CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS
THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE
THESIS TITLE: "Locating Their Penis: Pilipino American College Male Performativity, Sexuality, and the 'Bahag Syndrome"'
AUTHOR: Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez
DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: November 26, 2013
THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE.
Dr. Theresa Suarez, PhD =:T-o:HE=sJ'=s""'"c?'OCOMMc;:::::::IT':':T'::E:=Eo:.,C::oHAo-:-:1-::-R----- SibNA
Dr. Garry Rolison, PhD I i(?k(J3 THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DAtE '
Locating Their Penis Pilipino American College Male Performativity, Sexuality, and the ‘Bahag Syndrome’
Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez California State University, San Marcos Sociological Practice, MA candidate December 2013
Committee: Dr. Theresa Suarez, Ph.D. (chair) Dr. Xuan Santos, Ph.D. Dr. Garry Rolison, Ph.D.
In the Name of the Most Beneficent, Most Merciful 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 2 ABSTRACT ...... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 5 INTRODUCTION ...... 6 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ...... 7 BACKGROUND ...... 9 HISTORY LOST & LIES MY PARENTS TOLD ME…ABOUT ME ...... 9 FROM VILLAGE TO STAGE ...... 13 IGOROT(NESS) IN THE UNITED STATES ...... 14 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 16 CRITIQUE OF WHAT IS (NOT) OUT THERE ...... 17 THE STUDY OF PERFORMATIVITY ...... 19 POLITICS ON STAGE ...... 21 PILIPINO AMERICAN IDENTITY POLITICS & PROCESSES ...... 22 THE INDIGENIZATION MOVEMENT ...... 24 ASIAN AMERICAN GENDER AND SEXUALITY ...... 26 PERFORMANCE OF THE OTHER ...... 29 QUALITATIVE APPROACH AND ITS IMPORTANCE ...... 32 THEORY ...... 33 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM ...... 33 SOCIOLOGICAL HAUNTING ...... 36 THE IGOROT ONLINE: A CHIMERA OF IMAGINATIVE AND REALISTIC EXPERIENCE FOR PILIPINO AMERICAN COLLEGE MALE STUDENTS ...... 38 ANALYZING SOCIAL MEDIA ...... 40 CRITICAL ETHNO-RACIAL STUDIES ...... 41 METHODS ...... 42 POPULATION ...... 43 SETTING ...... 44 QUALITATIVE METHOD ...... 45 STRUGGLES IN RESEARCH ...... 48 ANALYSIS ...... 50 FROM STAGE TO YOUTUBE©: POSTING “THE IGOROT” ...... 52 THE SPECTACLE OF THE IGOROT: STEREOTYPES THAT BIND IGOROTNESS TO GENDERED IDENTITIES ...... 57 BEYOND YOUTUBE©: THE .COM-ING OF PILIPINO AMERICAN COLLEGE MALE IGOROTNESS ...... 67 IGOROT AMERICAN VOICES: STRUGGLES IN CONNECTING WITH PILIPINA/O AMERICANS ONLINE ...... 72 3
THE IMMORTALIZATION OF THE “BAHAG DANCE” ONLINE: WHEN .COM BECOMES THE CATALYST FOR SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SUSPENSION ...... 75 FINDINGS: THE BAHAG = THE BAYAG ...... 81 PERFORMING THE BAYAG BEFORE COLLEGE: IGOROTNESS IN HIGH SCHOOL ...... 83 SIGNIFICANCE ...... 85 CONCLUSION ...... 86 A CALL TO CRITICAL CYBORG MENTALITY & THE GOING BEYOND THE (DE)CONSTRUCTED NORM OF ONLINE BINARIES ...... 86 THE PERFORMANCE OF THE IGOROT CYBORG ON A U.S. NATIONALIST STAGE ...... 87 QUEER CYBORGS: THE CYBORG’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE “OTHER” ...... 88 WHEN THE CYBORG MEETS ITS GHOST: CYBORG MANIFESTO AND SOCIOLOGICAL HAUNTING ...... 91 CHANGING THE NORM: CONCLUDING WITH A LETTER TO SOCIOLOGY, ETHNIC STUDIES, GENDER STUDIES, AND COLONIAL STUDIES...... 93 REFERENCES ...... 97
4
ABSTRACT
This research examines the role of online social media and its influence on
Pilipino American college male’s performance of Igorotness at Pilipino Culture
Nights (PCNs) stage productions by Pilipino American college organizations and how such constructions of masculinity counter stereotypes of Asian American male bodies. I observe at how college male students look to Igorot dances such as “Idaw” (also known as the “Bahag Dance”) to perform a Western notion of masculinity and maleness as both a performative identity and as a vehicle to find social acceptance of their gender identity as Asian Americans. Using netnography, or online ethnography where social media is both a site and subject of research, I analyze YouTube©, Facebook©, and Tumblr©, not only as a site of research, but as a subject that contributes to the (mis)understanding of Igorot identity and Pilipino American racialized, gendered, and sexualized performative identity. I relate the “bahag” (the loin cloth worn by Igorot males) as a phallic symbol that contributes to the performative masculine identity of Pilipino
American college male students and a catalyst to (re)claim heteronormative masculine identities through the performance of the indigenous other. I conclude by tying these online identities to the concept of the cyborg (Haraway, 1991) as a socio-cultural and geo-political hybrid of indigenized (de)colonial performativity and Western heteronormative masculinity.
Key Words: Pilipino, Pilipino American, Asian American, Igorot, Pilipino Culture Nights, performativity, sexuality, social media
5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I dedicate my whole educational career to my mudyay/mother, Josephine Ruanto Ramirez (née Butaran-Gonzales), whose love and care sustains my activism and my pursuit for success. I hope I make you proud. Inaro’ k’ta.
A special thank you to my advisor, Dr./Ate Theresa Suarez for believing in me. Thank you for the guidance and affirmations, but mostly, thank you for the laughs, tears, and food. One day, heaven willing, we will become colleagues.
Thank you to Dr. Xuan Santos and Dr. Garry Rolison for being supportive and for challenging me to go further. Thank you for taking your time and having patience with me in my pursuit of a field that I later found out was completely foreign to me.
To Dr. Edwina Welch, thank you for your love, support, and guidance. Sister boss-friend. From middle school, to high school, college to graduate school, from being your staff to being your mentee. Thank you for over 17 years of being you.
To Dr. K. Wayne Yang, who introduced me to specters, monsters, freaks, aliens, witches, cyborgs, and zombies. My undergraduate experience would have never been the same if you were not there to academically challenge me.
To Bernard Ellorin who opened the doors for me to finally come into acceptance of my Katutubo identity. You have been an instrumental figure in my success and in finding more about myself.
To Mark Leo & Paula Rodelas for paving the way for a Critical Katutubo American / Critical Igorot American Studies. We are one of the first to problematize Pilipin@ pan-national identity from a Katutubo American perspective.
To Manang Kirin Amiling Macapugay for all the support and love and for not turning your back on this lost Igorot American.
To Manay Nancy, thank you for always grounding me and “making” me breathe (these past 10+ years)
To my MASP girls – Whitney, Sara, Rebekah, Nicole T, and Nicole V– I’m the last one, but us gurls did it!
peace.love.JOY.always 6
INTRODUCTION
This thesis looks at how Pilipino American males reimagine a decolonized identity in relationship to Igorotness. I look at how Igorotness is performed and portrayed by Pilipino American males on California college campuses.
Specifically, I will analyze Pilipino Culture Night (PCN) performances posted online as either pictures or videos. Through analyzing online contents posted in various social media sites, I look at how online posts of pictures, videos, and comments contribute to the (mis)understanding of Igorotness and Pilipino
American male racial, gender, and sexual identity. I argue that Pilipino-American males (re)claim heteronormative masculine identities through indigenous performativity, as a way to challenge sexual stereotypes about Asian American men.
In college, I was hesitant to join the main Pilipino American organization on campus because of my complex personhood. My father is of Yloko/Ilokano and Ipugoo/Ifugao (an Igorot tribe) ancestry and my mother is of Tina-Hambali (a
Lipi minority), Ita (an Aeta tribe) and Iranun (a Moro minority from the former
Uranen Sultanate) ancestry. Our language, food, attire, and customs are different from "other Pilipinos," but being raised in the United States, my mother has always stated we were "Pilipinos" and taught my siblings and me "how to be
Tagalog." We adopted Tagalog culture through food and clothing, language and customs. As I began to realize how my parents invested in Tagalog colonial mentality by exalting Tagalog culture and identity, my siblings and I were losing our identities and becoming more and more Tagalog. 7
I began to separate myself from Pilipino Americans and every time I expressed my indigeneity, the students in the Pilipino American organization would show shock, not because they didn't know how to interact with me, but more so, they were shocked because an actual indigenous person was in front of them. They would ask questions ranging from tribal life to if I wore my ethnic attire often, how many of us are in the United States, and how proud they were of us "tribal Pilipinos" for keeping alive the "Pilipino culture." This, of course, irritated me as they presumed that the Philippines are a homogenous nation-state. I passed by the organization's booth on my campus multiple times and saw the males don Igorot attire to attract, in particular, Pilipinas into joining their organization. They wore the bahag, the loin-cloth commonly worn by Igorot males, flexed their muscles, and oiled their bodies so their abs would be more defined. With the exception of the few males who were not as fit as some of the other Pilipinos and whose abs were drawn in by markers to mock the more muscular males, I realized that being Igorot to many Pilipino college males was a sign of masculinity and to an extent, heterosexuality.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In United States society, Asian male bodies are represented as asexual, feminized, and according to Philippe Rushton (1991), are seen collectively as
"undersexed" compared to the "threatening hypersexuality" of Black male bodies.
Asian males are therefore considered to have smaller penises and not as masculine as other racialized groups. (Fong, 1991) If Asian men are seen to lack 8
sexuality, then how do Asian American male reclaim their "lost sexuality?" The
stereotype of the asexual body haunts Asian American males where many find
ways to reclaim their sexuality and validate their masculinity regardless of their
sexual orientation (Leung, 1996). To counter homogenization of Pilipino
American male bodies with other Asian American males, I argue that Igorotness
becomes a vehicle to self "other" Pilipino Americans from the social construction
of the non-masculine Asian body. For Pilipino American males, this comes in the cultural reappropriation of Igorot culture and identity. Igorot bahag becomes a
symbol of hypermasculinity and hyperheterosexuality and therefore, is a phallic
icon that Pilipino American males invest in.
Thus the bahag, as a phallic symbol for Pilipino American males, not only
is a vehicle to (re)claim their masculinity, but also a way to decolonize
themselves from their imagined and gendered Western colonial influence,
countering the perceived stereotype placed on their bodies within the Asian
American male (de)masculine identity. The stereotypes that haunt Pilipino
American males are directly connected to their process of (re)claiming their
maleness through their understanding of Igorotness and savageness. Here,
Igorotness becomes a gender and sexual identity, and the bahag contributes to
the identity politics and identity formations Pilipino American males in college.
The focus of my research is on the understanding of how Igorotness in the
United States is conceptualized by Pilipino American males and how it has been
portrayed (and embodied) by Pilipino American college students as
entities/identities that are gendered and sexualized. Through analyzing Pilipino 9
Culture Nights (PCNs) from various universities that are uploaded in online social
media sites (such as YouTube©, Facebook©, and Tumblr©), I will look at the
different ways Igorotness is portrayed by Pilipino American males through
performances. I look at how and why Igorot(ness) in college university
performances have been the identity for Pilipino American males to gravitate
towards to perform masculinity and indigeneity. Through the performance of
Igorotness, I analyze how Pilipino American males are able to performance a
counter-identity that has been racialized, gendered, sexualized, and placed upon
Asian/American male bodies.
BACKGROUND
History Lost & Lies My Parents Told Me…About Me
"Even in the Philippines, to cite one recurrent source of annoyance, stories were frequently sent to America concerning our wild tribes, the Igorots, in which they are presented as Filipinos. These primitive black people are no more Filipino than the American Indian is representative of the United States citizen. They hold exactly the same position - they are our aborigines. The fact remains that the Igorot is not Pilipino and we are not related, and it hurts our feelings to see him pictured in American newspapers under such captions as 'Typical Filipino Tribesman.'" - General Carlos P. Romulo (1943)
General Romulo, a former United Nations General Assembly President
(1949) and Security Council Chair (1957), along with many Pilipinos, have never considered Igorots (as well as other Katutubos) as part of the national identity nor actual Pilipinos. This can be argued to be true since Pilipinos are those colonized
by Spain, yet these tribal and ethnic minorities have never been colonized by any
Western empire (Martinez, 2001). This regionalistic racism found in the
Philippines still continues on in diaspora. While older generations still see Igorots 10 as wild and savage non-Pilipinos, Pilipina/o American youth have seen Igorots as an anti-colonial identity and body. Igorot males are always portrayed as masculine bodies with the bahag and adorned with tribal tattoos. The Igorot male does not smile, snarls, and grunts all while dancing and playing the gangsa (flat metal gongs used as a musical instrument by various Igorot tribes). Igorot female identity is rarely portrayed and Igorot femininity is attributed with masculine traits where, through performance, the Igorot female does not smile, have broad shoulders, and strong and stiff bodies (Ness, 1997). The portrayal of Igorot and how they are seen by Pilipina/os both in the Philippines and in diaspora is deeply rooted in the history of the Philippines nation-state.
The Philippines, a nation-state in the Southeastern part of the Asia, is an archipelagic multi-ethnic country composed of one hundred and ninety-two federally recognized ethnic groups (Martinez, 2004). Throughout the history of the Philippines, the nation-state has been colonized by numerous Western powers (Portuguese, Spanish, British, Dutch, French, and American) and was colonized by the Japanese during World War II. During post-Spanish rule of the northern and central part of the archipelago and the beginning of the colonial rule of the United States, the newly forming nation-state faced the problem of uniting the numerous ethnic groups found throughout the different islands and how to incorporate the most southern regions (the island of Mindanao, the island of
Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago, and Sabah) and the mountain region of the north
(the Cordilleras) into the nation-state (Kramer 2006). In the early days of the nation-state, the government was controlled and influenced by two former rival 11 ethnic groups, the Tagalogs and the Kapampangans, who gained favors by both the Spanish and American colonial rule. Though many of the other ethnic groups rebelled against Tagalog-Kapampangan rule, they were ultimately forced to be incorporated into the nation-state with the exception of the tribal communities in the north (the Igorots, Lipis, and the Aetas), the tribal groups in the central regions (the Mangyans and the Palawanons), and the tribal groups and the
Islamized-tribes of the south (the Lumads and Moros). Ultimately, the various internal wars with the ethnic tribal minorities and the Philippine government resulted in the creation of the modern-day Philippines (with the exception of
Sabah which is being "rented" by the Malaysian government from the Sultanate of Sulu and Sabah, whose throne is in the current province of Sulu, Mindanao).
