WOMEN INTERRUPTED

BY MARIVIR R. MONTEBON

art by Madonna Davidoff

(This article is condensed from the original manuscript of the author that was presented at the University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada in time for the conference on Women writing and reading history in May 2007).

     It must have been easy and fun in pre-colonial times in the country we now know as the Philippines.

     Before the Philippines became a Spanish colony for 300 years, women shared equal rights, power and privileges with men.

     They could court the men and adultery was tolerated as it was seen purely in the context of sexual gratification. There was divorce and abortion before the Spanish colonizers came to Philippine shores. All these stood on the rationale that provided for equal rights.

    At that time too, women and men were literate and knew their ancient alphabet, known as alibata, and pass this on to their next generation.

    But things changed upon the onset of Spanish colonization.

                                                            The Indigenous Woman

     It was through her lullaby that the communities of old remembered how life was before the Westerners set foot in the islands we now collectively call the Philippines.

     The Sugbuana in the Visayan tribes held a high sense of self-respect and authority and enjoyed equal rights and privileges as men did.

      Literacy among women in the precolonial times was high. Their tales, lullabies, songs, prayers, myths, epics, and sacred hymns were their tales of molding minds and nurturing the communities' memories and values.

     In the olden days, the native women had a strong sense of beauty, cleanliness, and sweetness that were associated with innate sensitivity to nature.

     Most early Visayan societies regarded the frontal profile of flat forehead and flat nose as beautiful.  Women binded their babies' heads to shape that flattened profile.

     They were keen about hygiene and often bathed in rivers.  They also did this immediately after giving birth and immersed their newly born infants into the water.

    Sunset is the most common time for bathing, usually after work, in order to cool off.  They washed their hair with gogo shampoo with sesame oil and herbs.

     They kept their teeth black and polished it with a toothbrush called sipan that is made of betel nut bark.

     The tatoo was the most honored and venerated principal attire in Visayan communities.  They made men appear dressed like a kind of handsome armor while women had their hands and arms tattooed with very intricate embroidery.  Because of these tattoos, the Spaniards called the natives Pintados.

     The men wore g-string to cover their genitals while women wore a blanket called the balikuskus which they tied at one side.

                                                            Gender Rights

    The indigenous women took pride in choosing their husbands or lovers.  Flirting with a man was as easy as offering the sipan or toothbrush while bathing or exchanging a partially chewed betel nut to the man.

     Dr. Jose Rizal noted that the native women were promiscuous and attributed this to their sincerity to obey nature and their instincts.  He said this behavior was guided by a religious belief that a glorified lover is necessary to aid her in the next life, to hold her as she would cross a very narrow piece of timber to reach the glory of Heaven.

     Customary law also did not consider adultery a crime.  When a wife commits adultery, the husband simply took it as gratification and pleasure. Sex was the only manner by which she settled it with him.

     The natives saw nothing sinful in the act of sex.  It is a natural instinct that has to be satisfied. Women had the complete control of their bodies.

     When married, they retained their names.  In cases when the woman was especially distinguished, it was the husband who usually took their names. It was not surprising to hear people referring to the husband of Isya or the husband of Ines.

     Giving names to her children was also part of her privilege.

     The precolonial wife was treated as a companion, not as a slave. She enjoyed freedom in making decisions in the family. She had a say in having children, For this reason, they practiced abortion after having the desired number of children.

     Customary practice allowed divorce because of childlessness, infidelity, and failure to fulfill obligations.  During divorce, the bride's family had to return the dowry to the husband's family if she was at fault.  If it was the husband's fault, he lost any right of its return.

     The children were equally divided between the two parents regardless of sex. Conjugally acquired property was also divided equally.

                                                Economic and political power

      Women were particularly involved in farming, produced woven cloth and engaged in pottery.  They decided in the schemes of agriculture, from planting and harvesting to table food preparation.

     While men cleared the fields, hunted, and fished, the women pounded rice, cleaned and prepared it for cooking, and raised chicken and pigs.

     They were excellent in weaving textiles and molding pots.  Weaving was known to be the past time of royal women.

