THE KISSING PRESIDENT IS NO KIDDING PRESIDENT
I am no woman. But, I take women's issues personally and seriously. This is how I was trained and molded by my mentors in the past 23 years of journeying in the gender equality and women's empowerment movement, locally in Davao and even on a national and international scale. Sadly so, my mentors equally suffer in the politics of polarization as a result of the current national leadership. Despite that, I continue to bring with me the lessons they have so deeply ingrained inside my head and heart as life guides when it comes to empowering women and fighting for gender equality.
Popularly, the act of the President kissing a woman before a Filipino audience in South Korea during his official state visit recently, is justified by many of his supporters as, "pinapakilig lang ng pangulo ang audience," or "it was just for fun, it should not be taken seriously."
I believe otherwise. This can never be called an isolated case of a kidding president. All these times, the pattern has been ubiquitously established - his language reeks of sexism! We must not forget his catcalling over a tv reporter, his rape comment on an Australian missionary for the mayor to go first, his threat to shoot female NPA members in their vagina believing that without the vagina a woman is useless, how he wished that only the ugly women died during typhoon Yolanda, how he used homosexuality to attack his critics when he runs out of sound arguments and many more as recorded in the Duterte almanac of sexism. These cannot be dismissed as jokes, but a symptom of toxic masculinity rewarded by a society that glorifies the marginalization and subordination of women especially in language. Yes, I was taught by my mentors on how sexism in language should be avoided because its repeated use means reinforcing the apparatuses of male dominance and women's oppression. Hence, it should be questioned, it should be challenged and not sanctified as "ganyan talaga si president."
I firmly advance that there is more to a kissing president than simply evoking "kilig" or just having "fun." It speaks so much about how women are still trapped in powerlessness cloaked in the illusion of emancipation. It screams to me that the very reason why we train leaders, men and women alike, on gender sensitivity still exists, in their more horrible faces of machismo and chauvinism. It appears to me that the Filipino society has not gone past through the culture that reinforces the idea of, "boys will always be boys," or "that's the way it is, just leave it at that." If I silence myself on this, it is as if I have thrown away what I was taught and trained to do - challenge the evils of patriarchy, both in its structural and cultural manifestations.
When the president gives away a limited copy of a book, he creates a space for competition over a property he owns. With that, he controls the landscape according to his wishes, his own rules and regulations, being the one who wields power. His rule was to give the book for a consideration - that precious kiss on the lips dismissing the idea that a kiss on the cheek or forehead is "pang lola." Clearly, the situation he created is not devoid of anything malicious. There was obviously malice! Otherwise, a kiss on the cheek would have been acceptable. The powerplay here is manifested in the president taking advantage of his stature as head of state over women who forgot that they have been instrumentalized or objectified to amuse a crowd of people equally struggling to draw the line between sexism and pure fun. The woman who bravely took the challenge and allowed the president to kiss her on the lips, I doubt, if she can be considered an emancipated woman. She might be representing a significant population of women who are still drowned in a bubble believing that they have been empowered but unknowingly submitting themselves to a power so manipulative that they themselves are blinded with. The message was clear to me - the woman was used by a powerful leader to gratify the sensual (or prurient) interest of a score of overseas Filipinos. This was clear from the words of the president himself who said, "gusto ko lang sumaya kayo." That, at the expense of a woman intoxicated by the potion of the president's charm fortified by his power.
Supporters who justified the acts (all of his sexism) of the president were quick to point that other previous leaders have also demonstrated their kissing abilities (or sexism at that) in public. Although I believe that the contexts were worlds apart, but even granting for the sake of argument that the context was the same, I must say that we keep our high ground by not following the wrong that was done. A wrong does not become right if done by many others. I think this has always been the defense in almost all critiques against the president - "bakit si digong lang nakikita nyo? ginawa din naman ito ni..." just fill in the blank for names. This reasoning does not make his sexism right. Sexist language, whether verbal or non verbal, has no place in a society that strives so hard to promote equality, development and peace. If done by other leaders, their attention must be called vigorously.
Going back to what my mentors taught me, sexism in language is dangerous. What we say, do or write is a reflection of what we feel and think. If what we show is sexist, then what we have inside our mind and heart must be sexist as well. Therefore change has to come from within. If the president's words and acts are still sexist, it simply belies the claim that his heart and mind speak of women's empowerment and gender equality. That leaves me wondering if the president's so called pro-women posture is genuine or simply for convenience. Either way, it is too difficult to conclude. What I know is that the kissing president is never a kidding president. The implications are too serious to ignore.
Photo from Inside Reader