Later on, the Tagalog surpasses the Kapampangans in control of the government, and thus, "Pilipino national identity” as Tagalog culture was born.
Tagalog culture becomes the foundation of the national language called
"Filipino," the national clothing is designated (the "Barong Tagalog"), and with the exception of the food which still had a high influence of Kapampangan culture,
Adobong Tagalog becomes the national food (Martinez, 2004).
During the transition between Spanish colonial rule to American commonwealth, governmental dispute over what was considered “the
Philippines” arose between the United States government and the transitional government of the newly “liberated” Philippines. Under the Treaty of Paris of
1898, Katutubos (Aetas, Igorots, Lumads, Lipis, Mangyans, Moros, and
Palawanons) were not listed as Philippine Citizens. The Philippine Bill of 1902 12
passed by the United States Congress defined “Philippine Citizen” as “all
inhabitants of the Philippine Islands who were subjects of Spain, their children
and descendants (Buat, 2008).” Aside from the Lipis (considered Christianized
tribes and ethnic minorities, which is still a debated issue in Philippine society),
no other Katutubos were subject to Spanish colonial rule. Therefore, Igorots and
other Katutubos were not considered Philippine citizens. Issues of who was
considered “Pilipino” were debated particularly with regards to how to incorporate
the ethno-tribal minorities who were not colonized or who were partially
colonized. This led to the creation of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of the
Philippine Islands as part of the Department of Interior in 1901. This Bureau was
to handle the affairs of the different Katutubo communities, but also to subdue
any forms of internal conflicts for independence from the commonwealth.
During the reign of Dictator President Ferdinand Marcos, many Katutubo
communities were given the opportunity to leave their respective nations and get
a college education in the local cities and private universities in the capital,
Maynila (Manila). Even though many Igorots, Lipi, and Moros were granted educational opportunities to study at prestigious universities, they faced discrimination from Pilipinos who did not consider them to be Pilipino (Majul,
1999; Finin, 2005).
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From Village to Stage
In the 1950s, the Philippine government commissioned extensive research on Katutubo Culture, in particular, on Igorot, Moro, and Lumad cultures.
Documenting their research, the anthropologists from the Philippine Women’s
University (PWU) began to conceptualize how their research of ethnic minority and tribal cultures could be presented to the rest of the nation. The university’s
Filipina Folk Music and Dance Committee began to theatricize their finding and began to market it as part of a physical education option to high schools throughout the nation-state. In 1957, PWU’s committee formally organized a national dance company that began to tour local nations to perform “Pilipino culture.” The Bayanihan Folk Arts Center (Bayanihan) was created to collect indigenous “costumes” and musical instruments, provide instruction for those interested in Pilipino dances and music, and to perform within the nation-state and abroad (Santos, 2004).
Bayanihan created a system that would split the ethno-linguistic groups and cultures into five categories, which in turn are divided into five dance suites.
The Rural dances are from ethno-linguistic groups that have been Christianized and are racially considered “Christianized low-land ethno-dialectical groups.”
These dances have been historically recognized as Pilipino dances. The Maria
Clara dances are Spanish influenced dances that are learned by Christianized ethno-dialectical groups during Spanish colonial period. Pilipinized Spanish string instruments collectively called “rondalla” accompany these dances. The collective 14
themes for this genre of dances are romantic and maintain a Western perception
of gender roles (Alejandro & Santos-Gana, 2002).
The three Katutubo suites focus on indigenous peoples scattered throughout the archipelago and have the interpretation and choreography of each have changed depending on the choreographer. The Muslim suite focuses on dances and music from two of the thirteen Islamized tribes of the Southern
Philippines. The Maguindanowan (Maguindanao) and the M’ranaw (Maranao) tribes’ culture are the highlight of this suite with a blend of South Asian and
Arabic influence that has been added by dance companies. (Gaerlan, 1999) The
Tribal Suite composes of dances from the different non-Christian tribes found throughout the archipelago. Many of these dances are still being researched by anthropologists, performers, and historians and are gradually being presented as
part of the Philippine Dance repertoire. Finally, the Cordillera Suite is composed
of dances from the eight Igorot tribes of the northern mountain region also known
as the Cordilleras (Santos, 2004).
Igorot(ness) in the United States
While Romulo, and others, sees Igorots as wild and savage non
Pilipina/os, Pilipina/o American college students perceive Igorots as an anti colonial identity and body. Though Pilipinos see Igorots as anti- and pre-colonial identities that are “wild” and “primitive” (Finnin, 1997), Pilipino-Americans use
Igorotness to return to a pre-colonial identity that has been socially constructed anti-Western, uncolonized, and culturally resistant to any foreign influences. As
Pilipina/o American college students embody Igorotness through performance, 15
they also do so by readapting Igorot culture, like tattoos, as part of their
decolonial processes. Pilipino-American college students collect Igorot cultural
artifacts with a concentration on obtaining gangsa and the bahag to be used as wall decorations and room accents. Clothing companies have also invested in
Igorotness and Igorot culture. Companies such as PNoy Apparel® and FLIP
Wear® have taken Igorot tattoo prints and Igorot axes as part of their clothing designs. Shirts that say, "Real Pinoys wear Bahag" and "Tribal Pinoy" have
Igorot prints and Igorot weapons as part of the t-shirt designs.
Igorot artifacts are also heavily used in collegiate level events among
Pilipina/o American college students. Since the 1970s, Pilipino-American organizations have put on cultural and theatrical productions at the collegiate level called Pilipino Culture Nights (PCNs). In California, Pilipino college organizations invest thousands of dollars into these productions and have three key elements: 1) a theatrical skit on issues facing Pilipina/o /Americans, 2) cultural folk dances, and 3) leadership development through the planning process with board members and organizers. The skits are usually broken down into specific genres relating to the "Pilipino and Pilipino-American experience" and folk dances that are composed of ethnic dances from different cultural groups within the Philippines (Gonzalves, 2010).
In the Cordillera Suite (of the Igorot Nation), performers dance mainly three dances that tries to represent a homogenous and monolithic Igorot cultural identity: the “Bumayah Uya-Uy” (which is a particular celebration done by the
Ipugoo/Ifugao tribe in mock of the Dinuy-ya dance), “Banga” (clay pots used by 16
the Kalinga tribe from the song-dance Tok-tok-koy), and the “Bahag” (a made-up dance done by college male students with no actual reference to any particular
Igorot culture and no historical or cultural). The “Bumayah Uya-Uy” and the
Bahag’s hybridity come from the staged performance of “Idaw” as done by the
Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company. There are no differentiating cultural features that would state what tribe of Igorot the dance attire comes from, the types of moves that are unique to each tribe, and how the song patterns
The males who perform any Igorot dance are usually those who have fit bodies with very visible abdominal muscles or those who exhibit hyper-masculine traits. Prior to the performance, these male college students do extensive workouts to maintain their image, draw tattoos on their bodies mimicking any form of popularized tribal tattoos, use baby oil to make their body shine on stage, all while they are wearing their bahag (usually either Kalinga bahag or
Ipugoo/Ifugao wanes). On stage, these men hop and grunt while they perform, contrary to how any Igorot men perform. The imagery of the performed Igorot male body on stage becomes the normalized and standardized identity to which other Pilipino American college males aspires to and mimics during their PCNs.
The passing down of this performed identity becomes normalized for any aspiring college male students who wish to participate in the “Bahag Dance.”
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Literature on Pilipina/o American studies is a growing project within Ethnic
Studies, Asian American Studies, Cultural Studies, and Critical Gender Studies, 17
yet critical analysis of what is Pilipina/o and/or what is Pilipina/o American is still
a continual struggle for academics and theorist in the United States, as well as in
the Philippines and with Pilipina/os in diaspora. One of the central issues is how
to incorporating Katutubo (indigenous, tribal communities and minorities)
epistemologies into both an academic and cultural paradigms of a mono- racial/mono-ethnic nation-state identity (the “Pilipino”). Philippines’ history is
complex with multiple foreign colonial take over and ongoing geo-political
struggles on trying to define its borders both internally and with other Asian
nation-states. This can be seen in its ongoing dispute with Malaysia on the
governance of Sabah/Northern Borneo and maritime disputes over the Spartly
Islands with China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. As such, emergent fields of
study on diasporic identities and neocolonialism recognize that for Pilipina/os in a
situation where identity (de)construction has multiple layers that needs to be
addressed. For many Pilipina/o youths in diaspora, the process and struggle of
decolonization pushes them to find alternate forms to explore and express their
identities not only to themselves, but to others as well.
Critique of What is (not) Out There
Universities in the United States with a significant Pilipina/o American
population participate in an annual performance of Pilipina/o and Pilipina/o
American history, identity, and presumed national culture(s) called Pilipino
Culture Nights (PCNs). A phenomenon that occurs in these performances is the
presentation of Igorot culture by Pilipino American college males. This literature
section analyzes the diverse and vast work that has been used on the study of 18
Pilipino American male identity politics, decolonial process, and struggle with
American stereotypes on Asian American male bodies.
The role of gender and gender performativity in relation to decolonization
and racialized sexuality has been largely based on Western construction and
analysis on identity (David, 2013; Nadal, 2010). The performance of gender and
sexuality by colonized and marginalized communities are largely affected by not
only how they see their intersecting identities, but also in relationship to
environment, history, and how other perceive their bodies (Forbes, 2008; Fung,
1991; Gordon, 2008; Smith, 1999). Analysis of literature and theoretical concepts
on immigrant, marginalized, and racialized bodies are still embedded on colonial
descriptions of self and other (Hall, 2000; Strobel, 2001 and 2010; Tuck and
Yang, 2012). The struggle of understanding indigenous identities and the performance of colonial identities are continuously being addressed in academia as there is no theoretical framework that addresses racial formation outside of
White-settler nation-states (da Silva, 2007; Leo, 2011). While this research seeks to address Pilipino American males and their performance of indigeneity as a form of reclaiming their demasculinized and feminized bodies while in diaspora, few research on Asian American, Pilipino American, and identity reclamation connects colonial mentality, racial stereotypes, and the social construction of gender and sexuality on bodies who are in diaspora (Leo, 2011; Tengan, 2008).
This research will not only try to complicate Pilipino American college male racial, gender, and sexual identities, but also introduce these concepts in relationship to the social construction of race, gender, and sexuality in the Philippines. This 19 research will also raise awareness of the unique relationship between Pilipino
American college males and Igorot identity both as a social construction and an imagined identity.
The Study of Performativity
The study of Pilipino American college male performative identity intersects through various lived and imagined experiences. This section looks at how Performance Studies can be used to analyze how Pilipino American college males perform Igorotness and what methods are utilized to understand the role of Igorotness in their “decolonial” processes, gender identity, and sexuality. The frameworks utilized by Performance Studies will be used to problematize Pilipino
American college male (imagined) connection to Igorotness.
Performance Studies are a growing field that looks at performance outside of staged performances and theatrical productions. Performance studies looks at how everything is a performance, from cultural practices to religious ceremonies, gender and gender identity through actions and clothing, sexuality through actual acts of intercourse, how one tells narratives and histories (Schechner, 2002).
Though my thesis looks at the performativity of identity/identities by Pilipino
American college males in relations to Igorotness, masculinity, and sexuality,
Performance Studies fails to examine the construction of identities, where the performer creates a post/neo-colonial identity yet may not be aware or conscious of it. Individual’s perceived reality of culture, gender, and sexuality draws from their experience as either immigrant to the United States or trying to reconnect to the Philippines through the lens of second-generation (or older) youth in the 20
United States. Kevin Nadal (2010), however, does lack of understanding of racial formations in the Philippines and how they see indigenousness as a form of counter-culture from Western socialization, but will be used because of his contribution to the study of Pilipino American identity.
The study of cultural performativity and identity continues to limit how identity formation and socialization happens outside of Western influences. For example, Richard Schechner (2002) argues the difference between “is” and “as” performance where “is” performance is when “historical and social context, convention, usage, and tradition says it so yet “as” performance can be argued to be anything that combines “is” and other modes of studies. Yet his research fails to connect when performers embody the “is” as the “as” and when identity politics blends with (hyper)nationalism, imperialism, colonial mentality, and decolonization. His framework draws from the performance of the “other” (in many cases the indigenous and the non-Western or non-White) as bound to a particular temporal reality outside of modernity without taking into account colonialism and Western (and some cases American) influences, using Western theoretical and colloquial language to address non-Western bodies, traditions, and identities. Cultural performativity seeks to explain a stage performance that blends embodied theatrical mentality (or getting into “role”) and the need to express the “self.” The dream of finding or performing another mode of identity or an alternative way of being, are often confused with utopic imaginations, the need to be self-othered to find self, and the misunderstanding of power and the need for simplicity (Halberstam, 2011). How then do researchers and theorists 21 conceptualize “otherness” when the only way to explain them is in relation to the pre-structured ways of addressing these identities? How then are these identities performed by others who do not identify with the culture, but drawn to them due to their lack of understanding of their own culture? What are the theoretical productions in critiquing when the “othered” performs “the other”?
Politics on Stage
Performance for Pilipina/o Americans is a political project that transcends the physical stage of a theater. This performance happens on a post-/neo colonial stage of empire where they are constantly performing their culture, gender, sexuality, and other intersectional identities for an imagined audience while in diaspora (Burns, 2013). For the Pilipino American college male, the performance of Igorotness on stage for their PCN continues on as a performance of Western notions of masculinity and maleness that is tied to Igorot performativity in society. This post-stage Igorot performance also is done outside spatial realities tied to physical interactions and into temporal imaginaries that places the Igorot for consumption in various non-human environments such as online.
