 |
| This meme has been circulating in FB since Sotto's ironic claims of how conservative Filipinos are. |
During the second reading of the Reproductive Health Bill in the Senate, Majority Floor Leader Tito Sotto moved to take out the phrase "safe and satisfying sex" because we Filipinos are conservative. This, coming from a man who hosts a noontime show famous for having scantily-dressed girls gyrating to double-meaning novelty songs. You can see how utterly honest the concern for the Filipino people's conservative culture is. You can imagine me doing a very aggressive eye-roll
I don't understand this about the Filipinos: we speak so
much of how we value the Maria Clara image, but EDSA is congested with
billboards of men and women in their underwear and we belong to a society that
would need a woman stroking herself to sell a product that takes care of holes
in the roof.
Hypocrisy has always bothered me for so many reasons, primarily
because it's stupid and it hides behind the mask of righteousness. Many people
hold on to traditional ideals that are directly contradicted by how act and how
they treat others, and by how little they know/have consideration for the facts
of what they are talking about. Like supposedly fighting for the sanctity of
life of the unborn while scoffing at the 11 women who die every day because of
lack of maternal care, or pretending to be a respectable public servant while
plagiarizing other people's work. Conservatism without logic. Traditionalism
without thinking. Self-righteousness without righteousness at all.
I am re-naming this kind of attitude the Sotto Conservatism.
S.C. is has always gotten in the way of resolving really important
issues. It took the RH Bill almost 16 years to be passed. I've witnessed the
battles going on inside both houses of parliament, on the streets, and in the
cyberworld. I've been in these battles. The fight for a
legislation to provide comprehensive reproductive health services did not drag
out just because of due process - it was because there are powerful people
afflicted with the S.C. who make sure that the process was delayed. We all know
who we're talking about, of course.
Sotto Conservatism is, I believe, the root of many problems that I
am passionate of abolishing - such as blaming victims of rape for their ordeal
- and one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when it comes to pushing for
legislation that would benefit people.
The past few days, I’ve been getting really cringe-worthy news on
Facebook. Sure, the RH Bill is now the RH Law, but the oppositions seem to be
gearing up for a Word War with flimsy logic masquerading as smart arguments. Bishop
Gilbert Garcera of the Diocese of Daet spoke of how he views overpopulation in
the Philippines in an interview. He believes that the population of the
Philippines is ideal because the our countrymen can be sent overseas as workers
and migrants. “God’s plan for Filipinos to be
caregivers to ageing nations whose populations had become stagnant.” He also
said that Filipino women would make “good wives” to foreigners. As if needing
to dig his own grave further, he said that poverty which stems from
overpopulation is not a problem at all because poverty brings people closer to
God.
 |
| Dear Bishop: So this isn't a problem? You seriously need to get your eyes and your morals checked. |
I’ve also been severely pissed by an Italian
Catholic priest’s proclamation that women who are sexually abused and beaten
ask for it. Fr. Piero Corsi wrote and posted a Christmas message on the door of
his church. “How often do we see girls and mature women going around scantily
dressed in provocative clothes? They provoke the worst instincts, which end in
violence or sexual abuse. They should search their consciences and ask: did we
bring this on ourselves?” Corsi wrote.
In New Delhi India, a gang raped teenager committed suicide after
being forced by the police to drop the charges against her attackers and marry one of them.
In our country, Speaker of the House Belmonte expressed his
sentiments in pursuing the divorce bill by the next congress. Of course,
ultraconservatives have started posting Facebook status messages claiming that
those who want to divorce their spouses are selfish and irresponsible.
Here are some of my
two-cents’ worth, without censorship:
1.
Sorry to burst your bubble,
Bishop Garcera, but I was not born to be just someone’s wife. I was born to
pursue self-actualization. As a Filipino, you seem to have some twisted sense
of nationality to actually be happy that our countrymen have to leave to pursue
better life. The Filipino people are not commodity. Ikaw kaya ang i-export ko. Also, if you believe that poverty is not
a problem, you probably have never left the comforts of your church. Or you
have, but your eyesight needs correcting. Poverty is a very big problem. I
don’t understand how having nothing to eat and having nowhere to live make you
closer to God. I don’t believe that going through hell on earth brings you
closer to God. Because if it did, I would rather not believe in your god,
because he seems to thrive in cruelty. Your argument against the law on
comprehensive reproductive health is invalid at best, atrocious at worst. Wake
up and smell the crap of your argument. This attempt at remaining conservative
in the face of population and development just killed a couple of my brain
cells.
2.
Father Corsi, if we were to
go by your premise, then the kids who get the sh*t beaten out of them by
abusive adults “should search their consciences and ask: did we bring this on ourselves?”
What about the children priests such as yourself molested, Father? What did they do to deserve what sex offenders in
your rank did to them? Your victim-blaming attitude is medieval, offensive,
arrogant, and it honestly scares me. We have been trying to teach society to
NOT RAPE, but you keep insisting that IT IS OUR FAULT WE ARE RAPED. Trust me on
this one: You can be wearing a ratty old shirt and be a wallflower of a girl –
if someone makes the decision to rape you, he/she will. Quoting from a former
high school guidance counselor and a dear friend, “If it is true that
girls and women, who are clothed scantily, provoke men to rape them, then
Boracay would now be the epicenter of thousands of rape cases!”
 |
| Victim blaming is a culture. |
3.
Making a victim marry her
attacker is plain stupid, although I understand the concept. Psychologically
traumatized, victims would sometimes seek to have a relationship with their attackers
just so they can assure themselves that what happened was not rape but legit,
consensual sex. Or course, this is not the case here. In some societies, a
raped woman is a disgraced woman. Raped women who belong to this culture are
often murdered for disgracing the family – stoned by the males of her
family. This is an extreme case of
victim-blaming attitude that stems from Sotto Conservatism – let woman suffer because
she’s lost her hymen. Borrowing my good friend Duston Barto’s precise
description of the feeling, you make me want to punch a kitten (or punch the
people in charge of the case in the Indian gang rape case, for that matter).
 |
| Sometimes, things can't be put back together. |
4.
Isn’t it irresponsible and
selfish of people to say that those who want divorce are irresponsible and
selfish when they nor the people they care about have never gone through a
loveless marriage that’s destroying them? Are they even aware of what people who
undergo annulment go through? One of the people I’ve been working with has
expressed her sentiments about annulment: “Pinagmumukhang puta ang babae” (The
women are made out to be whores.) The experience is demeaning to both parties.
What’s the difference between annulment and marriage? The process. Divorce is
less bloody. It would probably hurt as hell as well, but essentially, it’s not
crafted to drag out for years. Think about this, anti-divorce people:
essentially, the results are the same. Married people are separated completely,
giving them another shot at a happy ending. I’m probably an idealist, but I
think most people deserve a happy ending, no matter how screwed up that person
was in the past. If the end is the same, won’t it be better to take the less
psychologically traumatizing road?
There are many, many
other issues that stem from idiotic traditionalism, and these are just a few,
and it is kept alive by our complacency to follow blindly and not question
norms. Among them: LGBT rights, dealing with HIV/AIDS, gender equality, and secularism. But seriously, it’s almost 2013, people.
Isn’t it time we get over
what we are used to and move on to a future that is ruled by what is right and
not just what is easy? I say abolishing Sotto Conservatism is long overdue.
No comments:
Post a Comment