ILOILO CITY—In a country where “brightening” products and treatments rake in millions of pesos in revenue, the Miss Iloilo pageant has broken the old beauty standards with a dusky athlete of African American descent capturing the title. American Filipino heptathlete Alexie Mae Brooks from the town of Leon emerged a convincing winner at the 2024...
Category: Diversity
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All the past Presidents (but one) and Club Mwah
Name any past Philippine president since the 1986 Edsa Revolution. All except one went and watched the shows at Club Mwah in Mandaluyong City during their incumbency. They visited the glittery entertainment venue and enjoyed the world-class performance of its stars in colorfully designed costumes and sets. It was only Rodrigo Duterte who didn’t experience...
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To break the isolation and reach out to indigenous peoples in Aklan town
Time slows down and nature reigns supreme in Dalagsaan, according to visitors to this barangay nestled deep in the municipality of Libacao in Aklan. Amid sweeping landscapes, meandering rivers and terraced paddies, a closely knit community steeped in tradition thrives in Dalagsaan. It is the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Akeanon-Bukidnon and regarded as the last...
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Finding LGBTQIA+ affirmation in Open Table MCC
Jun Torres was casually scrolling through Blued, a gay social network app, in May 2021 when a direct message caught his attention. He was being invited to an online worship service by the manager of the account of “a church for LGBT.” He followed the link to the Facebook page of Open Table Metropolitan Community...
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Taylor Sheesh: A challenge to fan stereotypes
(Second of two parts) Taylor Sheesh: A Filipino’s homage to the American superstar Mac Coronel, a Filipino drag queen impersonating Taylor Swift as Taylor Sheesh, is challenging stereotypes about fans, an Ateneo de Manila University instructor said. Sheesh rose to popularity after clips of her performing in the appearance of the American pop superstar became...
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Taylor Sheesh: A Filipino’s homage to the American superstar
(First of two parts) Taylor Sheesh: A challenge to fan stereotypes LIPA CITY—Dressed and accessorized as Taylor Swift, a Filipino drag queen entranced thousands of the American pop superstar’s fans who kept a symphony of screams going on a football field here on Aug. 12. On stage, Mac Coronel’s alter ego Taylor Sheesh, wearing a...
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Justin Jones: Black, Filipino, civil rights activist
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Republican-dominated House of Representatives in Tennessee in the United States has expelled two of three Democrat lawmakers who took part in a protest action calling for more gun-control measures a week after a school shooting in Nashville in which six persons, including three children, were killed. One of the two expelled is...
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4 Chinese women show social context of deployment of beauty
Women’s agency is illustrated in how they deploy their beauty as cultural capital. But they do so amid certain factors, which shape, facilitate, and even constrain such deployment. In China, as shown by four famous Chinese women, the deployment of beauty lies at the intersection between individual agency and social, cultural, and even political structures:...
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Sisterhood produces sculpture of connections
To mark its 90 years as a sorority of empowered women, the University of the Philippines’ Sigma Delta Phi (SDP) pooled its talents and resources in partnering with the state university to bring into sculptural form the characteristics that make the Filipino woman and the connections that she makes possible. Envisioned as a work by...
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She shows the way to volunteerism and empowerment
On International Women’s Day, Patreng Non easily comes to mind as a Filipino woman who constantly strives to help, to empower, and to make a difference. It would seem that Patreng—formally Ana Patricia—is everywhere. Last month, the 27-year-old founder of the Maginhawa Community Pantry was busy going to and from San Jose in Nueva Ecija,...