For Asian American and Pilipino American academics and theorists, the study of culture nights and cultural performance outside of the “home” (nation- state) is a growing field, yet are still bound to the imagined communities of a homogenous nation-state, shared and similar immigrant experiences, and an illusive historical context of a monolithic identity (Anderson, 1991; Espiritu, 1994;
Lowe, 1996; Rodriguez, 2010). Yet through collegiate Pilipino Culture Nights and 22 cultural events, the narration of the nation and a homogenous Pilipino identity is more than the actual storytelling itself. Constant reproduction of Pilipino identities as a staged performance changes actual national narratives and mythologizes its contents. Here, performance of the ghostly past, as mentioned by Gordon (1997), blends with communities in diaspora (or immigrant communities in the United States) and the need to understand the “home”
(nation-state) through an imagined and mythologized elusive identity (Anderson,
1991; Hall, 1996).
Through a (self)created and (self)maintained process of imagining and mythologizing ethno-cultural identity, Pilipino Americans seek to (re)create a
(counter)narrative and (counter)identity of what has been socially placed upon their bodies through stereotypes, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and homophobia on a(n) (imagined) stage. Through PCNs, Pilipino American males, in particular, counter the stereotypes places on Asian American male bodies subconsciously.
Of all the research that has been done on PCNS, Pilipino American masculinity and sexuality, none has delved into looking at how masculinity and sexuality is performed through the performance of Igorotness and savageness. For many,
Igorotness not only is an identity that bridges the contemporary with an imagined past, but also is an identity that (re)affirms masculinity and maleness in performative spaces.
Pilipino American Identity Politics & Processes
For Pilipino American males, not only do multiple colonial mentalities influence their sense of self, but also the effects of racism, anti-Asian 23
xenophobia, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, classism, and other forms of
marginalization. These marginalized yet intersectional identities haunt Pilipino
American males in their process of either searching for or affirming their identities
in college. This interpersonal and intrapersonal struggle is part of a larger
sociological haunting and imagination as argued by Avery Gordon (1997). If
rituals and historical identities that are performed are bound to a particular
temporal spatial reality (such as Pilipino Americans performing Igorotness in
staged college productions or in college social settings), how, then, do Pilipino
American males conceptualize culture and identity when bound to a four to five
year educational institution? Here, temporal spatial reality is actually multiple
forms of realities where space is mobilized and time is not suspended.
Igorotness, as with any indigenous identities, is seen to be the antithesis of
modern identity and is always connected to the past or pre-modern (Barnd,
2008). By reconnecting to an imagined or elusive past, Pilipino Americans
(re)define history to fit a particular lens that romanticizes the uncolonized and
anti-West as a form of identity resistance to American or Western influences
(Nadal, 2010).
Residual effects of post-colonialism on Pilipino American males stem from
the role of Spanish and American colonization of the South East Asian nation-
state. Spanish colonization of the nation-state changed the dynamic structure of
many of the Philippines’ ethnic group’s culture. The drastic change from a
matriarchal society to a pseudo-patriarchal system (pseudo as patriarchy was constantly being re-defined to match Spanish concept of maleness and 24
negotiating indigenous gender roles and identities) affected the role of men and
women in “Pilipino culture.” Spanish colonialism elevated the Pilipino male to
higher status than females, but reduced them as sub-male compared to Spanish
men (Nadal, 2010; Blanco, 2012). Due to this (re)gendering project, many
Pilipino Americans (both male and female identified) seek to understand and
(re)negotiate gender and sexual politics within Philippine-America. The
indigenization movement started in the 1990s by many Pilipina American women
sought to address the issues of gender and sexuality that would critique Western
influences in Philippine (diasporic) communities. The elevation of women and
queer became a foundation to how Pilipina American women and Queer
Pilipina/o Americans saw themselves in relations to Pilipino American men
(Strobel, 2001 and 2010). The mythological pre-colonial Philippines became a
strong focal point for many Pilipina/o Americans in understanding their identities
and their realities.
The Indigenization Movement
The performance of the Igorot is deeply connected to the indigenization
movement that is happening in many scholarly circles of Philippines-America. For
many Pilipina/o Americans, the critique of non-Philippines influences on their
identities and colonial residues from Western imperialisms becomes the catalyst
to reexamine their cultural and ethnic identity in diaspora (David, 2012). Through
the process of finding a(n) (imagined) pre-colonial identity, Pilipina/o Americans are able to be “born-again Pilipinos” where the process requires the
(mis)appropriation of Igorot (and other indigenous people from the Philippines) 25
culture to find what Leny Strobel (1996) would classify as returning to a non-
Western state of identity.
Critiques of the Pilipina/o American indigenization movements, also known
as Baybaylan, have been addressed in both the 2012 Association of Asian
American Studies Conference and in the Critical Filipina/o & Filipina/o American
Studies Circle. Activist and scholars addressed how the Baybaylan movement has influenced how many college youths view indigenousness and how indigenization has been used to decolonize themselves without actual reference to indigenous communities (Katutubo) in diaspora. “Decolonization” has been
used as a metaphor to address anti-Western influences and counter colonial
mentality. It has been separated from indigenous identities, but indigeneity has
been invoked to connect to a imagined past (Tuck & Yang, 2012). For Pilipino
American males, it is the return to this imagined and mythical indigenous past
during contemporary times in performative settings do they seek to decolonize
themselves and (re)create an indigenous identity to counter American
stereotypes of their bodies. At times, it is actually what they don’t know that
empowers them to pretend that they know something; and, this imagined
empowerment can be found at the points of intersectionality where individuals
seek what they do not have, but believe they have entitlement to (Yang, 2011). It
is this figment of imagined past and the haunting of complex identities where
Pilipino Americans male seek to (re)define themselves and (re)discover their
identities.
26
Asian American Gender and Sexuality
The study of Asian American gender and sexual identity has been a long and continuous topic of research for social scientists. A vast amount of research has been done on how Asian American gender and sexual identities have changed numerous times in relations to the contemporary socio-cultural and geo political projects that the United States invests in. Though Pilipino Americans navigate in and out of Asian Americaness (Nadal, 2010), societal placement of their bodies into racialized categories homogenizes their experiences into a pan-
Asian othered identity (Lowe, 1996). This homogenization plays a key factor in how Pilipino American males are stereotyped and why, through the performance of Westernized masculinity and maleness, counter Asian American male imagery through the performance of Igorotness.
Asian American males have been stereotyped as asexual or lacking sexuality socially. They are often seen and portrayed as effeminate, but also bare the stereotype of having small penises (Eng & Hom, 1998). The stereotype of the asexual and the image of the feminized Asian American male are still talked about within the Asian American academic circles and social media (Fong,
1991). While Fong argues that Asian American male bodies are pushed into spectrum in comparison to Black and White male bodies and penises, it is these stereotypes that society has used to determine “maleness” and “masculinity.”
Whereas Asian bodies are seen as “undersexed” and less masculine, Black male bodies and sexuality are seen as “threatening” and “hypersexual.” White males, in turn, fall in-between these two spectrums and are seen as in position of 27 balance and thus, free from sexual scrutiny. Even with this dichotomy of male masculinity and sexuality, Asian American males, regardless of sexual orientation, still is placed in a feminized state (Leung, 1996).
Though readings on Asian American male bodies and sexuality have expanded its field in academia, there is still little research done on how Asian
American males counter these stereotypes and narratives. For academics in
Asian American Studies and Gender Studies, the critique of Asian American maleness and its (forced) maintenance of stereotypical femininity and non- masculine traits have never addressed methods of struggle and perpetuating an anti-orientalist perspective on Asian American maleness. Here, Asian American males are still seen as an othered entity, not only need to be researched, but also placed in a role where they are not able to leave the Orientalized femininity
(Said, 1978).
Pilipino males, along with other Asian American males, are Orientalized as feminine and, at times, “not males” compared to White men (Leong, 1996; Said,
1979). Asian males face a daunting task of proving their masculinity that results in sexist, misogynist, and homo/bi/transphobic actions. These actions are based on an understanding of gender identity and sexuality as thought by their parents; not necessarily what is masculine and “heterosexual,” but more so of what is not
(Nadal, 2010). Even in this juxtaposition, it is always in relation to what is and what is not male/masculine, rather than what is male/masculine and what is female/feminine (Espiritu, 1995 and 2000; Leong, 1996; Nadal, 2010; Shimizu,
2007). The effects of this lens of child-raising continue in college where these 28
young males explore their identity in ways that reinforce their existing identities or
through expanding their understanding of themselves. Their relationship with
maleness and masculinity is always in comparison to how they see themselves in
relationship to other race’s maleness and masculinity. When the Philippines
transitioned from being a colony of Spain to a commonwealth of the United
States, patriarchy was maintained, but expanded such that Pilipino males were
socialized to a new gender identity where they were still the male figure of the
house, but they were designated sub-male through jobs and in relations to not only White men, but also towards Black men. Asian bodies were placed in an imagined social hierarchy where Asian male is the least masculine compared to men of other races (Leong, 1996; Okazaki, 2002; Teunis, 2007; Lau et al, 2009).
In Pilipino Culture Nights, as Pilipino American males define masculinity through the lens of savagery and Igorotness, they do so by looking at standards of masculinity in popular media. Body image in regards to acceptable or presentable body structure in media influences how Pilipino American males see their bodies. In response, they work out in order to obtain muscled bodies for a
sculpted abdomen, a visible pelvic line, and defined arm muscles. For Pilipino
American males, this becomes the ideal to emulate and obtain; the images of
what masculinity and maleness would manifest as in relation to how masculinity
and maleness is portrayed in media Nadal (2010 and 2011) argues that
throughout his research on understanding Pilipino American and other Asian
American male gender and sexual identity, body presentations and body image
issues are very prevalent in adolescent and early adult Asian American males. 29
Even with queer males who are feminine, there is a drive to have a lean and/or
muscular body to counter the fear of being (overly) feminized by other races. Due
to this phenomenon of constantly (re)defining masculinity, Asian and Pilipino
American males are in constant struggle to maintain their gender and sexual
identities to countering White (and Black) racialization, genderization, and
sexualization of their bodies. In order for them to maintain their maleness and
masculinity (whether they identify as heterosexual or queer), they must always
see how White (and Black) males perform their gender and sexual identities, and
thus, mimic it through sexist, misogynist, and homo/bi/transphobic actions.
Performance of the Other
Though Minstrelsy Studies have focused on the performative relationship
with White/American entertainers and their expression of racial and ethnic
minorities in the United States through stereotypical roles and cultural
embodiment (Lott, 1995; Aoki, 1996; Huhndorf, 2001; Shah, 2003), it is always a
struggle when addressing the phenomenon of ethnic minorities performing the
stereotypes of their own community. Camille Forbes (2008) in her analysis of
Burt Williams addresses how Black-on-Black-Face Minstrelsy is both in relations to how Blackness is seen by Black/African Americans and how it is perceived by
White Americans. This struggle of double consciousness (Du Bois, 1903) when performing identity by American ethnic minorities is deeply rooted through the negotiation of space they try to find social meaning to their existence in the
United States and negotiate their ethno-racial cultural identity in relations to the coded “American” identity, which equates to White. Yet, in these performances, 30 the invocation of the other, even if someone who identifies with the group that is being performed performs it, is still performed by a group that has agency in the community. The performance of the marginalized sub-communities done by the majority is what is seen on stage. In this case, actors such as Burt Williams who have agency in the Black/African American community must perform “the other” in the Black community to find validity in portraying Blackness with White
America. Even in the performance of maleness and masculinity, the stereotypes of what it means to be a man is performed in a particular context where it is in relation to what it means to be a White man. It is through the performance of the
“other” where masculinity and maleness are socially maintained, and where the
“not male” and “not manly” are used to measure the other end of the socially accepted normative male identity
Through the performance of sexism, misogynism, and homo/bi/transphobic actions, Pilipino American males enforce their masculine identity both on stage and in public as seen in Pilipino Culture Nights that happen once a year in all colleges and universities in California and during Friendship
Games. In Pilipino American male imagination, the Igorot as a headhunting, tattooed, mountain tribal male (as Igorot female identity are at times invisible in these performative states) is the epitome of pre-colonial masculine Pilipino male identity. Though many Pilipino males would never go to back to the Philippines and visit Bangsa Igorot (the Igorot Nation) and meet actual Igorots, it is through the internet and venues such as blogs, Google images, and YouTube do the
Pilipino American male channel a sense of connection to Igorot identity. Igorot, 31 as a pseudo-and semi-Pilipino identity, becomes Pilipinonized by Pilipino
American males in diaspora and are masculinized through their performances. It is through the wearing of the bahag are they able to showcase their masculinity and their body to a wider set of audience.
The Igorot image is engrained within Pilipino American male psyche as an identity that counters the feminization and the (anti)sexualization of Asian
American males imposed by White (and Black) social imagination. The constant
(re)negotiation of gender and sexual identity, mixed with the racialization of Asian
American bodies, influences how Pilipino American male sees history, colonization, and diasporic identity in college. It is through the channeling of what they believe to be the pre-colonial Pilipino male identity of Igorotness that they
(re)create an imagined gender and sexual identity that demands their maleness and masculinity to be acknowledged by non-Asians. Though they have no real recollection of colonization or understand the ethno-racial project in the
Philippines nation-state, Pilipino American males see Igorots as Pilipinos and as entities that have evaded centuries of occupation by Western colonial powers in the Philippines. This phenomenon is unique to Pilipino American males as
Pilipina American females connect to Moro (Islamized tribes) as their medium of anti-colonial and counter American “imposed” femininity on Pilipina bodies
(Nadal, 2010). It is through this need to reconnect to an imagined past to create a contemporary identity that Pilipino American males and their attachment to
Igorotness validate their historical, imagined trauma of colonization and challenge their contemporary sexualization and otherness. 32
Qualitative Approach and Its Importance
Compared to existing research done on PCNs and on Pilipino American
collegiate males, few were done with a qualitative approach where participants of
performing PCNs were asked their own understanding of indigenousness,
Igorotness, and sexual stereotypes placed upon Asian male bodies. By asking
Pilipino American collegiate males these questions, it brings into consideration
the communal (mis)understanding of Igorot culture and how the performance of
Igorotness plays a role in these males’ understanding of their own gendering and
sexualization in reference to Asian American maleness. Using a sociological
approach to the research, this qualitative data drawn from the analysis of both
testimonies from the students and analysis of online social sites that explores
PCNs will be different from other researches where qualitative analysis of PCNs
are reserved for the students over all experiences and relationship to Pilipino
diasporic cultures. Most of the research done on PCN analyzes the phenomenon
that happens both on stage and in the process of creating the event, but no research have been done on analyzing the participants understanding of the socio-political complexity of what is a “Pilipina/o” and how that translates into
being “Pilipina/o American.” Furthermore, the analysis of the ethno-racial project
that happens in the Philippines nation-state is completely erased from the academic and social dialogue of identity formation for Pilipina/os in diaspora.
