misogyny – Katrina Stuart Santiago

In what world is Julian Ongpin a victim? Under what circumstances would a man born to privilege, to massive wealth, enough to fashion himself as “art patron” and “angel investor” at such a young age, in what world would he be a victim?

Found with the lifeless body of Bree Jonson in a hostel room they shared, a death surrounded by more questions than answers, any other person would be kept in detention—and rightfully so.

Found with 12.6 grams of cocaine in that room they shared, and testing positive for drugs, any other person would either be dead with a placard on his body labelling him as “nanlaban,” or be arrested for illegal possession and kept in a jail cell teeming with drug suspects.

Found on CCTV moving about the crime scene strangely—from disappearing to go to the fourth floor of the hostel, to getting a ladder to remove jalousies from the bathroom window of the hostel room, and then not going through that window, to finally disappearing into the room and only some time after calling on the hostel staff for help—any other person would have been treated, and tagged, and seen as a suspect.

Julian has elided all of this. He is not in detention—not for drug possession or for being a suspect in a questionable death. He is not being tracked by the authorities—at some point the police admitted they didn’t even know where he was (maybe in their house in Manila or Baguio, they said). According to the police report, he “continuously drank liquor” in the presence of the police—a disrespectful, arrogant move only the wealthiest among us would do.

And now charged with drug possession by no less than the Department of Justice—not the police, not the National Bureau of Investigation, but the DOJ—Julian has opinion columnists like Emil Jurado and Tony Lopez, writing about his alleged innocence. Two (old) men who obviously have no sense of gendered writing, and are revealing for all the world to see the kind of misogyny they believe in, are framing Julian’s innocence by trampling on Bree’s character.

As woman, as human. None of us should be having any of it.

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President Duterte has said he would resign if “enough women” protest the incident in South Korea, where on stage, in front of his Cabinet members and the Filipino community, he decided it proper to ask a woman he had handpicked from the audience to give him a kiss on the lips.

The woman said in an interview: “Nag-black<out> ako, hindi ko ma-explain, kinakabahan ako, natatakot, excited ako, thankful. Kasi kahit nasa Pilipinas ka, suntok sa buwan na makikita mo ‘yung President.” She then said the kiss was nothing but a way to entertain the audience – echoing what Duterte said after the incident. But her words highlight a critical fact of this encounter: the power relations between the President of the Philippines, and a female audience member.

It is Duterte’s power as President that made this encounter possible. It is Duterte’s power as President that dictated this woman’s reaction, which the President should have known to handle with dignity and distance: this reaction is borne of the fact of his position. But Duterte decided this moment was about him, and that he would use his power over this woman to ask for anything. The mere fact that he asked for a kiss already reeks of malice. (more…)

Without a doubt, there is power to be had in having social media, through which we can articulate our grievances, question our leaders, call out oppressors, demand accountability. Here is a medium that cradles our voice, and depending on what it is we’re talking about, we find allies in other voices, named and anonymous, supporting what we say, adding onto our narratives. It’s a sense of community, sure. It’s a sense of belonging, absolutely. It is power, undeniably.

This is at the heart of the Twitter thread of Adrienne Onday that wanted to talk about “misogyny, sexism, and predatory / manipulative behavior in the local independent music scene in my experience.” I myself had read the first set of tweets, which was her speaking in broad strokes — nothing specific, no names, and heavily contextualized when she was doing the gig scene regularly enough to become friends with the bands she idolized.

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A direct translation wouldn’t capture how offensive this rhetorical question is, coming from the mouth of any man or woman, as it normalizes and rationalizes the practice of infidelity and polygamy, because look, all men are doing it! And as long as these men can take care of the children they sire, from one, two, three women they keep in their beds, then they are doing the decent thing, they are doing what is right.

Wrong. Especially when these words come from the President’s mouth, and these statements that condone and justify men’s alleged precondition to treat women as objects to be collected – because women are their kaligayahan (happiness), because there are so many women so little time – are spoken publicly, to the laughter of a necessarily captive enamored audience. (more…)

It was in the early morning of Wednesday, September 28, when I read that House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had declared that the world that the purported sex video of Senator Leila de Lima would be shown in the inquiry on the National Bilibid Prisons’ (NBP) drug crisis.

I thought the news would just die a natural death, because it is not only illegal, it is uncalled for, and if anything, it proves that government has absolutely nothing on Senator Leila de Lima and her role in the drug trade. Because if you have enough evidence against her, why would a sex video even matter? (more…)

Katrina Stuart Santiago

Katrina Stuart Santiago

Tag Archives: misogyny

The women of the Philippines VS Julian Ongpin

ENOUGH

Duterte chauvinism: Sino bang walang babae?

Stop right there, congressmen!