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:...
Category: Diversity
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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,...
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Protesters vs Kaliwa Dam disheartened but unbowed
The members of the Dumagat-Remontado tribe protesting the construction of Kaliwa Dam are back home in the provinces of Quezon and Rizal, disheartened that their nine-day, 148-kilometer march to Malacañang ended without a dialogue with President Marcos Jr., but unbowed. “We won’t stop until he (Mr. Marcos) responds to our letter,” tribe leader Conchita Calzado...
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Once more into the breach: Indigenous folk march against Kaliwa Dam
Some 240 tribespeople and advocates are trekking to Malacañang to press President Marcos Jr. to stop the construction of Kaliwa Dam in their ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountains in Quezon province, and the memory of a similar protest march in 2009 against Laiban Dam upstream in Rizal province is still fresh on their...
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Filipino Canadians make history in British Columbia polls
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Maita Santiago was sworn in as councilor of Burnaby in British Columbia (BC) last Nov. 2, 29 years after she failed in a similar electoral attempt in Vancouver. Santiago, an immigration consultant and a native of Bulacan in the Philippines, is the first of Filipino heritage to take the post of councilor of...
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Into the forest, across streams and rivers, and up and down hills
I went back to the remote Barangay Villa Espina in Lopez, Quezon, one Tuesday morning. At 6:30 a.m. after insufficient sleep the night before, I jumped into a decrepit jeepney—only one unit plies the route twice daily if the weather is fine—bound for the barangay (village). It was sunny, unlike the first time I embarked...
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Glamour and glitz (and more) in drag
Dahhhlings, it’s time to put your wigs on. But be ready for the fabulous queens of Drag Race Philippines to snatch them right off. The local version of the hit global franchise has everything you want in drag—fashion, camp, music, talent, drama (oh, the drama!), comedy, culture, heart—and much more. The race to crown the...