33
THEORY
I use various theories to not only bridge Pilipino American college males
with their understanding of anti-Asian racism, genderization, and sexualization, but also link their understanding of their racial, gender, and sexual identity through various lenses of spatial and temporal realities and imaginaries. I look at
how symbolic interactionism ascribed values to how Pilipino American college
males perform Igorotness not only for their audience, but as a means to validate
their own masculine identities. Sociological Hauntings is deployed to try to
understand the decolonial project of Pilipino American college males in relation to
their (imagined) collective colonial memories and trauma of struggling to know
their cultural roots. Finally, I combine both theories with studying social media
and its effects on archival memories and performances.
Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism looks at how individuals or groups of individuals ascribe meanings through interactions with others and societal norms (Blumer,
1969). I use this theory to look at how Pilipino American college males ascribe meaning and value to performing Igorot dances during their college career. Not only am I looking at these performances, I also analyze how both theater audience and external, online audience interact with these performance and either affirm or refute how Igorotness is portrayed. I problematize these symbolic meanings when analyzing social media sites and how I intersect Pilipina/o
/American and Igorot/American with online technology. Though I am not 34
interviewing any individuals, I look at the “likes,” “comments,” and “reblogs” of
online posted videos and pictures in various social media outlets.
Symbolic interactionism in my project is not used to validate identities of
Pilipino American college male students, but instead, critiques the imagined and
subscribed identities of Western masculinity that are performed on stage during
PCNs. I further argue that online social media creates a demand of existence for
Pilipino American college males who seeks to find affirmation, not only of their
performances, but also of their masculinity and maleness. Using the foundational
work of Herbert Blumer (1969), Dina Maramba (2010), and Kevin Nadal (2010), I
look at how Pilipino American males use the ethno-racial politics of Pilipino
American in relation to American colonization and self-other themselves from other Asian Americans. By self-othering themselves, a process where they intentionally separate from mainstream identities and groups in hope to be self- determined and self-defining (Levinas, 1974), Pilipino American males seek to navigate away from the stereotypes of the asexual and feminized Asian
American male body and thus try to (re)claim their identity as males in relation to
Western or American construction of maleness and masculinity. Analyzing the portrayal of body and masculinity within (social) media outlets (television, magazines, and online sites such as Facebook and Tumblr), Pilipino American males seek to emulate the chiseled body structure of White (and to some extent,
Black) males (Nadal, 2010 and 2012). Pilipino American males, along with other
Asian American males who wish to counter the stereotypical narrative placed on their bodies, find meaning in the images of masculinity (re)presented in media 35
and create meaning to them as they perform their self-constructed identities, in
this case gender and sexuality, in relations to their socially constructed identities
to which they navigate between continuously (Dervin, 2011). This navigated performance is bound to a temporal and spatial reality where identities are performed in relation to environment and social acceptance of such identities.
Whereas within a Pilipina/o collegiate environment, the performance of
(hyper)masculinity is seen as “normative” yet within a mixed or predominantly
White social setting, a form of ultra-hypermasculinity is done in order to counter
(pre)conceived notion of Asian American male sexuality. This becomes
(hyper)visible during identity performances such as in PCNs where identity politics are magnified and (re)presentation of the self is (over) dramatized. During
PCNs and social-cultural events, I look at how the (re)presentation and (over) dramatization of White (and Black) masculinity by Pilipino American (and Asian
American males) show a counter narrative and a resistance to the (negative) stereotypes placed on Asian American male bodies. Here, symbolic interactionism is used not to validate identities, but is used, instead, against predisposed identities. The stereotypes that are prescribed on Asian American males are, on one level, used by Asian American males to counter the stereotypes, but on another level, are used by Asian American males to subscribe to White/American maleness and masculinity. In countering this phenomenon, Pilipino American males who seek to counter both the stereotypes placed on Asian American males and against colonial mentality do so by imagining a Pilipino masculine identity based on a hybrid of non-Asian 36
masculinity and White masculinity. In doing so, to counter this stereotype and to
decolonize themselves, Pilipino American males look to Igorot culture as a
means to find the non-Western male, yet simultaneously, pre/subscribe to
Western/American masculinity to perform Igorotness.
Sociological Haunting
Memory and imagination plays a key role in how Pilipino American college
males see their decolonial identities as they search for meanings of their
ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Using Avery Gordon’s (1997) work on
Sociological Haunting helps me examine how Pilipino American males are
“haunted” by past trauma not necessarily experienced by them. These “traumas” are directly linked to colonization and struggles of being in diaspora as they navigate racialized and stereotyped identities that ascribe femininity to their male bodies (David, 2013; Nadal, 2010; Strobel 1996 and 2001). Sociological
Haunting considers how personal memories and imagined collective memories affect how individuals and society acts, thinks, and exist as opposed to the traditional approach of sociology that looks at physical manifestations and interactions, and their meaning. This “Haunting” describes how aspects of social life are lost or barely rendered visible when describing experiences, memories, and imaginations.
To reach the goal of decolonized subjectivity, Pilipino American college males, through the performance of Igorotness during PCNs, must problematize
Western colonial episteme that they currently embody. For PCN performers, the process of decolonization becomes a colonized act where the colonized 37 becomes inverted images of the colonizers (Leo, 2011). Though the traumas of colonization have been critiqued by social scientists, the value of colonial mentality and the skills obtained from are deployed by Pilipina/o Americans in their search for their cultural roots.
The indigenization movement started in the 1990s by many Pilipina
American women sought to address the issues of gender and sexuality that would critique Western influences in Philippine (diasporic) communities. The elevation of women and queer became a foundation to how Pilipina American women and Queer Pilipina/o Americans saw themselves in relations to Pilipino
American men (Strobel, 2001 and 2010). The mythological pre-colonial
Philippines became a strong focal point for many Pilipina/o Americans in understanding their identities and their realities. Critiques of the Pilipina/o
American indigenization movements, also known as Baybaylan to many, have been addressed in both the 2012 Association of Asian American Studies
Conference and in the Critical Filipina/o & Filipina/o American Studies Circle.
Activist and scholars addressed how the Baybaylan movement has influenced how many college youths view indigenousness and how indigenization has been used to decolonize themselves without actual reference to indigenous communities (Katutubo) in diaspora. “Decolonization” has been used as a metaphor to address anti-Western influences and counter colonial mentality. It has been separated from indigenous identities, but indigeneity has been invoked to connect to an imagined past (Tuck & Yang, 2012). For Pilipino American males, it is the return to this imagined and mythical indigenous past during 38 contemporary times in performative settings do they seek to decolonize themselves and (re)create an indigenous identity to counter American stereotypes of their bodies. At times, it is actually what they don’t know that empowers them to pretend that they know something; and, this imagined empowerment can be found at the points of intersectionality where individuals seek what they do not have, but believe they have entitlement to (Yang, 2011). It is this figment of imagined past and the haunting of complex identities where
Pilipino Americans male seek to (re)define themselves and (re)discover their identities.
The Igorot Online: A Chimera of Imaginative and Realistic Experience for Pilipino American College Male Students
Pilipino American college males in my study perform Igorotness as a form of decolonization and performative masculine identity not only on stage during
PCNs, but also beyond the stage, online, in social media. The performance of
“Idaw” by Pilipino American college males during PCNs reaffirms my argument that through the performance of Igorot cultural dances, Pilipino American college males seek to counter the stereotypes placed on Asian American males.
Through these Igorot performative identity, Pilipino American college males draws upon the mixture of Western masculine performativity and staged performance to counter the feminization and desexualization of their identity and bodies. This (imagined) counter performativity continues binding, not only the performance of the Pilipino American college male and their perception of masculinity and maleness, but Igorotness and the Igorot identity online in a 39 temporal and spatial reality. Thus I propose that netnography and the advancements in technology through social media such as YouTube©,
Facebook©, and Tumblr© extend the framework of cyborg identity within youth culture.
Drawing on Donna Haraway’s (1991) theory of the cyborg, I look at how online social media blurs the imaginary and the reality of identity
(counter)formation. In her article, Haraway looks at how the creation of the cyborg stems from sexist and masculinist perspectives in othering female bodies and is also a figment of masculine imagination. The cyborg is a hybrid of flesh and technology, the connection between the physical world and the online realm.
It is a way for humans to connect with technology as both a hybrid identity and as separate entities. It is also a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction, of reality and imaginary drawing from personal experiences, imagination, and power structure that seeks to maintain agency over not only the identities brought forth by reality and imaginations, but also the tangible intersections of identities that maintains dominance over others and socialized structures.
This cyborg, a mixture of biology and technology, organism and machine, fiction and nonfiction has manifested as a whole different creature than what
Haraway has expected it to be when she wrote her paper in 1991. She states in her research that the cyborg is the “illegitimate offspring” of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, and that its survival is through the “appropriation” of nature as a production of culture and the reproduction of the self from the reflection of the “other.” Haraway’s proposal fails to consider the generational issues mainly 40 diasporic youth from non-Western countries’ imagine their own identities and post-racial, post-gendered, and post-sexual online politics.
Analyzing Social Media
The analysis of social media using netnography is a growing field in both sociology and in the corporate world. The netnographical approach originated from studying the online lives of employees and public consumption of corporate media imagery through company websites, Facebook© profiles, and Twitter© accounts. In Kozinet’s articles on netnography (1997, 1998, and 2010), his research looked at online consumerism and cyberculture in relation to both the public and the corporate world. My approach in analyzing Igorotness in social media expands netnography where not only am I using social media as a site and subject of research, but also as a theoretical framework on how consumerism is not just on obtaining material wealth, but also is deeply tied to online social media. The purchasing of goods and services can be expanded to also getting membership to have the capability of obtaining such services. As social media expands, online sites require membership in order to be accessed
Thus, for public to access these pictures and videos, they must, not only have access to technology and the Internet, but also have membership to these online social media sites (Veblin, 1899).
41
Critical Ethno-Racial Studies
This study, in looking at Critical Race Theory (CRT), introduces race and
ethnic formations outside of the United States context of race and ethnicity as
well as beyond White-settler based modern nation-state ethno-racial projects.
Looking at CRT’s foundation, it is still highly based on the ethno-racial projects in the United States (Martinez, 2002; da Silva, 2007). It seeks to maintain the racial
categories set forth by the federal government in relationship to state government
to address what is race and ethnicity. The failure to look at non-Western ethno
racial projects has always been a dilemma within the study of CRT. It still invests
in a homogenizing definition of what ethnicity is and transforms national identity
into ethnic identity.
This research introduces scholars to the ethno-racial project of the
Philippines nation-state. It brings into light the complexity of a pluralistic society
and critiques the notions of national identities, cultures, and narratives. This research seeks to address the racialization of gender identity and sexuality; where the intersectionality of Asian American identity and Critical Asian American
Studies cannot separate itself from Critical Gender Studies. Through the introduction of PCNs and the performance of Igorotness as a vehicle of decolonization for Pilipino American collegiate males, this research contributes to the growing field of Performance Studies and Global Indigenous Studies. It addresses how, through the performance of the “savage Igorot” on stage, Pilipino
American males perform an imagined identity of a (un/de)colonized past. The
Igorot bahag, when worn by Pilipino American males, becomes a vehicle to 42 become another culture other than their own, but also becomes a catalyst to excite the performance of (hyper)masculinity and (hyper)maleness.
Through addressing the issues of Pilipino American collegiate males and their understanding of gender, sexuality, and indigeneity, I aim to contribute to the overall Critical Ethnic Studies genre especially within the fields of Asian
American, Pilipina/o American, and Indigenous Studies. My introduction to Igorot identity and its relationship to Pilipina/o American imaginary can be used as a foundation for future research on critiquing the ethno-racial project in the United
States and looking at the racial formations outside of Western settler nation- states. I encourage future researches that look at PCNs and performative racial identities to be critical of race, ethnicity, and nationality when addressing intersectional identities. If CRT critically looks at racial politics and identities in the United States, it must also be able to address how immigration contributes to the complexity of ethno-racial experiences of those who are transplanted in this nation-state.
METHODS
This research will focus on using qualitative methodologies to understand how Pilipino American males (mis)understand Igorot identity, how they negotiate their gender and sexual identities, and how Igorotness play in their understanding of their own gender and sexuality in relations to being both Pilipino American and
Asian American. I use a qualitative methodological approach in my research to better understand my participants’ behaviors and the reasoning behind their 43
behaviors (Denzin et al, 2005). The use of qualitative research allows me to
analyze not only visuals I obtained online, but also uses online interactions and
personal understanding of online norms to find meaning to online Igorot
performativity.
I will analyze their performance of Igorotness, masculinity, and nativeness/savageness and how all three correlate and intersect with one another. I will especially be concentrating on the meaning Pilipino American college males put on the bahag and how the bahag contributes to their
performance of maleness and masculinity. I use netnography not only as method
of my research in looking at online social media as a hybrid of site and
subjectivity, but also as a theory on how online identities are either mirror or
inverted images of the subject (Kozinets, 1997, 1998, and 2010). I also look at
content analysis to analyze these online social media sites and look for meanings
that both the owner and the audience put into the performance of Igorotness
(Alfonso et al, 2004; Babbie, 2004). The use of Visual Sociology is to look at how
these online images and its meanings contribute to the understanding of how
Pilipino American college male students use Igorot imagery to counter Asian
American stereotypes (Harper, 2012).
