of these terms and jot these down here, along with the bibliographic
information about your sources.

Term Meaning and

Your Impressions

Fan

Fanatic

Fandom

Fangirl
 3. Name three “fandoms” or fan groups and communities, whether local or global. How are thses
groups perceived by the general public? You may wish to look up news and magazine articles
about these communities.

TEXTUAL POACHERS
Michele de Certeau (1984) has characterized such active reading as “ poaching “ an impertinent raid on the
literary preserve that takes away only those things that are useful or pleasurable to the reader” far from
being writers……readers are travelers; they move across the belonging to someone else, like nomads
poaching their way across the fields they did not write, despoiling the wealth of Egypt to enjoy it
themselves. De certeau’s poaching analogy characterizes the relationship between readers and writers as
an ongoing struggle for possession of the text and for control over its meaning. De certeau speaks of a
scriptural economy dominated by textual producers and institutionally sanctioned interpreters and working
to restrain the multiple voices of popular orality to regulate the production and circulation of meanings. The
mastery of language becomes for de certeau, emblematic of the cultural authority and social power
exercised by the dominant classes within the social formation.
School children taught to read for authorial meaning, to consume the narrative without leaving their own
marks upon it. “This fiction condemns consumers to subjection because they are always going to be guilty
of infidelity or ignorance…the text becomes a cultural weapon, a private hunting reserve” under this familiar
model, the reader is supposed to serve as more or less passive recipient of authorial meaning while any
deviation from meanings clearly marked fourth within the text viewed negatively, as a failure to successfully
understand what the author was trying to say. The teacher’s red pen rewards those who correctly decipher
the text and penalizes those who get it wrong. While the student’s personal feelings and association are
rated irrelevant to the task of literary analysis (according to the “affective fallacy”).
Such judgements, in turn, require proper respect for the expertise of specially trained and sanctioned
interpreters over the street knowledge pf the everyday reader. The teacher’s authority becomes vitally
linked to the authority which readers grant to textual producers. As popular texts have been adopted into
the academy, similar claims about their “authorship” have been constructed to allow them to be studied and
taught in essentially similar terms to traditional literary works, the price of being taken seriously as an
academic subject has been the acceptance of certain assumptions common to other forms of scholarships,
assumptions that linked the interest of the academy with the interest of the producers rather than the
interest of consumers.
Both social and legal practices preserve the privilege of socially authorized professionals and intellectual
over the interest of popular readers and textual consumers. (Jane gates, 1990, for example shows the way
that the consumers from the commercial fraud toward protecting the exclusive interest of capital for control
over marketable images.) the expertise of the academy allows its member to determine which interpretive
claims are consistent with authorial meaning (whether implicit or explicit) which falls beyond its scope.
Since many segments of the populations lacks access to the means of cultural production and distribution.
To the multiplexes, the broadcast airwaves or the chain bookstore shelves, this respects for the integrity of
the produced message often has the effect of silencing or marginalizing oppositional voices. The exclusion
of those voices at the moment of reception simply mirrors their exclusion at the moment of production; their
cultural interest are delegitimized in favor of the commercial interest of authorized authors.
De certeau’s account of academic and economic practice is a highly polemical one; he offers a partial and
certainly partisan version of certain traditional beliefs and attitudes. One does not have to abolish all
reverence for authorial meaning in order to recognize works to keep their favorite shows on the air, must
lobby producers to provide desired plot developments or to protect the integrity of favorite characters.
Within the cultural economy, fans are peasants, not proprietors, a recognition which must contextualize our
celebration of strategies of popular resistance. As Micharl Budd, Robert Entman, and clay Steinman (1990)
note, nomadic readers “may actually be powerless and dependent” rather than “uncontainable, restless and
free.” They continue, “People who are nomads cannot settle down; they are at the mercy of natural forces
they cannot control”. As these writers are quick to note, controlling the means of cultural reception, while an
important step, does not provide an adequate substitute for access to the means of cultural production and
distribution. In one sense, then, that of economic control over the means of production, these nomadic
viewers truly are “powerless and dependent” in their relationship to the culture industries. Yet, on another
level, that of symbolic interpretation and appropriation, de Certeau would suggest they still retain a degree
of autonomy. Their economic dependence may not be linked directly to notions of passive acceptance of
ideological messages, as these critical writers might suggest; consumers are not governed by “a
subjectivity that must, perforce, wander here, then wander there, as the media spotlight beckons,” as these
writers characterize them (Budd, Entman, Steinman 1990, 176).
Rather, consumers are selective user of a vast media culture whose treasures, though corrupt, hold wealth
that can be mined and refined for alternative uses. Some of the strategies fans adopt in response to this
situation are open to all popular readers, others are specific to fandom as a particular subcultural
community. What is significant about fans in relation to de Carteau’s model is that they constitute a
particularly active and vocal community of consumers whose activities direct attention onto this process of
cultural appropriation. As such, they enjoy a contemporary status not unlike the members of the “pit” in the
19th century theatre who asserted their authority over the performance, not unlike the readers of Dickens
and other serial writers who wrote their own suggestions for possible plot developments, not unlike the fans
of Sherlock Holmes who demanded the characters’s return even the author sought to retire him. Fans are
not unique in status as texatual poachers, yet, they have developed poaching to an art form.
Wile-Reading Task (Text 2):
Look up the following terms and provide their definitions in the space provided so that you may more
clearly understand the discussion. You may then continue to read the essay.
Definition
Term Source
Orality

