She Sings Her Little Pinay Heart Out

Published on by Lisa Category: The Philippines Filipino Culture Philippine History

This is aged a few years and took place in a Korean singing competition, but Charice Pempengco, now 15 (12 in this video) is Filipina singer who went to Korea for a singing competition Star King and blew everyone away.

One thing you gotta know about Filipino culture is that kareoke practice is as common as rice and adobo. Sometimes, it just pays off.

G’ahead, grrl.

That’s Racism for You, Sports Fans

Published on by Lisa Category: Uncategorized

Just last night I asked Adonis why in the hell don’t sports teams retire their racist mascots like the RedSkins or the Indians, aka The Tribe led by Chief Wahoo.

We didn’t come to a conclusion as to why teams still prioritize a mascot’s tenure over a clearly racist and highly offensive picture and name.

But, hey, as long as hundreds of thousands of fans paint their faces red, pay a ridiculous amount of money to see men hit a sewn ball with a piece of wood, who cares that it further disrespects and offends a population that this country tried to wipe out after their land was stolen from them?

That’s racism, folks. Clear and simple. Look past the pig skin and red sewn balls for second. Look at history for a change.

Thanks to Racialicious for this article.

International Day of Action: Comm Responses to Sexual Assault

Published on by Lisa Category: Feminism, Sexual Assault

Via Firefly.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
For Community Responses to Sexual Assault

November 30th 2007

We are calling for people to organise in their own towns and cities to
take action on this day. This means whatever it means to you – maybe
organising in your school, occupying an office or a court or a police
station, holding a rally, making a publication, talking to people, or
anything you can think of.

The government has used sexual assault to justify the military invasion,
removal of land permits, and denial of Indigenous autonomy in the Northern
Territory. But this is not a way of dealing with sexual assault – fear,
intimidation, and military and police presence as a “solution” shows no
understanding of sexual assault or ways of dealing with it. The police
and military have been perpetrators of sexual assault in communities
around Australia, in Iraq, around the world.

The Northern Territory intervention is a racist intervention. It is
ridiculous that our white government thinks that Indigenous communities
are unable to respond to sexual assault themselves, with their own
processes and understandings, especially when we look at the way sexual
assault is dealt with across the rest of Australia, by relying on an
alienating, adversary and difficult to access legal system.

Almost no sexual assaults are reported to police, and most reported cases
result in no conviction. This is not because they are “false claims” but
because the legal system forces someone who has been assaulted to try to
“prove” their claim, doubting them, disbelieving, pressuring them to
relive their assault and undergo invasive medical examinations. Most
assault happens in private – it makes it the survivor’s word against the
perpetrator’s. The court system is designed so that survivors of sexual
assault are attacked and broken by defence lawyers who only want to win
their case. In the rare case that a perpetrator is convicted, prison does
nothing to confront and challenge the behaviour and underlying assumptions
and understandings that foster a culture of sexual assault.

We want a day of action calling for community – not military, not legal –
responses to sexual assault. Our government shows no interest in trying to
engage with the real issues of sexual assault and how to confront it, so
we need to do it ourselves. We are calling for support for survivors of
sexual assault, and a process of community response that prioritises their
needs and safety. We are calling for processes that try to change the
underlying myths and power dynamics that lead to assault, before it
happens. We want processes that deal with perpetrators in a way that
challenges their beliefs and behaviours, and gets them to take
responsibility for their actions and trying to change.

For more information, or to add your own:
communitiesresponsetosexualassault.wordpress.com

Email: ida_2007@graffiti.net

"Fag" in Highschool Land

Published on by Lisa Category: Masculinity and Gender

Via alternet

Feminism is not only considering the social construction of womyn, but also of male and transgender, transexual individuals. Sexuality, power, gender are all forces we must examine. To unravel the sexism, we must not just limit our scope to grrls. We must look at what else is happening in the identity informing years.

Here’s an interesting article about how “‘Fag’ is Turning into an Insult for Any Guy Who Doesn’t Play Football.”

Let’s push it a little further.

What would you call a womyn who wants to play football?

Pinay Power Here

Published on by Lisa Category: Feminism, The Philippines Filipino Culture Philippine History

I just surfed the web for nearly 2 hour straight after I googled “Pinay News.”

Two things:

Good LAWD there’s a lot out there

and

Good LAWD there’s not much out there.

Let’s start with the positive:
Smiling and proud, I am glad to say my list of Pinay resources in my link list is growing. Just in case more Pinays decide to stop by, you can find a healthy and growing abundance of goodness right here. There are several threads and blogs out there that provide strong, live evidence of the Pinay fighting spirit. Mabuhay! ::brown fists throw high::

The downers:
Frowning and brow furrowed, my search confirms my belief that Filipinas are still fighting the domestic and degraded sex-idol image. There are only mountains ahead. The erotic and exotic Filipina concept simply drenches the internet right now. And I’m on a campaign to change that. I’m going to entitle my posts with as many Pinay, Filipina, and Fil-Am, APIA women-centered issues as I can so I can make a dent in this expanding internet. Somewhere, there is a young Filipina surfing the internet just like me. I refuse to let the cheap advertisements help define her. I refuse.

There is energy out there. A lot of energy. There are artists, photographers, dancers, philosophers, and cartoonists fighting to dispel the Filipina demure image and replace it with more fierce, hilarious, intellectual REAL womyn.

Mabuhay!

Filipinas Trafficked as Sex Slaves

Published on by Lisa Category: Feminism, The Philippines Filipino Culture Philippine History

Fueling my rage about the Let Me Play Sexy Asian Woman Halloween foolishness are stories like this where, everyday, Filipinas leave home to work all over the world to send money back home to support their families. Vulnerable, powerless, and alone, these women are often trafficked across the globe and forced into modern day slavery, forced into inhuman conditions of work, abuse, and humiliation. Taken from the linked article from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific:

Arriving in Dammam in April 2005, they were fetched and brought to an enormous house. They were not made to work for a week. When they asked the ‘caretaker’ inside the house as to what their work will be, Lina was told that they will be sex slaves. Anna and Lina were very scared and wanted to go home to the Philippines immediately but they could not leave the villa. The following day, a man referred to as the Prince or Chairman by the caretaker arrived and the women were ordered to enter his room and immediately take their clothes off. The two were shaken and begged the Prince to allow them to go home, as they cannot do what is being asked of them to do. They stated that they don’t like that kind of job, but the Prince was enraged and raped Anna first. Lina, who was sobbing uncontrollably and had difficulty breathing, was made to leave the room.

The Philippines is a nation characterized by the “brain drain,” where most professionals and the skilled, educated workers leave their homeland to earn a better wage elsewhere. However, the Philippines is also a nation that experiences a “care drain.” This phrase was adopted by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russel Hochschild in their book, “Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy,” to describe the trend of third world women taking care of other children and leaving their own. Filipino women can be found all over the world taking domestic jobs to earn wages for their own families they leave behind. In this mass exodus of women, many Filipinas are captured in faux employment contracts and end up in foreign lands, trafficked across seas to work as sex slaves; raped and tortured for undetermined amounts of time.