Population
My target population will be Pilipino-identified and male-identified college
students participating in their college’s Pilipino cultural production (also know as
F/Pilipino Culture Nights or F/PCN). These Pilipino-identified and male-identified
college students are from the age range of 18-21, the typical age level for 44 undergraduate students participating in PCNs. I will closely analyze Pilipino
American-identified males who participate in performing Igorotness on and off the stage through the wearing of the bahag. My concentration on the bahag-type performances is because of the (imagined) effects of the bahag on Pilipino
American males who wear them. These effects are usually, but not limited to,
(hyper)performance of masculinity usually attributed to defined physique, the
(cor)relation between masculinity and “savageness” usually attributed to the beating of the chest and the grunting, and the (hyper)sexual acts attributed to how they present themselves with the bahag on in front of each other and in front of women.
Setting
This thesis will look at various online social networks to further understand the relationship between Pilipino American collegiate male identity and
Igorotness. I observe how Pilipino American males perform their gender, sexuality, and their understanding of Igorotness as posted online in social networks. I will analyze various universities’ PCNs by using netnography, an analysis of online sites as both sites of research and as actual subjects. I will be going online on YouTube©, Facebook©, and Tumblr© to collect data from the different videos posted by different universities in the United States. By typing
“Igorot dance,” “Bahag dance,” Igorot college PCN,” and “Idaw,” I can gather photos and videos of college performances of Igorot culture and identity posted online. These online sites will also provide data on the portrayal of Igorotness by 45
Pilipino American college males. I will be using these online venues not only as a site, but also as a subject as explained in my section on Netnography.
Qualitative Method
I use multiple approaches of ethnography to address how the bahag contributes to this temporal and spatial reality for Pilipino American college males. Using netnography will allow me to analyze individuals’ performance of these temporal and spatial identities both in the physical realities and online.
Using content analysis will give a qualitative and humanistic approach to analyzing various forms of presentations of Igorotness and Pilipino American college male identity will enhance these data. Ethnography is widely used in cultural studies where the observer analyzes the actions, environment, and production of identity (and culture) by participants of the event being researched
(DeWalt & DeWalt, 2010; Emerson et al, 1995). This methodology is a foundation to ethnographies where the study of a group of individuals or a community allows the researcher to present a case for the behavioral and intersectional identities of the subjects. Since I will be looking at gender and sexual identity of my participants, I will also be using a clinical ethnographical approach where I will be closely looking at intersectionality of gender and sexuality with race and ethnicity in regards to Pilipino, Pilipino American, and Asian American identity (Herdt,
1999). This approach will look at how performers and audience give meaning to
Igorotness as it is seen during the performance. Though I look at these intersections, I will also be grounding my research on psychological research on
Pilipina/o Americans and Asian Americans in regards to race/ethnicity, gender, 46 and sexuality. Using a person-centered ethnographical approach, I also look at how Pilipina/o American and Asian American psychology are used in researching how individuals and communities interact with their sociocultural environment
(Levy & Douglas, 1998). Lastly, I will be using online ethnography or netnography to analyze how community and culture is created through online social media outlets and interactions (Kozinets, 1997, 1998, and 2010). Netnography looks at how the Internet and online social networks are actual communities with
(untalked about) set of rules, interactions, and culture. It would consider each online site (from photos, videos, to online blogs/journals) as actual subjects.
Netnography will be used in critically analyzing online contents, such as photos and videos, without separating the ethno-racial, gender, and sexual culture from the subject (Kozinets, 1997, 1998, and 2010). While conventional qualitative methods use the Internet and the online world as sites of research, this approach will allow me to look at various social media sites as subjects that have identities and have interactions with other online subjects.
Studying the different venues of communication both in text and extra- textual (websites and pictures) and its (possible) meanings is the foundation of what content analysis or textual analysis is (Babbie, 1993 and 2004). Content analysis looks at how these products, or forms of communications, have various meanings yet it does not find these products as actual sites or as subjects. The analysis of these products along with my understanding of the research site and culture of PCNs as well as theories on the genderization and sexualization of
Pilipino/Asian American males, I will analyze YouTube©, Facebook©, and 47
Tumblr© posts. These posts range from photographs to videos from the various
sites being researched where these online posts will be analyzed not only by
what is shown, but also how it is described for public viewers’ consumption. Non-
undergraduate community members who submit these pictures and videos online
are independent from the student organization and would express their own
interpretation of the performance. These personal interpretations are analyzed
differently from the comments posted by others who may not be affiliated with the
collegiate organization as well. These comments will be supplemental data that
may be used in understanding non-college students’ understanding of Igorotness and Pilipino/Asian American male gender and sexuality.
The field of Visual Sociology offers insight into how to analyze pictures and vides accumulated throughout my research. The study of visual images that are produced through cameras and video recorders of individuals are either done by participants of the program or community members, and are given meaning or supplemental meanings to the cultural production (Harper, 2001). The study of these images and the meanings participants and community members place upon them establishes symbolic codes that may be communally understood or understood intrapersonally (Alfonso et all, 2004). Though these images push for visual elicitation, I argue that the meaning of these images (both as pictures and videos) are complex and have different meanings to each individual and because of online interactions, these images may solicit different analysis of the post when interacting with other subjects online. Though I will be analyzing the movements such as bodily expressions and sound produced by performers on 48 stage doing Igorot dances, I will also look for meaning in the title, caption, and comments posted along with these photos and videos by the participant, members of the organization, and by random individuals who have manage to pass by the social media sites where they are posted. As part of this analysis, not only will I be trying to find meaning in these photos and videos, but also see how others put meaning on them beyond the performance on stage, and in this case, how the performance “continues” online in social media. I try to analyze the
(given) meaning(s) to the performance of Igorotness by Pilipino American college males and how it is expressed through different online venues and through subposts that happens after the original posting of these pictures and videos.
The threading comments and conversations will constantly change the meaning of the post as more individuals submit their (inter/re)actions to the visual product.
Struggles in Research
My biggest struggle in this research is the negotiation of the emic and the etic; the insider perspective and the outsider interpretation (Jahoda, 1977). My emic perspectives allows me to not only understand “Igorot culture,” but also
“Pilipino culture;” that which is found in a particular culture or cultural understanding has already been set and understood (Ager and Loughry, 2004).
As a Katutubo American of Igorot descent, I have an understanding of the general Igorot identity and culture using a Pan-Igorot lens of viewing Igorotness.
From the beginning of the process of this research, I will already have the cultural capital to know the difference between the different types of Igorot attire, songs, and dances. Being an Ethnic Studies major and taking Critical Gender Studies 49
courses while I was an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, I
also have the critical understanding of the social construction of race, ethnicity,
gender, and sexuality. This educational capital allows me to see these identities,
their intersectionality, and their construction much more visibly and along with my
identities, I am able to immediately critique their performance. I homogenize
both “Igorot” and “Pilipino” culture as monolithic, however though they are very
diverse and not bound in a temporality. For the purpose of this research, I will,
however, suspend Igorot identity to a temporal and spatial reality that is
connected to the area called the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) of
Northern Luzon, Philippines. I do this suspension to mirror the cultural
suspension that happens towards indigenous person culturally, politically, and
socially (Waitt, 1999). By doing so, I understand that identities will be silenced
and not addressing the plurality of the nation-state will be seen as my partial
investment in the pan-Pilipinoness project that I sought to problematize.
Though my emic perspectives will influence not only my research, but also how others see me, I will try to not have this influence the production of the whole program or engage directly with the college participants. I must be aware of the college participants’ etic interpretation of Igorotness and their performance of masculinity. Though etic interpretation generalizes research (Morris et al, 1999), I must also be aware that I, too, am coming from an etic interpretation where I generalize Pilipino Americans’ understanding of Igorotness. I am using an etic lens where I purposely search for meanings that can contribute to my special interest in this project. 50
ANALYSIS
As online archival methods have expanded as technology increases and social understanding of the Internet becomes more accessible. These connections manifest beyond individual and computer relations with Internet access, but expand to individual with smartphones (also known as cellphones), tablets, and music/mp3 players. For many youth, online social media, have become a site to not only submit pictures, videos, or stories (also known as
“posting”), but has become an alternate reality where they both exist in an imaginary and constructed space, but also is a figment of continues social constructions archived and presented to an infinite audience outside of actual physical contact. Here, I look at various intersections of Pilipino American male performativity connecting the imagined identity of Igorotness and Pilipino
American virtual identity. My analysis will bridge the use of online venues of social network as both sites and subjects of analyzing the portrayal of Igorotness by Pilipino American college males. I analyzed how Pilipino American college males imagine what Igorot performative identity would be, how the representation of Igorotness in the performances is tied to Western notions of heteronormative/cisgendered masculinity, and how theatrical performativity of the
Igorot contributes to their counter narration of the stereotypes placed upon Asian
American male bodies. I do this by analyzing online videos and pictures on
YouTube©, Facebook©, and Tumblr© that students and community members post. Within these sites, I look at how the owners of these videos and pictures 51 describe the performance of Igorotness, how off-stage Pilipina/o /American audiences (viewers of these sites) interact with the posts through comments and
“likes,” and how Igorot/American audiences react to both owners of these videos and pictures and the comments Pilipina/o /American post. Though focusing on how Pilipino American college male online performance of Igorotness as the main contributing factor to counter Asian American male stereotypes, I look at these online interactions between the three groups of subjects as contributing factor to socially constructed (mis)understanding of Igorot identity and its connection to performative Pilipina/o American collegiate life.
Online social media allow individuals and organization to post online for public consumption. Once archived in these social networks, participant and audience interaction to the performance changes because it is literally outside the theater, the space that was originally used for the performance. Non- audience interaction to these posts manifests through various ways and in turn, become external participants to the performance. These sensory reactions can be found on the comments and the amount of “likes” (online approval system used in many social media) on each posting by both peers of either the performer or those who posted them and non-affiliated, no-relations public individuals who have connected with these posts and have responded to them. The can also be seen by the amount of “views” (online visits) to these sites. For YouTube©, the amount of viewers may not correlate with the amount of comments or “likes,” but those who wish to interact are seen on the interface of the site expressing their views on the post. 52
I chose to look at online social media as a hybrid of site and subjectivity and not the actual performance or performers as live subjects in hope to make the argument that social interactions are now not bound to physical social interactions, and that because of the Internet, social interactions are now digitized and electronic. The Igorot is not just a physical and socio-cultural politicized subject that is performed by Pilipino American college males, but it is also a nano-subject that is suspended in a pre-modern state online through the performativity of Pilipino American college males. Yet also, through both the physical and online performance of Igorotness, Pilipino American college male are able to continuously critique and counter the stereotypes placed on Asian
American male bodies by showing the world their constant performance of
Western maleness and masculinity. The performance of Western notions of maleness and masculinity can be measured by the performers body presentation on stage and how audiences give meaning to these performances. Examples of this symbiotic relationship between performers and audience members during a
PCN performance can also be seen in social media where pictures and videos are posted for public consumption and archival memories. Not only with the physical performance during PCN does audience participate in finding and giving meaning to Pilipino American college male Igorotness, but non-physical audience do the same online when seeing pictures and videos on social media.
From Stage to YouTube©: Posting “The Igorot”
YouTube© started as an online video sharing network in 2005 where members would post their daily interactions and experiences for others to see 53 and comment on. As its popularity grew, it attracted high school and college students to post their talents online and gain fans (or “subscribers”) that would
“like” or comment on their performances. It expanded to what it is today, an online site and social network that companies, nation-states, and high-end global individuals utilize to inform others of their current events, talents, and instead of just posting comments on other “posts,” they video post their responses to social and global issues. With RSS (Rich Site Summary) “feeds” (a way to connect different social media to one another and notify the users of these updates)
YouTube© clips are also connected to Facebook© and Tumblr© that enhances the reach of audience who may see the videos.
YouTube© has gain popularity by youth participation through performance posts and online video commentaries. It is also used as an online venue to showcase collegiate folk dance and has been site for conversations between the individual (or organization) who posted the video, the performers, and non affiliated community members who have seen the video online. Using YouTube© as both a site and a subject of research allowed me to analyze multiple universities outside of my current physical location of Southern San Diego. For my online search of various college (F)Pilipino Culture Nights (F/PCN), I used the key terms of “PCN,” “Igorot,” and “culture night.” I analyzed ten posts where the common term used to title the Igorot dance being performed was “Idaw.” For many folk dance companies (which these college students mimic), the “Idaw” is a ritualistic dance before a war where the Igorot men listen to the sound of the
Idaw bird that is regarded to be an auspicious sign for victory. In different dance 54 descriptions, this dance is either attributed to the Bontok or Kalinga tribe. Though this dance is highly sought after by Pilipino American male college students to represent the Cordillera or Igorot Suite because of its male-centered and masculine portrayal, there is no account of an actual Idaw dance from both
Bontok and Kalinga tribes as stated by Michael Wandag, the Director of the
Institute of Native Arts – Igorot, in an interview conducted in 2009 who himself is both Bontok and Kalinga. For majority of Pilipino collegiate organizations, this is seen as “the Bahag dance” which can be seen with the (hash) tags (key words to describe what has been posted online) that were used in the description of the video.
The bahag is crucial to the performance of “Idaw” and Igorot identity among Pilipino American college males as it is the traditional attire for Igorot males.
Ipugoo/Ifugao boys wearing the wanes (also known as the bahag)
(http://thechroniclesofmariane.blogspot.com/2013/05/baguio-citys-panagbenga-2013
photoblog.html) 55
As in any Igorot-type dances performed by folk dance companies and Pilipino
American college males, the wearing of the bahag is crucial to the performance.
It signifies the embodiment of the Igorot male identity, as it is the main attire of any Igorot regalia. For some of these males, the attachment of feathers on their head elaborated the Igorot image though not all Igorot tribes adorn their headwear with feathers. Their concept of Igorotness falls on their imagery of a hybrid of Bontok and Kalinga tribes. The “Idaw” dance, as it is called in all the
YouTube© videos I have analyzed, are all male and all are relatively fit looking.
