BENCH, a Filipino clothing and lifestyle company, pulled off sexist stunts in a fashion show themed "The Naked Truth" and ended up shining a light on a truth that has affected our vision in its starkness.
The truth is, despite significant milestones in the Philippine legislative and institutional frameworks concerning gender, we Filipinos have a lot more ground to cover to overcome the sexism that has seeped into and permeated our culture.
Which is not to say that Bench deserves our appreciation for generating public discussion by depicting women in dehumanizing ways. Dehumanizing because showing women as leashed, and engaged in sexually suggestive woman to woman acts--all for shock value, or to indulge somebody's questionable sense of entertainment--commodify women. Showing humans as disembodied parts or acts that can be ogled and purchased reduce us into products, much like the shirts, pants and other fashion items that were featured in the show. Yes "humans" because there are men who have become victims of objectification and commodification as well, although undeniably women are the dominant victims worldwide. Also Bench had to be called out for those specific discriminatory acts because beyond products it was endorsing a "style", and any "style" that treats humans as accessories has to be challenged.
But, the stark truth is that it is not just Bench that is culpable of sexism. Many of us are bombarded day in and day out by images and soundbites that caricature women and men In discriminatory ways. A lot of it come from the market and media (print, broadcast, and new media) but even from institutions that are supposed to be purveyors of good culture, like schools and religious centers. Take for instance the t-shirt with the design "It's not rape. It's snuggle with struggle" sold by SM, and one need only listen to a few radio programs, flip through tabloids or listen to sermons that reduce women to reproductive functions to observe this.
In the face of the truth of crass sexism, other truths have to come out--the truth for instance of more and more people pushing for equality between women and men. Recent examples include the speech of actress Emma Watson Before the United Nations on the UN Women HeforShe campaign, and the entry of the University of the Philippines Pep Squad for the 2014 UAAP Cheerdance Competition.
It is expected that Watson--known for her portrayal of the character Hermione Granger in the popular Harry Potter series--and her message about feminism would register well with a wide audience around the globe.
Although they lost to the National University Pep Squad, UP raised the bar with its moves that challenged traditional gender roles in cheer dance routines--men and women were attired in a manner that did not highlight sex-based differences, and the women got to throw men up in the air for those flips and other maneuvers.
Notwithstanding the above positive developments, other stark truths deserve airing. There are those who, like graduate student Julia Zulver, criticize the UN for choosing a "white, western heterosexual, upper-class woman to speak for a group of united nations" without meaning disrespect to Watson and her advocacy, which is fundamentally rights-based. Gender relations is important, and such is its importance that it has to be viewed in conjunction with other social relationships and categories as well: those concerning class, ethnicity, geopolitics and sexual orientation, among others.
Related to this is another truth: that men and women are more diverse than the convenient men and women binary. Respect for human rights includes recognition of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression or what is termed SOGIE. Gender equality and feminism thus should not only promote equality between men and women, but also respect for heterosexuals, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered persons, queers, the intersexed, and other identities/expressions that might arise in the future. We only need to look around us to realize this diversity of peoples, even if it is one that is frequently cloaked, muted or dampened.
Sexism is not just about depicting women in a derogatory light. It also means constraining people from freely articulating sexual orientation and gender identity and expression by forcing them to live within the male-female binary that is merely constructed, and does not reflect the realities of life in our times.
Despite the Bench and SM episodes, the Philippines is respected internationally for the work that our peoples and government have done to address discrimination against women. It is high time that we stretch our commitment to gender rights by encompassing the naked truth of sexual diversity.
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