SPOILER alert. This is not a romantic-comedy or melodrama. This story explores the sociopolitical and economic dimensions of how the names, Dodong and Inday, have become synonymous to housemaids and servants.
Back in 2014, I joined an international cultural exchange program. As part of the cultural showcase, one contingent showed a very popular movie in their country. It was a comedy about the mandatory military service of all male citizens. It was funny but it ceased being so when it included a Filipino maid depicted as clumsy and stupid. The stereotyping made us very uncomfortable especially when the audience laughed during that scene. We tried to shrug it off, but another scene came after, and it was worse. We had no choice but to walk out. Of course, we acknowledged the reality of OFWs working as maids in many countries. What offended us was not only the depiction, but also the deliberate choice of showing it with lack of foresight. It was just inappropriate for a cultural exchange program. However, they issued an apology the following day, so the walkout was not in vain.
On the national level, this kind of depiction is very rampant. Majority of the maid roles are depicted as Bisaya and are called, Inday. With this stereotyping, Indays are usually the comic relief. In the recent production of the Pinoy musical, Ang Huling El Bimbo, the same stereotype was employed. It seemed like it wasn’t enough to have a probinsyano and a gay character to be the comic reliefs. They needed to drag on a classic Bisaya accent mockery, through the cadets’ “SIR, YIS SIR” response to Andrei Antonio. And, they further laughed when he mispronounced the word tolerate. I replayed that scene many times and I heard laughing from the audience.
What is wrong with this? It is discriminatory, humiliating, and alienating especially to the Bisaya audience. It was a mainstream racist depiction. It was very unnecessary and, even if they had taken that out, it had no bearing to the plot. It was a sigh of relief when I saw some tweets and posts from fellow Bisaya calling out this gaffe.
In the end, I began to question how we have come to normalize the image of Bisaya as comic, second-class citizens, clumsy, and stupid. To do this though, we will have to travel back in time and re-examine the life of Inday and Dodong.
During the ‘60s and ‘70s, there was an influx of people migrating to the capital city for work. Development had not reached the provinces as it was only concentrated in the urban areas. Life was harder for the rural poor with the continuing inflation of the cost of basic commodities. With their desire to alleviate their family from poverty, Dodong and Inday went to Manila. They did not have any relatives nor friends to go to. So, the only way to survive was to look for stay-in jobs or any job that offers free board and lodging. Both did not finish school, so they had limited options. Dodong found a job as a kargador at the seaport area while Inday was employed as a housemaid.
In the succeeding years, more and more Indays and Dodongs flocked to Manila and tried their luck. If one wondered why people migrated to big cities, the answer was very simple -- OPPORTUNITIES. The money they were earning from working in rural areas could not compensate for their needs. Apparently, cities offered better pay. Who would not choose a higher pay especially when you would do the same amount of laboring?
Meanwhile, many Manilen~os’ first encounters, if not the only, of Bisaya are through these Indays and Dodongs. They would continue to work as maids and servants for many years. Their number and prevalence would earn them generic names. This is how the stereotyping started.
In the Visayan culture, all the little girls are called Inday and the boys, Dodong, as endearments. But in Manila, these became synonymous to maids and houseboys. When the children they tended to and cared for grew up to be screenwriters, scriptwriters, TV and film directors, they would be immortalized as characters, stereotypical characters. One distinguishable feature is the Bisaya accent. And, because no one would object to this reality, this image became embedded in the character bibles of every movie and TV show. If this seems familiar to you, you are not mistaken. This stereotyping has reached international levels just like that Pinay character of the Singaporean film. The only big difference is, it is not only limited to Bisaya but Filipinos in general. Let us also recall that a foreign dictionary actually defined Filipina as maid.
This phenomenon is more sociopolitical and economic than purely linguistic. This kind of discrimination and hegemony rooted from limited to lacking opportunities, unequal wealth distribution, weak economic policies, and feeble political will. However, this problem is slowly changing as we see more Bisaya given or taking roles not limited to maids or servants. The visibility of many Bisaya in the entertainment industry and in politics is slowly correcting this misrepresentation.
Having seen this stereotyping once again in a mainstream platform is enraging. We have become educated and, in fact, very integrated. You see Bisaya people everywhere, in different roles and statuses. Yet, you continue to belittle them for their accent. This is very backward and ironic. As the world celebrates regional languages and dialects, you are still stuck on the notion that having an accent is comedic. Language and accent should never be accepted as hegemonic tools. If you find a French person speaking in English very cute, why can’t you feel the same way about everyone else. Besides, they are multilingual while you only speak one very fluently -- DISCRIMINATION.
The story of Inday and Dodong is a reality but should never be the only truth. Therefore, we need more representation in all frontiers and more visibility especially on mainstream media. But, most of all, we need to call out these kinds of misrepresentation or any forms of discrimination so that Inday and Dodong will regain their original and true meaning, as endearments.
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Tom Bauya is faculty at the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the Mindanao State University-Marawi campus. He is currently taking up his master's degree in Media Studies (Film) at UP-Diliman.