Posted in Body politics and representations, Philippines, colonialism/postcolonialism, human rights, social justice, tagged bayougin, Caster Semenya, colonialism, gender testing, Nancy Navalta, Philippines on August 23, 2009 | 11 Comments »
[This is an expanded version of a comment prompted by this insightful post from Prof. Sussuro.]
Caster Semenya won the women’s 800-meter race by 2.45 seconds over her nearest rival. I want to start with that fact, because that win is amazing. She is amazing. And this being lost in all these rumors and speculations about [...]
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justicewalks’s moving reflections on her coming medical procedure (h/t bint) had me contemplating my own body. Specifically, the four-inch scar that runs from by bellybutton down my abdomen. I thought that the scar had long healed.
When my personal care physician here in the US first saw the scar, she asked if I had [...]
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Posted in Body politics and representations, Philippines, current events, human rights, social justice, women, tagged bodily autonomy, gender, gender testing, Nancy Navalta, Philippines, sexual autonomy, women on August 16, 2008 | 4 Comments »
In the early 1990s, seventeen-year-old Nancy Navalta burst into Philippine track and field, running the 100 meter dash at 11.44 seconds. It’s an even more amazing feat considering how green she was. Nancy had no training. She just ran on sandy beaches with a sack of rocks slung over her shoulders.
Newspapers lauded [...]
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Posted in Body politics and representations, Philippines, current events, social justice, women, tagged bodily autonomy, catholic church, contraception, feminism, gender, Philippines, reproductive health, reproductive rights, sexism, women on July 28, 2008 | 6 Comments »
In the spirit of picking your battles, I really tried to ignore the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ threat to deny communion and to campaign against Filipino politicians supporting reproductive health bills. But I’m still ticked off about it, and Karnythia’s post on bodily autonomy and Renee’s musings on patriarchal control over women’s [...]
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Posted in Body politics and representations, Filipino Americans, Good reads, Philippines, race, social justice, tagged Blood of Government, Paul Kramer, Philippine history, Philippine-American war, Philippines, race on June 18, 2008 | 12 Comments »
“The Filipino people are the most pro-American people, maybe even more pro-American than the Americans themselves.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that was our President Gloria Arroyo, with a candid description of how she regards her country’s former colonizers. And she’s hardly alone in this attitude. Many Filipinos do promote this idea of a westernized Philippines, [...]
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This discussion on Racialicious reminds me of those horrible skin lightening product commercials I saw on television the last time I was in Manila. If you’re Filipina, you know the brand I’m talking about. Block & White. And if you’re not Filipina but Asian, you probably have equivalent products and brands.
I was [...]
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