Thursday, 29 August 2024 – In this webinar, Dr. Mary Dorothy dL. Jose, Dr. Gene S. Navera, and Dr. Veronica L. Gregorio comprehensively discussed and examined the varied perspectives on Filipino women in the following aspects: media, beauty, and politics.
ISEAS-EMBASSY OF THE PHILIPPINES IN SINGAPORE JOINT WEBINAR
As Filipino women’s representations in history and media have always been analyzed through the traditional male perspective, there is a need for a more nuanced examination of Filipino women’s multifaceted roles and contributions throughout history and in contemporary society. By juxtaposing contemporary issues with historical narratives, this webinar provided a comprehensive understanding of the evolving influence of Filipino women in various social, political, and cultural spheres.
This webinar is a joint collaboration by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and the Philippine Embassy in Singapore. Dr. Mary Dorothy dL. Jose, Dr. Gene S. Navera, and Dr. Veronica L. Gregorio served as speakers for the webinar: “Influence, Pageantry, and Suffrage: Perspectives on Filipino Women”. Dr. Jean Encinas-Franco from the University of the Philippines-Diliman moderated the panel.
The panel was composed of the following:
- Dr Mary Dorothy dL. Jose is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Manila. Her research delves into the nuanced representation of women in colonial photography. Currently, she is a Research Fellow at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore, exploring the rhetoric of Filipina suffragists in the early 20th century. She holds a BA in History, an MA in Asian Studies, and a PhD in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
- Dr Gene S. Navera is Deputy Director and Senior Lecturer at Centre for English Language Communication and a Fellow at the Tembusu College in the University Town, National University of Singapore. He pursues research in the areas of rhetoric and public address, critical discourse studies, and writing and speech communication pedagogies. A pageant enthusiast, he has been involved in the public speaking and interview skills training of pageant contestants from the Philippines and Singapore. He holds a PhD in English Language Studies from NUS, an MA in Speech Communication from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and a BA in Communication Arts from the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
- Dr Veronica L. Gregorio is Lecturer at the College of Humanities and Sciences, National University of Singapore. Her research interests are gender and sexuality, family, agrarian change, and visual methods. She is also Associate of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) Food Politics and Society Cluster and Associate Fellow of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute Regional Social and Cultural Studies Program (RSCS). She received her BA (Development Studies) from the University of the Philippines Manila, her MA (Women and Development Studies) from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and her PhD (Sociology) from the NUS Department of Sociology.
Before the presentations, Ambassador Medardo G. Macaraig, Ambassador of the Philippines to Singapore, gave a recorded welcome message. Ambassador Macaraig announced the recent elevation of the Philippine Studies Project as a full-fledged country studies programme under the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He also briefly noted the relevance of the webinar’s topics, especially in light of the Philippine midterm elections in 2025, encouraging female overseas FIlipino workers (OFWs) to exercise their right to vote.
As the first speaker, Dr. Jose delved into the contestations on the role of Filipina women in the debate on suffrage. Before proceeding with her analysis, Dr. Jose gave the audience a brief historical background of her presentation regarding the Filipino suffragettes as well as books and documents relevant to her study, particularly The Woman’s World and Woman’s Home Journal. Utilizing critical discourse analysis (CDA) through a feminist lens, she presented a synthesis of the varying perspectives on women in the narratives such as: (1) Women as domestic managers and (2) Women as partners of men. Dr. Jose also discussed the importance of homemaking as a civic duty. She then concluded her presentation by positing that homemaking served as a battleground for definition and recontextualization between contesting parties—along with women of this time asserting that their role as domestic managers was transferrable to managing a nation.
Dr. Navera then proceeded with his presentation, which gave a comprehensive critique of the documentary The Hidden Side of Philippines Beauty Pageants by Undercover Asia. He began by giving the audience a background about the dark side of pageantry—elaborating that these events can be exploitative. Dr. Navera discussed that pageants can serve as a breeding ground for objectifying women, exploiting them, as well as issues of hypersexualization. He also informed the participants that there are varying images of women in pageantry. Examples of these images include: Achiever queens, persistent queens, intellectual queens, and rebel revolutionary queens, among others. In addition, Dr. Navera also elaborated on the importance of pageant fans, who can serve as protection for pageant participants since they can call out or publicly address any maltreatment or injustices towards women in pageantry. He also added a brief discussion on how pageants are evolving systems and how they can be reimagined in the future.
Dr. Gregorio discussed the relevance of Filipina influencers on idealized contemporary motherhood, also known as #InstaMoms. Firstly, she provided the meaning of a social media influencer, broadly defined as a group of people—celebrities and non-celebrities—who have large followings and provide an opinion on people’s purchasing power. Secondly, Dr. Gregorio presented an outline of varying images of mothers in the Philippines, such as being housewives, working mothers, and breadwinners. To carry out her study, Dr. Gregorio used “netnography” through a postfeminist lens and found that Filipina influencers carefully curate their social media feed, presenting a more conservative image of a woman and focus on relatability—posting content that depicts them with no makeup, promotion of self-care, wellness, and family. Lastly, Dr. Gregorio concludes her study by contending that idealized contemporary Filipina motherhood challenges the image of “selfless mother” and encourages mothers to reject “motherhood guilt” while also considering additional standards on motherhood.
During the Q & A, Dr. Encinas-Franco asked the panel about the value of idealized womanhood. Dr. Navera stated that diversifying images of women is essential and should be well-represented, not excluded nor marginalized. Meanwhile, Dr. Gregorio echoed Dr. Navera’s answer, and also added that having more diverse representation of women promotes inclusivity. Dr. Jose then added that womanhood is dynamic and having various images can show the evolution of women through time. Other questions revolved around how the studies were carried out or selected, such as the ethics of netnography, relevance of religion and spirituality to #InstaMoms, as well as the inclusion of Muslim women and indigenous people (IP) women.
The webinar had more than 93 participants.