Emblematic

Delegitimized

Polemical
Democratization

Marginalization
Hegemonic

Bricolage

Ideological

Subjectivity

Subcultural

Cultural

appropriation

After-Reading Questions (Text 2):

1. What are the similarities between fan practices and poaching?
2. In the traditional model od reading, writing, and textual production in general, who has authority
over the text? How does fandom subvert this traditional model?
3. How can education serve as “ a force for the democratization of cultural life”?
4. In paragraph 4, Jenkins says that “fans lack direct access to the means of commercial cultural
production and have only the industry’s decisions.” Consider the fandoms today, for example,
most limited resources with which influence entertainment Aldub fans, Noranians, and Start Trek
fans. To what concrete ways have fans “developed poaching to an art form”?

For the Filipino Woman That You Are

Karta Bianca M, Labag
 Before-Reading Questions:
1. Have you ever heard the expression "Kababae mong taol" used? What does this mean to
you?
2. Look up the term "gender stereotyping. Give some examples of gender stereotyping in the
Philippines.
3. Look up the term "patriarchy." Do you think the Philippine society is patriarchal? Why or
why not?

(1) "Umayos ka nga, kababae mong tao!"

(2) The Filipino phrase or expression "kababae mong tao," is seen in the statement above,
which is uttered as a typical admonition to behave oneself. This phrase, however, is addressed
to women, as explicitly seen in the word kababae, whose root word is babae, meaning "woman"
in Filipino. Upon hearing or seeing this expression for the first time, one may assume that it
talks about the characteristics and lifestyle of a woman, but it is actually more profound than
that because it serves as a means of gender-stereotyping of Filipino women. This expression
indirectly states the way women should behave, what they should be doing in a certain
situation, and the actions that are expected of her.
(3) This expression has no direct translation in other languages but has a similar meaning to the
expression for a girl" which is usually used in the Western countries, as in the statements,
"You're pretty good at basketball-for-expression is commonly mistaken to be a compliment, but
in fact I’m the people's expectations of women are. For example, one may say incredible for a
git for the purpose of complimenting a woman for the work that she has done, but it also shows
how the speaker does not expect women to do incredible things, and was surprised when she
was able to do so. Both these expressions imply that women should conform to a set of
standards, expectations, and gender roles that are determined by their biological sex 62/111.
(4) Moreover, gender roles in society play an important role in the formation of these
expressions. An article entitled "Gender and Sociology." in fact, states that "masculine roles are
usually associated with strength, aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles are
associated with passively, nurturing, and subordination. But gender roles cannot be generalized,
and may vary in every country because gender roles can be shaped by a nation's culture, and
internal and external influences such as colonization.