The videos I analyzed did not have any males who would be considered socially overweight though not all of them have defined abdomens or arms. Some are barrel-chested with heavy upper arms even though they do not have defined abdomens. Some of the videos I analyzed had the males adorned with made-up or temporary tattoos mimicking the body art Igorot male and female obtain at a certain age or when given honor in the village. These tattoos are done on the chest and the upper arms of the dancers. 56
(Shawn Schallman, 2008)
Throughout the various videos, Pilipino American college males performed the “Idaw” in a mock-battle type of scenario. Like the story line of the folk dance, they all began as if they were in a forest looking for something. A background flute is then played to symbolize the auspicious song these warrior-dancers have been waiting for. Central to the performance is the depiction of a war dance done only by college males. Though there are various renditions of the dance, but there is a common set of moves commonly displayed and performed by the male performers. Only a few altercations were done to make the university’s performance unique to other F/PCNs.
The performance begins as the warrior-dancers enter the stage as if wondering in a forest and begin to look up as if searching for the Idaw bird. As 57
the drums beat and the flute begins to play, the dancers immediately begin to
beat their shields with their spears; pounding the base of their spear (the handle)
to the front of the shield making a loud clapping sound. After multiple pounding,
loud grunts are made as if to mimic the beginning of a war cry. As the drums
beat, the warrior-dancers shout and thus, begin the war dance with beating of the
gongs that accompany the drums. On occasion, the flute would be played as the
warrior-dancers jump and spin all the while, still pounding their spears on their
face of their shields. A second set of warrior-dancers come portraying the opposing tribe and a mock simulation of a battle begins. Both sets of warrior- dancers representing opposing tribes jump and spin while grunting and elevating their spears in the air. The battle dance continues until one tribe is threatened and leaves the battle area, leaving the main set of warrior-dancers to continue on with the dance. The performance ends as the winning warrior-dancers roar
loudly, body bent back with arms extended out with both spear and shield held
firmly. Universities with a small population of Pilipino American males recreates
the folk dance with only one set of warrior-dancers and no mock battle between two rival tribes.
The Spectacle of the Igorot: Stereotypes that Bind Igorotness to Gendered Identities
The Pilipino American college males who perform “Idaw” become a
spectacle for the audience, both male and female audience members. Before the
performance starts, the audience immediately reacts to the drums and the flute
knowing that the next performance is going to be an Igorot-type dance. As the 58 males begin to enter the state (and in some cases, when the lights begin to turn on revealing the male dancers crouching down), the female cheers resonated louder than the claps of the general audience. Similar to cat calls, the female audience members whistled and jeered as the dancers became more visible on stage. The male audiences’ cheers were deep and base-toned, more of a sound for encouragement while the females’ cheers were more sexually based and it was used to be more of an ego boost for the male dancers.
The image the male dancers perform on stage is a mixture of stereotypes of Igorot dancing and performing masculine stereotypes. Their performance of masculinity starts before entering the stage. They exaggerate the visibility of their defined, muscular bodies, with either lotion or baby oil which allows the audience to see the definition of their bodies. The movements they use are very rigid and allow them to continuously flex their muscles to exaggerate their performance of masculinity and indigenousness. The weapons and the shield also add to the performance of masculinity.123
The “Bahag Dance” (here seen as the “Idaw dance”) is performed by
Pilipino American college males only, perpetuating an image that it is only Igorot men who goes to war. This gendered dance disqualifies the participation of
Pilipina American college females from even being on stage while the men perform. Traditionally, there are very few Igorot dances that does not involve
1 Dunxtrip. 2008. “SLO PCN – Idaw.” YouTube Website. Retrieved July 10, 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvYPTXRPOzY)
2 Qwertymartini. 2008. “UCR Katipunan PCN Bontok and Salip.” YouTube Website. Retrieved July 10, 2013. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nj9fKKv68s)
3 Whoaapdt. 2013. “USC PCCXXII: Paghanap – Idaw.” YouTube Website. Retrieved July 10, 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZ7hmSXT54) 59 females. If females do not dance with the males, they are usually in the back singing or are background dancers to the male performers. Here, “war dance” and “warrior dance” is equated to male-bodied individuals and masculinity is shown through the (hyper)visibility of the male body. The rivalry between the two tribes portrays how those who are male-bodied, male-identified, bind rivalry and fighting to the performance of masculinity and maleness.
As Pilipino American college male students perform Western notions of masculinity through the “Bahag dance,” they do so being seen as feminized and desexualized Asian American male bodies. This constant portrayal and negotiation of performative counter-stereotypes versus racialized stereotypes puts the Pilipino American male body in imaginary state where their identity is always in constant struggle against feminization, desexualization, and racial homogenization with other Asian American male bodies. In doing so, they mimic
Western male masculinity to not only counter Asian Americanization, but also to insert themselves within the dialogue of maleness. For Pilipino American college male students, Igorotness allows them to navigate between being American and their perceived notions of being “indigenous Pilipino.” Through the performance of various stereotypes, the question of actually liberating Pilipino American college male students from the feminization, desexualization, and racial homogenization may be arguable as stereotypes still comes from a source of colonial mentality, patriarchy, and privilege. The performance of the stereotypes does not create a sense of permanent identity, but instead creates a hybrid 60
identity of fact and fiction, thus never really liberating the subject in society, but in
their minds, they believe that they are being self-determined (Lee, 1997).
Non-physical audiences’ reaction to the videos varies and it can be divided into two main commentators – Pilipina/o Americans and
Igorot/Americans. Pilipina/o American audiences react through liking the post or by commenting on the videos, while Igorot/Americans react to it in a very negative way. “Clicking” on the comment owner’s profile and reading their biography made these distinctions between who was an Igorot and who was not.
Aside from the biographies of the individual that stated whether they identified as
Igorot or if they were from Bangsa Igorot, I looked at the amount of Igorot-liked
contents in their profiles. I came to conclusion that an individual was Igorot
identified if they stated what province they are from in the Philippines, if they self-
identified as Igorot, if their posted films were Igorot cultural productions, or if they
expressed on their comments that they were Igorots The videos themselves are
also a continuation of live audience participation as commentators continue to
cheer on the performers by giving positive feedback on the wall post and “liking”
the posts. 61
(AcousticBoyAdrian, 2009)
In the example shown above, San Diego State University’s performance of the “Bahag dance” reached over six thousand views, six “likes,” and two 62
“dislikes.” Much more so, the comments posted to this video vary from positive comments, jokes, and one inquiry question from a viewer who asked if the performers were “Ifogaus” (actually spelled “Ifugao,” an Igorot tribe). One of the viewers expressed their attraction to a male performer by the name of Eric while another continues on that interaction by encouraging the owner of the video to focus on Eric’s “butt.” While watching the video, the cheers and the encouragements shouted by audience members during the performance were mainly by females. The performance of the Igorot, as seen in this video, is done so through staged movements that are considered to be masculine by both the performers and the audience member (both during the performance and online).
Rarely did males cheer on the performers, but instead, some laughed during the performance. The female encouragement of the “Bahag” dancers can be seen and heard during moments the male performers are exhibiting sharp physical movements, grunting and yelling, and posing with their muscles flexed. One can also see that the leader of the “Bahag” dancers were males with the most defined bodies while those who were later in the line or more towards the back of the stage were males who did not have muscular bodies. Thus, one can argue that the most “authentic” Igorot-like performers are those who perpetuate a more masculine notion of maleness through body imagery and organizationally accepted male status. The performers embody Igorotness as “is an Igorot” rather than “as an Igorot” because of what they presume to be “authentic” Igorot performative identity (Schechner, 2002). In other words, the hybridity of the of “is an Igorot” and “as an Igorot” in the socio-cultural imagination and reality of 63
Pilipino American college males not only brings further the argument that the performance of the Orientalized body will still be seen as Oriental and “other”, but also still will be seen by non-Asian American bodies as feminine and non-male
(Leung, 1996; Said, 1978).
(dverde, 2010)
On the other hand, those who critique the online posts do so by stating their disappointment on how Igorot culture is being portrayed or how the whole dance does not represent Igorot culture or identity. Such interaction happened on the performance done by the University of Maryland at College Park’s 2010 performance where, due to negative feedback from Igorot/Americans, prompted 64 them to “turn off” the comment capabilities on their YouTube© site. During my first online search, the University of Maryland at College Park allowed community comments on the page and positive comments came from Pilipina/o Americans who affirmed the performance, yet it was the comments of Igorot/Americans that prompted the university to end the capabilities to post comments only two months after I initially analyzed it. Current unproductive comments that critique the performance prompted to the University to censor this online capability. Upon further investigation, the individual who owns the “page” disabled all capabilities of public comments on all his videos depicting not only Igorot performances done by Pilipino American college males, but also Moro and Lumad performances.
Like other performance of Igorotness, the main non-online audience participation were females who cheered the male performers as they grunted, flexed, and pretended to be fighting. What was also very interesting is that the University named it “Idaw” as well and the description stated “One Tribe” as the name of the whole PCN creating a sense of pan-nationalism and pan-tribal nationalism attributed to the Philippines nation-state without its understanding of the plurality of the country (Martinez, 2001). This pan-nationalism and pan-tribal nationalism in the performance of Igorotness and throughout the actual play, stems from the imagined collective memory of Pilipina/os in diaspora that seeks to create a nation-state that is a hybrid of their own aspiration to create a “one” monolithic
Pilipino (gendered as male in colloquial and linguistic references) regardless of the complexity of the nation-state (Gordon, 1997). As pan-tribal nationalism is incorporated into the bigger pan-nationalist project done by Pilipina/o American 65
college students, college students in the United States will not address the reality
of a pluralist nation-state that is discussed in the Philippines. As PCNs continue, the performance of “tribal dances” will be seen as a gateway to “return” to a pre
colonial state of both reality and imaginary (Strobel 2001 and 2010).
(scottyyayo, 2006)
Other online accounts that allow public commentaries do not pay attention
to the comments or “dislikes.” Though many “purists” publicly shame or critique
the dances as nothing more than Igorot mockery, those who do comment back
are not the actual participants of the performance. These online posts by
Igorot/Americans always stress the importance of addressing the plurality of the 66
nation-state and how Pilipina/o performers are uneducated of ethnic minority
cultures. Yet, a commentator also inserts himself or herself by analyzing the
performance and how one female on-site audience member reacted by saying
“ewww” because of the lack of clothing these college males had on them. The
commentator responds in Tagalog (a ethno-linguistic group found in Northern
Philippines and whose language is considered the foundation of the national
language called “Filipino”) that she may be disgusted, but after the performance,
she will go and “taste” (sexually) the male performers. This continues the
theoretical argument that the “Bahag dance” is connected to masculinity and
maleness and thus, when sexualized, is connected to female sexuality.
Interestingly, this online conversation does not have the college male performers
or the person/organization who posted the video participate in any of the
conversations that happen on the “wall” of the video. This lack of interaction by
the performers with the off-stage, online audience shows how the male
performers are indifferent to what others think of their performativity because
they assert their own versions of masculinity through representations of
Igorotness. Though there are both critiques and praises done by other Pilipina/o
/American and Igorot/American audience members, this show that these
comments do not affect both the self-defining process and collective college mentality of finding their own identity and (re)claiming their socio-cultural
(de)gendered and (de)sexualized bodies. Thus, the Pilipino American college
male student performing Igorotness do so for both themselves and for their peers
to enhance their own understanding Pilipina/oness. 67
Beyond YouTube©: The .com-ing of Pilipino American College Male Igorotness
Now that a version of the RSS© Feed has expanded to connect multiple social networks together, individuals may now post a video on YouTube© and directly connect it to Facebook© and Tumblr©. Facebook© is a social network that started off in 2004 as a network only for college students. One needed a university email to register and connect with other folks within the university and with other campuses across the nation, then the world. It opened to non- university participants in 2006 and allowed non-human participants to become users of the site. These non-human participants, for example, are organizations, government offices, special interests groups, companies, and even natural landmarks. Interestingly, Facebook© has also allowed deceased individuals to become participants of the site where the information page is controlled by avid fan(s) who post pictures, quotes, and at time, vides from YouTube© to raise awareness of their stories and educate others of their success. An example of a deceased academic who has an avid fan base and who posts quotes and pictures of “himself” is Franz Fanon (https://wwww.facebook.com/franz_fanon) and whose fan base are other academics. In 2010, Facebook© programmers created Instagram© as a subsidiary of its company that allows photo and video sharing as a form of smartphone social networking. Instagram’s© popularity grew with the youth as a way to share their current location, what they are eating, what they are wearing, and what they are doing. Tumblr© is an online journal (or blog) that allows users post not only personal journal topics, but also pictures, videos, 68 quotes, and memes (video screenshots that are edited to reflect on the user’s current state of feeling or thinking). Since its inception in 2007, Tumblr© has also used as a venue of critical dialogue and online political activism where users would post opinion editorials or videos critiquing social norms, politics, and culture.
For many Pilipina/o American college youth who participate in online posting/blogging, Tumblr© has been a venue to express themselves and the process they are going through dealing with culture, diaspora, community, and identity politics. Though the sites I have researched varied, a common thread I noticed among them are the types of posts that are made public regarding PCNs and cultural productions. For many Pilipina American female college students, the posts include their journey in finding themselves and how their PCN was a vehicle in trying to understand their diasporic intersectional identities. Yet the posts I saw from Pilipino American male college students, their posts on PCN are either pictures or videos of their performance. In particular, I noticed how Pilipino
American male college students who participate in the “Bahag dance” intentionally post pictures or videos of themselves in the bahag or announce that their participation in the dance. This public display and announcement seeks to find an audience that would complement (through comments and “likes”) their body and cultural existence. These acknowledgments contribute to imagined identity of Pilipino American college male students in their performance of masculinity and maleness. These affirmations become contributing factors to their realization that Igorotness and the performance of “the Bahag” is deeply tied 69 to masculinity, thus is in negotiation to socio-cultural perception of stereotypes
Asian American male bodies. It allows the Pilipino American college male student to continue critiquing the feminized and desexualized Asian American male body.