     The babaylan were the figure of education in the indigenous communities.  The Spanish chroniclers noted that they were much more proficient than men in writing the ancient alphabet or the alibata.

     They were also highly esteemed as religious leaders, preferred in the performance of healing, counseling, or mediating in the tribe.

     If a male performed the religious office of a babaylan, he had to dress like a woman.

     The Spanish chroniclers said the babaylan were adept in supplying consonants or vowels in reading letters with superior knack and without stumbling or mumbling as they read the letters.

     The Spanish missionaries regarded the native rituals as satanic and succeeded in introducing western alphabet.  Thus, the 17 letter alibata was eclipsed by the 26 letter Roman alphabet brought in by the Spaniards.

     Life has changed upon the onset of colonization.

                        Weak and Meek during the Spanish Colonial Period

     A new expression of femininity took shape when the archipelago was under Spanish influence.

     Dr. Phoebe Sanchez said stereotyping of women's roles in the home began when the Spaniards established the feudal economy in the archipelago for four centuries.

     Babayeng buhat (woman's work) was defined, and placed a line between what a man can do and what a woman can only do. The Spaniards were responsible for shaping the macho and strong image of men and the mahinhin (soft) image for women.

     Among the rules which the indigenous woman had to follow was keeping her chastity until marriage, staying at home doing house chores, conducting herself in accordance to the wishes of her family, and upon marriage, her husband.

    Massive religious indoctrination took the form of repeated and regular recitation of prayers when the Spanish school system was established in 1863 in Cebu.  As a result of the formal instruction, the Catholic religion was embraced by many natives, hence called Indios and later Filipinos, in the absence of a fully understood faith.

    Catholicism alienated the Filipinos from their previously held tribal orientation on animism, kinship, and oneness with nature.

     The Spanish missionaries taught that women were perpetual threats to men more than the enemies in war.  The once respected babaylan were ostracized and dismissed as witches or minions of the devil.

     The Christianized Cebuana was molded to become the perfect homemaker, stereotyping on virginity, exemplary motherhood, and muted martyrdom.  Subconsciously, the women were to suffer in patience, silence, and prayer.

     Even the practice of courtship as the sole prerogative of men was a Spanish influence. Women were condemned if they were the first to express their love or affection for men.

                         Personality Twist in the American Colonial Period

     While education may be the greatest colonial legacy of America in the 1900s in the Philippines, it only consolidated the stereotyping of women's roles.

     Dr. Sanchez says, "women were educated and became mostly nurses and teachers during the American period.  This was a welcome development, because it set the opportunity for women to self-development.  Yet this is still a part of the culture of stereotypes. Nursing and teaching are extensions of women's roles in the Spanish colonial period."

     The notion of women as sex objects was heightened in the American colonial period, especially with the advent of advertising.

     While we saw during the Spanish period women wearing clothes that almost covered their faces and bodies, during the American period, they began to wear pants and skimpy skirts, and eventually just bras and bikinis to promote products of the capitalist system, says Dr. Sanchez.

     In the 1930s, more and more women were educated and fought for the right to vote.  Meantime, they who chose to court men and express their feelings of love remain unacceptable.

                                    Lingering Woes and Challenges in Globalization

     Poverty and the control of male partners linger as the woes and challenges of women in the current times.

     Half of the world is women, or 1004 women for every 1000 males.

     But women are more particularly disadvantaged, for instance, because in sugar haciendas in Cebu , they receive more meager salaries than men, despite the same number of hours rendered in the fields.

     For clearing the land, men are paid P100 while a woman is paid P80.  The reason for this, says one hacienda administrator, is that women work at a slower pace than men and should be paid less.

     At this time when the economy has increasingly become global, women continue to carry the woes and face the challenges of economic rights and welfare.

     Champions of women's rights must have significantly changed the self concept of women about themselves. But a lot has yet to be done.  These days, it is still unacceptable for women to court men and not be looked down by the majority of people.

     Empowering education continues to make women rise against economic and cultural binds.  But with the limited resources provided for by most influential governments in the world, the advocacy for women's emancipation could take a little longer.

     But they are going there, towards the realization of full development of self, towards meaningful peace and being uninterrupted to develop and bloom.