In Tolentino's Shaping The Image Of The Filipino Woman

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The potpourri of the literary selections clustered herein categorically unfolds and lays emphasis on the The Filipino Literatures of Gender and Sexuality across time and place accentuating the varied roles of men, women and the members of LGBT community within the context of Philippine society.

The onset of its chapter has to do with the theme, “Shaping the Image of the Filipino Woman”, which showcases multivalent images and representations of the Filipino women. The chapter’s anthological foreword and focal point delineates how women are viewed in the Philippine setting like their various roles and dominant disposition that distinguish themselves from the opposite sex. To rationalize its subtle aspects, “Montage” by Ophelia Dimalanta epitomizes …show more content…

Particularly selected, Rolando Tolentino’s “Si Richard at ang Mito ng Pagkalalaki” brings enlightenment that one’s concept of masculinity can solely be ascribed by the influence of various media as a gender myth which generally stems from the distinction between the biological basis of sex and the cultural category of gender. Edith Tiempo’s “The Chambers of the Sea” bear outs that masculinity is not defined, and should not be a gauge, as to how one conforms to stereotypical image of a man -that one’s superficial inclination and demeanor should not be the logical bases of his/her sexuality. Its supposition is somehow contrasted with J. Neil Garcia’s “The Conversion” which centers around a man who had preferred concealing his real sexuality for the sake of his family’s groundless and unfair desire; this, too, holds the view that one who deviates from the norm of heterosexuality is preordained to live a life with humiliation and inequality leading one to suffer from sexual repression. Siako’s “Ituloy Mo Lang” claims the supposition that being homosexual, though it gains condemnation by certain people, is not immoral that one should be daunted to come of out his/her closet; whereas, Dagtang Lason’s “Nagmamahal Ako Ng Bakla” affirms the assumption that Filipino man resorts seeking emotional attachment and non-sexual intimacy to his same sex after a devastating relationship with opposite sex which excretes smearing and stigmatizing attribution toward Filipino men in

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