(legenkevinndary, 2012)
Facebook©, on the other hand, has been utilized by college students and student organizations to archive their events for the academic year. An example I looked at was San Diego State University’s FCN (using “Filipino” instead of
“Pilipino”) photography album on their Facebook© site. SDSU archived various years’ FCN preparatory workshops and day-off production that shows student participants learning the dances then performing them during the actual play. 70
Interestingly, I happened to come across the “Bahag boys” preparatory workshops before their actual practice of the dance. These male students (not presuming everyone in the picture self-identifies as “Pilipino”) congregated in a circle for an introductory speech by the “leader” of the group who then led the
“boys” into various physical routines to prepare them for their dance. These included various workouts such as running, crunches, and pushups.
(www.facebook.com/absamahan)
Continuing on with how SDSU prepares for their “Bahag dance,” I did a similar search on Tumblr© on how other Pilipino American college male students prepare for their performance. Though many did not indicate what university they were from, they did express how performing the “Bahag dance” needed physical preparations in the form of physical workouts so the image of the masculine
Igorot may be portrayed on stage. 71
(rondillo, 2011)
Here, user name “rondillo” expressed how he needs to be in “better shape” for his performance for his university’s PCN. Expressing that he will be performing shirtless, to be presentable on stage, he must re-obtain his “old 6 pack” (in reference to abdominal muscles). In order to be acceptable for his
“Bahag dance” performance, he will need to perpetuate a hypermasculine identity where masculinity is measured by physical fitness and its hybridity with the perceived communal acceptance of Igorot male imagery. His Asian American body does not fit not only his own perception of masculinity, but would not be aesthetically pleasing to the audience where he hopes to be seen as in a masculine state. He thus works out and tries to be muscular as he feels that the measurement of masculinity is through a fit and defined body (Nadal, 2010). This imagery of the muscular or fit (coded as “masculine”) Igorot male body thus becomes the ideal body and performatively acceptable for both the consumption 72 of the performer, the organization, and community. The Igorot male will thus be always seen as muscular and fit, not allowing the body variance seen in public and within the Igorot community (both in Bangsa Igorot and in diaspora).
Igorot American Voices: Struggles in Connecting with Pilipina/o Americans Online
Both Facebook© (and Instagram©) and Tumblr© has also been a catalyst to expanding the dialogue between Igorots and non-Igorots when addressing the performativity of Igorotness by Pilipino American college males. As universities post pictures and videos on their page or “wall,” it allows for public interaction and reaction to these posts. Igorot/Americans are also posting on Facebook© and Tumblr© to educate others of their existence in the United States and offer workshops to try and change the misrepresentation of Igorot culture by Pilipina/o
Americans. 73
(china-belle, “no date”)
BIBAK-Los Angeles, and organization composed of the various Igorot
tribes transplanted in the county of Los Angeles, California, held a music and
dance workshop co-sponsored by BIBAK-San Diego open to the Pilipina/o
American community. This day-long workshop called “Mini-Canao” (also spelled
“Kanyaw,” which means “gathering” in various Igorot languages) were attended by many non-Igorot Americans, but no college students. User named china-belle 74 posted various pictures of the event on Tumblr© where many college organizations “liked,” but did not comment back. Various attempts online have been made by Igorot Americans to educate Pilipina/o Americans of the diversity of Igorot culture, but it is seldom utilized by college student organizations. In an interview with Michael Wandag (2007), he expressed that the reason why college students don’t attend BIBAK workshops is because they fear that they will be called out for their “Bahag dances” and that they don’t want to change their routine because there will be many Pilipino American college males who will be disappointed if they cannot “grunt, yell, flex, and go to war” on stage. Though there have been multiple attempts to have dialogue with Pilipina/o Americans who perform folk dances, the influence of folk dances have been deeply ingrained in the mentality of Pilipino Americans where the Igorot is muscular and fit. The Igorot imaginative identity becomes a focal point for Pilipino American college males to connect with Igorot identity without actually having a dialogue with an actual Igorot. The Igorot is a hybrid of Pilipino imaginary and performative reality, while Pilipina/os are a hybrid of Igorot reality and colonial performative reality.
Though Facebook© is limited to individuals who are considered your
“friends” (individuals who has a Facebook© account and is connected to you),
Instagram© and Tumblr© are open to anyone to see regardless if they are considered your “friends” or “followers.” By virtue, online posts are an extension of the performance outside of YouTube and outside the stage. The posting of pictured and videos are also meant to document and archive the performance for 75 other users to utilize in their future performances or to compare them to other types of performances. This can be seen by some of the comments from underclass Pilipino American college males who state that they cannot wait to perform the “Bahag dance” when they’re upper-class individuals.
In 2011, both Instagram© and Tumblr© introduced the concept of
“hashtag” (our “pound” outside of social networks #) to help users discover posts and also to connect to one another. The hashtag phenomenon grew as other social networks adopted Facebook’s© subsidiary’s use of immediate online connection to others. While exploring these social networks, I connected with other university performances by locating #bahagdance #bahagboys and
#igorotdance. These led me to expand on my social interactions with individuals who performed or watched a “Bahag dance.” What I noticed is the same types of comments that I would see on YouTube©, Facebook©, and Tumblr© ranging from positive inspirational comments to negative critical comments. Again, those who post rarely entertain or interact with those who negatively critical comments.
The Immortalization of the “Bahag Dance” Online: When .com Becomes the Catalyst for Spatial and Temporal Suspension
Videos and pictures posted online become “immortalized” in many ways which only programmers and youth have been able to utilize. Igorot-imagined identity through the performance of the “Bahag Dance” by Pilipino American college male students is posted online for public critique and consumption. The
“masculine” Igorot identity becomes a focal point for Pilipino American college males to continue reimagining and performing their identity and whose sphere of 76 influence expands to multiple colleges and universities. Through these videos and pictures, Pilipino American college males become symbolic and iconized bodies representative on not only Igorotness, but also of (Western) masculinity and maleness. Though the videos and pictures may be deleted by its owners,
Facebook©, Tumblr©, and YouTube© interfaces allows the “reposting” of these posts and thus recirculates the video or image even if the original has been deleted. An example of this would be the Cordillera Suite done by the Bayanihan
Philippine National Dance Company (Santos, 2004). The company created various instructional dance videos in dvd and vhs format between 2000-2003, showcasing step-by-step movements for their rendition of various ethno-linguistic folk and traditional dances. Though these videos were distributed widely, very few critiques came from the Katutubo communities. In the case of Igorot dances, some Igorots responded by stating that it was not their tribe’s dance. Former
Bayanihan choreographer, Ramon Obusan (who later created the Ramon
Obusan Folkloric Group) stated in an interview that if Igorots say that it was not there dance, then it should be qualified as non-Igorot (Ness, 1997). The vhs were stopped being produced after 2004 and the dvd formats were stopped being reproduced after 2008. Yet, because of various computer programs, many have copied or “ripped” footages of the instructional videos and made them free to the public online through YouTube© and Tumblr©. The following is a
YouTube© post that was “ripped” from Bayanihan’s instructional video on the
“Idaw” dance made especially for the University of Southern California’s Troy Phi student organization. 77
(Isabelle Lacson, 2007)
As college students and audiences invest in more advance technological programs, higher quality and longer videos and pictures are now being posted online to showcase the performances. In almost the same time period, a phenomenon occurred where, not only are Igorots in diaspora critiquing these performances online, but are also uploading the traditional performances done by the actual tribes and performed within their villages. Some have even resorted to 78 creating YouTube© instructional videos to counter folk dance companies and college student organization’s misunderstanding of Igorot culture.
(batman619, 2012)
Here, BIBAK-San Diego, in collaboration with Samahan Filipino American
Performing Arts and Educational Center, performs the Bontok “War Dance” also known as Ballangbang or Mamaka in front of over a hundred audience members of various racial and ethnic groups. User named “batman619” posts this performance of what is typically known as the “Idaw dance” on YouTube© to showcase Bontok culture and Igorot American youths performing traditional dances. Though it has been only viewed 503 times since October 2012, more 79 and more Igorots (both in the Philippines and in diaspora) are posting their videos online.
(char2binx, 2008)
This clip, added in 2008, is of an old vhs video of a Mamaka (Bontok War
Dance) from the village (ili) of Foyayeng in Bontok (now referred to as Mountain
Province). One can clearly see that the participants are not in full regalia where some of the men are wearing t-shirts or vests as well as the women rather than showing their bare breasts. In the following clip, Ifugao/Ipugoo Americans dance the Dinuya-ya (also spelled Dinuya) while wearing Western-style clothing of 80 pants and shirts. None of the males or females in the dance wore traditional tribal regalia.
(ibmojojojo, 2009)
This online differential perspectives on Igorot performativity has become
(hyper)public for consumption and critique. In a public discussion in 2008, Ba’e
(title given to female royalty) Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa, wife of Maha-Raya
(derived from the Sanskrit “maha” meaning “great” and “raja” meaning “ruler)
Datu (titular local ruler) Punjugan Amilbangsa (of the Tausug people/tribe) of the
Sulu Sultanate, expressed her frustration on how Pilipina/os demand that indigenous people must perform their cultural dances and music while in full 81
regalia. That it was aesthetically pleasing to the audience if the performer can be
more “authentic” in their ethnic attire. This correlation of “authentic” performance
with ethno-tribal regalia suspends indigenous identities into a pre-modern
imaginative state. In order to gain acceptance by the audience, performers must don traditional attire as to mimic what it would be like perform these dances in pre-modernity. In looking at various YouTube© clips, most Igorots in the United
States perform their tribal dances in contemporary attire when dancing in front of each other and traditionally, it is elders who perform first before younger generations. It is when there is an audience of non-Igorot do they wear their tribal regalia to further the authentication of their performance. The Igorot (both in the
Philippines and in diaspora) are able to navigate their performative identity in both contemporary and pre-modernity, yet for Pilipina/o Americans college students, the Igorot must always be performed in pre-modern. As videos and pictures of Igorotness as performed by Pilipina/o Americans are posted online on social networks, it furthers suspends the Igorot into a pre-modern state. In both the imaginary and reality of Pilipina/o Americans, the Igorot will always be seen and portrayed in a particular image without jeans, t-shirts, and contemporary clothing. Even though contemporary Igorots in diaspora are posting their videos and pictures, they do not make any drastic changes in the performativity of
Pilipina/o Americans during PCNs.
Findings: The Bahag = The Bayag
Looking at the various ways Igorotness have been embodied by Pilpino
American college males and how it has been (re)produced online, I complicate 82
this hybrid relationship between the real and the imaginative, the state of
performance and the state of repose, and the physical and the metaphysical by
comparing the bahag to a socio-culturally accepted symbol of masculinity, the
penis and the scrotum. Here I present the case that the bahag becomes a tool
not only to connect to indigenousness, but also is a key to performing masculinity
and maleness. That the bahag is the catalyst for Pilipino American college male
students to connect to an imaginative masculine state based on Western
constructs of masculinity and anti-Asian Orientalist male stereotypes. I connect
the bahag to the “bayag” as a hybrid of metaphorical masculinity, but also is a symbolic icon for the penis and scrotum.
“Bayag” in the Tagalog language (the foundation of the national Filipino language) means “scrotum” or “balls,” yet in Pilipino colloquialism, having a
“bayag” means one is masculine, strong, and, in some circumstances, not easily pushed around by others. Looking at the portrayal of the “Bahag dance,” the males who perform them differ from the Igorots online in various ways –1) the performers are muscular or fit looking while Igorot males tend to be skinny or have a belly; 2) the performers scream and yell, while Igorot males perform their dances rhythmically or slow; 3) the performers holds weapons while Igorot males have none with them; and 4) the performers have a stern face when dancing, while Igorot males are either smiling or have a calm face. As a Pilipino American college male don the bahag, the performance of Igorotness is directly connected to the performance of maleness and masculinity, the bahag becoming a vehicle and a catalyst for Pilipino American males to tap into an imagined Igorot male 83 performative identity. When wearing the bahag, the Pilipino American college male, thus embodies “bayag-ness” and becomes hypermasculine on stage. This
“bayag-ness” continues on as videos and pictures are posted online in social network, reaffirming the performers’ masculinity and bound to a particular social and temporal imaginary that suspends the Pilipino American college male into a particular age, particular identity, and particular reality.
Performing the Bayag Before College: Igorotness in High School
(coastinsoulz2, 2009)
In an undisclosed PCN because the location is unclear, though my presumption is that it is a high school PCN, Pilipino American males perform a choreographed dance routine with sexualized dance moves to contemporary hip hop and pop music while wearing the bahag. Body rolls, gyrating hips, and 84 mimicked humping are cheered upon by Pilipina American females; yelling encouragements and catcalls towards these male performers as they reenact sex movements on stage. These high school males also exhibit the stereotypical body image that Pilipino American college males portray when they perform with the bahag – slim to fit bodies with muscles. Though these males are not performing any Igorot-type dances, they utilize the bahag to enhance their maleness as they perform sexualized dance moves in front of female audience members. The bahag, in this dance, is much so a representative of the bayag as it is a manifestation of an imagined phallic symbol. As the high school males dance, their bahag/bayag is symbolically linked to an imagined penis as they hump the air while they are lying on their backs. The bahag, as a metaphor for the bayag, thus becomes a phallicized symbol not only connected to masculinity and maleness, but also used as a performative tool to counter stereotypes of feminine and non-sexual Asian American males.
This performance problematizes my research in which the performance of
Igorotness and its ties to masculinity and maleness have begun to expand to male students before entering college. The “masculine and fit Igorot” has now been embodied by Pilipino American high school students and still fits the earlier arguments of performative masculinity and maleness done by Pilipino American college male students. In this performance, the connection between the bahag and masculinity is expressed as high school male performers insert their sexuality for both entertainment and cultural purposes. As a PCN at the high school level, the bahag continues to be utilized as a key to both imaginative 85 cultural identity and performative sexuality. The socio-cultural influence of the bahag in relationship to bayag continues to assert a gendered and sexual identity for Pilipino American males and suspends the Igorot into a performative identity measured by Western notions of masculinity and maleness. For these high school students, the continuation of performing Igorot masculinity may continue on when they attend college and through their connection with online social media. The immortalization of Igorot masculine performativity through online social media then become a way of critiquing Asian American male stereotypes and creating an imaginative vehicle that suggests that Igorot identity can only be seen as masculine, male, and a part of a pan-nationalist identity.
