post from Payton Watkins

Author Jessica Hagedorn has created a world of oppression for women within Manila. It seems as if the majority of the female characters acquire their identity by juxtaposing themselves against the dominant male identity. As a result, women have been objectified as sexual objects intended only for the male gaze. The integration of American consumerism and media have complimented this subordinate notion of the female by infusing American ideologies of beauty, love, and marriage into the Filipino culture.

Pucha, for example, feels most empowered and confident when she is objectified by men. Paradoxically, her feelings of acceptance only bolster the preexisting notions of patriarchal control. By giving into the male gaze, she is confined to a future of marriage and subordination within Manila.

Lolita Luna’s beauty and status as an actress has inhibited her from achieving her dreams of leaving Manila. Her aspirations are constantly diminished by General Ledesma and in turn she succumbs to society’s will; not only is she the General’s sex toy, but she also promises her faithfulness to him.

Daisy Avila is crowned the most beautiful woman in the Philippines. Consumerism and society has instilled the notions that if one is beautiful and thin, then one should be happy. Daisy realizes that her beauty is in fact not enough to make her happy and attempts to negate these American ideologies by “denouncing the beauty pageant as a farce” (109). As the novel progresses, Daisy is captured and raped by none other than Ledesma and his men. She too is unable to escape and hold a voice within this male dominated sphere.

Other characters, such as Isabel Alacran, Cora Camacho, Baby Alacran, and Trinidad, play the part which society has provided them: To be sexual objects, obsessed with the consumerist ideas of beauty, while at the same type supporting the male status of power and superiority. What interests me the most is that one of the main protagonists, Rio, is able to resist society’s influences (I consider her to be one of the main protagonists, if not the main protagonist, because the novel begins with her story, told in the first person, and eventually ends with her story). For example, we discover at the end that she moves to America with her mother and is never married. However, she still visits Manila, not viewing it as an oppressive place but simply as her home.

I wanted to get your opinion, as a class, if you think that Hagedorn used Rio’s character as medium through which she could show this oppression? Why just Rio’s character? Are there any other characters that you think could be placed outside of the mainstream along with Rio?

Payton Watkins