(5) Thus the expression "kababae mong tao" could not have been effect of the gender roles of
the women in the pre-colonial society because according to Enriqueta Benavides, a professor of
English and former dean of Women's studies at Arellano university," the Filipino culture at the
time of Spanish discovery does not only have a gender equality and social equality for women,
but also a high regard for them". (2). A particular group of women in pre-colonial Philippines
were the baybalan, the female dominated group of religious heads in the community, and one
of the political figures in the barangays, the smallest socioeconomic and political unit in the
Philippines. They were known not only for their religious function, but also for their power and
wisdom. There was also the presence of binukot women who were daughters of datu (chiefs)
who remained secluded from the community. According to Maria Abrero, an associate professor
of History at the University of the Philippines Diliman these binukot women were known for
their beauty, significance, powers and prestige and having a binukot daughter brings honor and
fame to the family (39). These accounts show how women were valued, respected, treated
equal to men, and had power socially economically and politically in the pre-colonial period.
(6) However, this significance of women diminished as the Spaniards colonized the Philippines
Associated with the Spaniards' mission to spread Christianity is their patriarchal point of view
which they applied in colonizing Philippines. From then on, women were considered inferior,
and their gender roles started to focus on family and Church. Benavides also mentioned that
Spanish law deprived the women of their right to own a business, and to hold any public office
except the office of the teacher. (5)
(7) The perception of what women are, how they are expected to act, and the roles they played
during the Spanish era could have influenced the norms that we have for Filipino women in the
present time. These norms became the basis for judging whether a woman's action or behavior
is acceptable or if it needs an expression such as "kababae mong tao" to inform these women of
the more appropriate and acceptable ways to be a woman, and to suggest the standard and
expectations that a woman should live up to
(8) Hence, the expression "kababae mong tao" is both powerful and oppressive, and it could be
used in a wide variety of scenarios. First of the many scenarios, when a woman does work that
people believe she is not capable of, or is not appropriate for her, one uses this expression to
say that the action is unfavorable and unfitting. For example, seeing women drive big trucks can
cause one to say, "Kababae mong tao nagdadrive ka ng malalaking trak" which in English implies
and means, "Woman that you are, you should not be driving big trucks."
(9) Secondly, the expression is used when a woman does not conform to the traits and behavior
that are expected of her. Another product of the Spanish colonization is the Maria Clara image
presented in Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Maria Clara, being shy, religious, demure, and
gracious, is promoted by Rizal as an ideal Filipino woman (Hays). Up until the present time, this
Mania Clara image and the characteristics attributed to her have created a stereotype of how
Filipino women should behave. For example, when a woman is seen loitering or playing around,
one could say "Gala ka nang gala, kababae mong tao, which implies that "Woman that you are,
you should not be just gallivanting and loitering around. The same idea applies to Church-
related practices because according to Sister Maria Ferraris, a trained historian, in her book
entitled The Beaterios for Native Women in Colonial Philippines, the role of women during the Spanish
colonial period centered on two basic institutions, which are the family and the Church, she also mentioned
that during first century of the period. Filipino women learned doctrines of the Church and participated in
the rites of worship for the purpose of understanding religion as a way of life (73-74). Thus, Filipino women
are still expected to be religious and to follow Church practices.
(10) In addition, this expression also has its counterpart for men which is “kalalaki mong tao.” It follows the
same process, and conveys the same meaning with “Kababae mong tao” but here, the men are the ones
that have to conform with their gender roles and live up to the society’s expectations of a man. An article
entitled “Male Gender Roles” states that one of the themes that make up male gender roles is strength,
which can be associated with emotional toughness, courage, and rationally. Hence, if a man does not
conform to this theme or to expected masculine traits, the expression “kalalaki momg tao” car 64/111 very
common example of this is when a man is seen crying over which then violates one of his gender roles,
emotional toughness, one couru say “Kalalaki mong tao, umiyak ka” which implies “A man that you are, you
should not be crying.”
(11) In conclusion, the existence of these expressions proves that gender inequality, sexism, and gender-
stereotyping are still truly relevant issues which are too complicated and evident to bring to an end despite
several feminist movements and gender equality campaigns. Traditional gender roles have transcended
generations cultures and events, experiencing changes and affecting society along the way. But if being
yourself and finding your true Filipino self means violating gender roles, then go on and take risk, as long
as you would not mind the “kababe mong tao” expression thrown at you. Instead, you may embrace it to
become the Filipino woman that you are.
After Reading Questions:
1.Describe some of the more traditional gender role in the Philippines? How are women and men
supposed to behave in the context of courtship, household, duties, work and earning UP money, children
and any other areas you can think of?
2.Paragraph 9 discusses the equivalent expressions for men,"kalalake mong tao".How is this different
from the female equivalent, which is the central topic of the essay? What does this imply about gender
roles and stereotypes in the Philippines?
3.Do you believe that Maria Clara is still viewed as the ideal Filipino woman? Are there any new ideals
and values for women today?