Wednesday, December 11, 2013

post Manila pride thoughts

before i forgot, i've written down something the next morning while having a breakfast after Manila pride.

It goes something like this...

In order to have a healthy society,
everybody should free to be themselves, and express themselves freely,
a society which suppress their voice and thoughts would only result them expressing in a different way for example in social media evidently like in fb. Malaysian's / activists favourite info sharing, thoughts bashing site.
Because there are no other channel to go to. I was told even in Indonesia, you have medium on radio or on tv that discusses sensitive issues like mother marrying a son, tons of people participate in sharing their thoughts and views.
I think Philippines have a healthy society, LGBT people are free to express themselves evidently there are queer or effiminate men everywhere you go here. Effiminate gay men who put on full thick make-up and lipstick while having an unshaven moustache. How often can you see such view in Malaysia? I'm sure a person who does this would get beaten up or insulted, jeered by some other macho guys. Malaysia if to compare to Philippines like to conform to the heteronormative ideas of male and female gender while in Philippines they defies everything. I often see effiminate male wear make-up and walkign with his partner everywhere without having to worry about anything, of course there are some people here that would still trying to shame or name calling like using the word 'Bakla' or Malaysian equivalent of 'Pondan' but i find it people here have more im not sure its the right word sympahty or maybe empathize to LGBT members here. That's why there are so many LGBT groups here and some are so vocal in fighting for their own rights. Because they even know if their government stoop down or get to Malaysian type of political atmosphere, its already too late to do anything openly or live freely or just being who you are.

Kate Montecarlo of ATP once told me that in Philippines, eventhough you are poor you can live happily, your neighbor, you friends can feed you, help you, were like big family, if to compare to Japan, your neighbor will only help you once or twice then that's it. This is just a comparison to 1st world country but the point is the eventhough its a Catholic country, eventhough the church power interfere with the law in the parlimen and in the law-making, they don't brainwash people to hate LGBT people because they have long history of LGBT people living openly, freely since the colonials time. There's one lecturer who wrote his own book about the history of gay people in his book he quoted so many things since the American set their foot in this country.





1 comment:

  1. I was in Hatyai recently & asked a young woman who walked past me for directions. When she turned around, I noticed she had a fine mustache on her upper lip, like a teenaged boy's. It was actually quite a turn-on, the sight of her boyish facial growth combined with her very pretty face. I wish I'd had the courage to ask her name & be her facebook friend :) This anecdote illustrates how differently people respond to differences. Personally, I find the exotic, unusual, weird & outrageous exciting - it arouses my curiosity & stirs my sense of adventure & novelty. But I can see how some have been programmed to react in fear, suspicion, disgust, abhorrence & even aggression when confronted with something out of the norm. Any society that accepts variety & eccentricity tends to be far more "progressive" in the long term.

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