SIGNIFICANCE
Through a qualitative approach on the research between Pilipino
American collegiate male’s gender identity with the performance of Igorotness, I seek to bring a better understanding of how Pilipino American collegiate males utilize Igorot culture to counter stereotypes placed upon Asian American males.
Through the performance of savageness and hypermasculinity in public spheres,
Pilipino American collegiate males seek to refute the notions of a feminized and desexualized Asian male body. The complex intersectionalities of identities of
Pilipino American males and the socio-political identity of Igorotness blends into a performance of identities and imagined identities on stage in university sponsored Pilipino Culture Nights (PCNs). 86
Though Philippine Folk Dancing is only fifty years old, these forms of performances are imagined to be authentic and representative of the diversity found in the Philippines nation-state. Through these performances, Pilipina/o
American college students invest in a (hyper)nationalistic project through stage performances. These performances come from a perceived past and an imagined crisis in their cultural identity that manifest through a contemporary form of decolonization. Though this research concentrates on specific collegiate events, these staged performances of identity and culture are mimicked throughout the United States and Canada.
CONCLUSION
A Call to Critical Cyborg Mentality & the Going Beyond the (de)Constructed Norm of Online Binaries
As I look at how Pilipino American college males invest in performative
Igorotness on stage and its manifestation online through social media, I struggled with the (in)consistency of identity and the nature of the online world in how it can edited and monitored by not only the individuals posting videos and comments, but the peers and non-affiliates individuals who happen to access these social media. Using Haraway’s theory of the cyborg, I complicate my own research in hope to expand the ontology of both sociological reality and sociological imagination. Here, as a researcher, I made the decision to study online posts rather than experience PCNs’ rendition of Igorot performance thus investing in a form of cyborg mentality – examining the hybridity of live subjects online in 87
posted videos and pictures in social networks. I connect my own identity as a
researcher with technology, becoming a cyborg to study the Pilipino American
college male Igorot cyborg.
The Performance of the Igorot Cyborg on a U.S. Nationalist Stage
The performance of Igorotness, through the dance “Idaw,” not only is the
performance Western notions of maleness and masculinity, but also affirms the
appropriation and reproduction of the “other” through the politics of the nation
state’s nation building and nation maintenance project. It conceptualize “the
Igorot” both in Pilipina/o American imaginary and on stage is to portray “the
Igorot” as warriors and savage. Yet the performance of “the Igorot” by Pilipino
American college males is always in the state of war. The occupation of the
Cordilleras / Bangsa-Igorot by the Philippines nation-state is done so through military force with the presence of both U.S. and Philippines military personnel and Western corporations to which the military also protects and serves. Yet the performance of “the Igorot” by Pilipino American college males is always in the state of war. To conceptualize “the Igorot” both in Pilipina/o American imaginary and on stage is to portray “the Igorot” as warriors and savage. The occupation and colonization of the Cordilleras / Bangsa-Igorot through military presence is juxtaposed to how Pilipino American college male perform Igorot-based warrior dances to counter the colonial mentality and historical colonization of the
Philippines by the United States and Spain. Here, the Pilipino American male performs war to counter the effects of war on their identities by both nation- states’ military and corporate presence. Ironically, a perpetual state of war is also 88
reproduced online through social media, where this story is consistently being
performed and replayed by the performers and others on social networks. These
posts are semi-immortal until they are deleted by the original owner(s), yet if
reposted, it stays online until all traces of reposts are deleted. These posts are
also referred to by casual individuals searching the Internet and online audiences
interact with these videos and pictures by liking them or posting comments.
Within social media, the Cyborg’s identity is both enhanced because of public
view and diminished because of its relations to similar posts by “other Cyborgs.”
Queer Cyborgs: The Cyborg’s Relationship to the “Other”
As I look at the Cyborg as both a hybrid of biology and technology, and its
connection to Pilipino American college males’ performance of “Idaw,” I invoke
the basic theory of (post-)Queer Studies on what is arguably the presentation of
the “natural” and the “unnatural” (O’Rourke, 2011) in the performance of identity.
Whereas Judy Butler, Gloria Anzaldua, and other (critical) feminist and (critical)
queer theorists have made the nexus of their research on the interaction of the
body with socialized and societal powers that are in control, the performance of
the post-queer Igorot online complicates the post-humanist and neo-humanist
perspective on identity – racially, sexually, and gendered – and with a generation who has been thought to be post-everything do not see the effects of performing the “othered” in the Pilipino American community. The performance of the “other” or the “marginalized” is done by the “majority” or those who have agency can be linked to cultural (re)appropriation and to some extent, minstrelsy (Leo, 2011).
Where historically, minstrelsy is when a White perform the racial(ized) “other,” 89 multiculturalism and neo-pluralism has blurred those lines of power dynamics and agency and with the advancement of technology and social media is now defended as “cultural appreciation.”
Looking at the queer hybridity of the Pilipino American college male and
“the Igorot” that they perform, the setting is usually back dropped with the rice terraces found in the Cordillera Provinces or with trees and mountains. In order for the Pilipino American college male to perform Igorotness, it must place its performative body in relations to nature to show its authenticity. This places the
Pilipino American college male’s performance of “the Igorot” (the unnatural) with its connection to nature (the natural) on stage in front of live audience (the natural), but visualized online in social networks (the unnatural). The Queer cyborg Igorot becomes the ultimate chimera of the Pilipino American college male’s (imagined and) performed identities.
Suspended in Time, Yet Transcends in (neo/nano)Reality: The Pilipino’s
Igorot Online
The creation of the Igorot online is not only a creation of Pilipino imaginary, but is also the continuation of the imagined identity for many Pilipinos in diaspora. As Haraway states, the Cyborg is an (imagined) entity that is not bound to reality, yet can manifest itself to reality; it’s a creature of imagination that can transcend both the physical world and the non-physical realm. The placing of “the Igorot” as perceived by Pilipina/o Americans online suspends “the
Igorot” into a particular spatial and imagined reality where technology and social 90 media places the performance in an infinite and immortal “world.” The Igorot, not only as a performance, but also as a subject online, thus straddles both the real world of the traditional homeland of the Cordilleras or Bangsa Igorot and that of the online world; the physical world and a world created by programmers and its constituents. “The Igorot” as an imagery also is bound to a particular socio cultural context where it can only be seen and performed in a pre-modern state – never able to be performed in contemporary clothing and must always be attached to historical creation of the rice terraces or the maintenance nature with geographical images as a background to the performance being done in the foreground.
In online social media, “the Igorot” is also suspended in the imaginary and the creationism of Pilipino American college male performers. To perform
Igorotness is to perform an imagined a socially constructed hybrid of stereotypical Western mannerism of maleness and masculinity as well as its relationship to indigeneity. The performance of indigenousness in the form of
Igorotness by non-Igorots suspends the identity of “the Igorot” to this imagined and socially constructed hybridity and is affirmed by the masses through online affirmations (likes and comments) and online sharing (reposts and reblogs). The
Pilipino “Igorot” is thus recreated and multiplied through cyber-reproduction, the intimacy between an actual individual (via feelings and thoughts), technology
(social networks), and the connection towards other Pilipinos’ imagined nationalist identities. As the Cyborg is the creation of what is natural and what is unnatural, the cyber-reproduction of the online Igorot is the queer union of such 91
factors – the natural human and the unnatural technology. The suspension of the
created chimera is the Igorot online, the product of the natural suspended in an
unnatural state, continuously performing and being performed for audience
consumption. This continuous performance and continuous mimicry transcends
the natural lifespan of an actual Igorot or the Pilipino American male who is
performing “it,” making it an unnatural object, immortalized yet immobile, growing
(in influence) yet never changing.
When the Cyborg Meets Its Ghost: Cyborg Manifesto and Sociological Haunting
As I analyze the role of Cyborg stated by Haraway (1991) and Specters
conceptualized by Gordon (1998), I look unto post-humanist theories on
constructing the role of Cyborg Identity and Sociological Haunting in relationship
to Pilipino American college male performance of “the Igorot” and online social
media. I must also look into the theories of necropolitics (Mbembe, 2003) and the
governance of death or the unnatural to address this non/post-human entity.
Ghosts are “residues” of expired or dead lives, forced to traverse two different realms – the realm of their former lives as being alive and their current realm that is laid on top of the realm of the living. Ghosts who manifest into the realm of the living have unfinished business they have to fulfill - demanding to be heard, seen, and at times, through violence, demand justice. Pilipina/os in diaspora have longed to connect with their national identity as to preserve, what they consider, their cultural traits. This longing to connect with an identity that is “dead from them” or “distant from them” is similar to how specters seek to reach for 92
“something” beyond what they are capable of in their current state. Ghosts are also entities full of memories and imaginations much so the connection Pilipina/o
American college youths’ performance during PCNs.
Cyborgs, as stated in my previous analysis, are a hybrid of natural and unnatural, a queer offspring of human and technology, yet Haraway does not make a claim if the human is alive or is supported by technology to survive. I argue that the human is dead and that this chimera is actually a dead body, full of memories and imaginations, connected to technology. Considering what a
“ghost” and a “cyborg” is in connection to Pilipino American college male Igorot performativity, the demand for Pilipino American college males to be seen, heard, and to counter stereotypes placed on Asian American male bodies manifests itself beyond the one day stage performance in front of hundreds of people. Instead, it continues its struggle for both survival and survivance online by posting videos and pictures of their performance for thousands (if not millions) to see over time. The Cyborg (in this case, the Pilipino American college male online) is constantly haunted by its own (lack of) memory and the pain of societal discrimination, seeking existence (or life) by entering multiple realms to find affirmation and validation from others. Yet, in doing so, perpetuates the theory of necropolitics on the agency to determine what is disposable or not essential to live. The Pilipino American college male robot ghost, in its demand to be seen, heard, and to be justified, does so by othering and disposing Igorot sovereignty, identity, and oppression at the hands of the Philippines nation-state. Thus, the
Pilipino American college male robot ghost is also an agent of destruction and 93 queer reproduction, making “the Igorot” part of its cybernetic body and like hungry ghosts, devours the memories and identity of other ghosts, those who have been erased in the narratives of addressing Igorot identity and Philippines nation-state internal colonialism in relation to Western-forced colonial mentality.
“The Igorot” becomes the spiritual and technological fuel for the Pilipino
American college male robot ghost to continuously perform its existence.
Changing the Norm: Concluding with a Letter to Sociology, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, and Colonial Studies
Dear Academics, Theorist, and Folks Who Just Like This Sort of Stuff
I conclude this thesis in a way that is deviant from the traditional form, the norm that is prescribed and subscribed by those in our fields to end graduate work and research. Where this field calls upon the critique of social norms, the social construction of structures and identities, and urges others for self- determination, I find it troubling that the epistemology used by those in our fields are bound to an elitist structure and suspended within our own personal realities that is both temporal and imagined. As a graduate student in his twenties, research on my generation and our connection to technology, and even those younger than us, are scarce or done by a generation that seeks to simplify our complexities and our intersectionalities. Whether you refer to us as Generation
Me (Twenge, 2006) or Millennials/Generation Y (or even Generation Z), there is a presumption that you can research our generation(s) and that you will comprehend how we see our world. Social media is not just a site for research, but should be seen as a subject as well. Yet also, social media should not be 94
sites/subjects separated from us. Even though Haraway suggests that the
Cyborg is a chimera of both biology and technology, she fails to address how
younger generation are being “born” chimeras and not just created later on in life.
From ultrasound to pictures of birth, the moments of a being’s life have been
recorded and posted in social media before even the child was conscious…better
yet…even before the child took breath.
You presume that social media is a venue to connect with other folks and
to post pictures and stories, but it is more than that. For many, especially youth, it
is a venue to be both someone they are and someone they’re not. It is a place
where youth, unfiltered, post pictures, stories, and comments without care of
repercussions. It is a place where real identities and made-up ones coexist and
are at times, symbiotic to one another; feeding off each other’s “realness” and
“fakeness.” It is where Photoshop and edits are made on pictures and videos. A place where one has a myriad of friends, but it does not mean they know each other on a personal level. It is “someone” who can pretend to be another; creating a life story that they never had and live through those imagined identities and experiences. “Someone” who openly publishes their life struggle and personal information via 140 character posts, memes, and elaborate blogs and vlogs for public to see. Who and where the measurements of popularity are through the amount of “likes” and affirmations through comments. Through
“reposts” and “tags,” one can connect to hundreds, if not thousands, of friends and unknown peers, both real and fake. An online world filled with online identities that, like how Haraway describes, is a creation of fiction by non-fiction 95 lives. Though she argues that the appropriation of nature leads to the production of culture, it is actually the nexus between what is “natural” and the “created” that is instead reproduced to reflect both culture and counter-culture for youth today. I invite academics, theorists, and others to join not just Facebook as their venue for social networking, but look into Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter to see the phenomena of post-humanist affirmation of existence without physical interaction with other human beings. How these “identities” are both personal and public, where both one person and everyone own it, where it is private and universal for consumption. Here, even the dead come back to life.
Dialogues with Foucault and Du Bois can be made and where both these individuals have multiple “pages” dedicated to them and where they respond to followers daily. Haraway argues that the pre-cyborg can only be haunted, but here, a clear case that Cyborg is instead doing the haunting. The Cyborg is more than machine and organism, it is now machine and imagination; technology and an invocation of the dead. It is the (il)legitimate offspring of fiction and non fiction, of reality and imaginary, of living and the dead, organic and machine, educated and non-educated, private and public, (neo)capitalism and
(neo)socialism, liberation and oppression. Here, in the .com world, feminists and queer bloggers, leftist posts, and counter-culture expressions blur what we can argue as a manifestation of patriarchy and consumption. Haraway did not phantom the role of youth and their (mis)understanding of post-racial, post- gender, and post-sexual identities when she wrote her article; presuming that technology is still for the fiscally elite, when today, it is as tangible and readily as 96 the air one breathes. Technology today is not the same as technology in the
1990s; and for academics and social scientists, you must learn to bridge technology with humans rather than see them as created entities. This chimera is not created anymore; it is actually given birth to.
97
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