Social Classes and Class Struggle

Social Classes and Class Struggle

• Popular culture is a channel for democratic expression, allowing people to discuss topics they might otherwise avoid.
• Social class signifies a group within a society sharing a socioeconomic status.
• This concept has been extensively studied by philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, and Max Weber.
• The common social classes include the lower class, the middle class (or working class), and the upper class.
• Each country has its unique social classes, the earlier system being the Indian caste system.
• The Indian caste system is divided into two major groups, one being subdivided into four sections.
• The first group serves nobility and the divine, and the second serves the common folk.
• The caste system arose from the Islamic Rule in the 13th century and was reinforced during the British Occupation.
• The highest positions in Filipino society were datu and babaylan.
• The babaylan was the highest religious position held by Filipino women and homosexual men.
• The datu led the barangay and was elected from the next caste.
• The maharlika comprised feudal lords allied together.
• When one of maharlika are elected datu, the rest became vassals of the datu and their heirs.
• The maginoo served under the maharlika as vassals.
• The timawa were free people who served the land, including ordinary folk, scholars, and merchants.
• The alipin caste, the lowest, subdivided into aliping namamahay (workers of the land) and aliping saguiguilid (actual slaves).
• The Spanish introduced the casta system, taxing each casta based on racial heritage.
• During the Spanish era, Muslims were excluded from classification due to their resistance, while mixed-race descendants of Indians were classified later during the brief British Occupation.
• Indios (Filipinos) and Aetas had base taxes, while Sangleys paid quadruple due to being Chinese, being considered outcasts back then.
• The blancos, the top three classifications (Peninsulares, Americanos, and Insulares), were tax-exempt.
• Mestizajes paid taxes depending on their mixed heritage.
• Insulares were the first natural-born Filipinos of pure Spanish descent.
• Americanos were Spaniards born in the American colonies and held power second to the Peninsulares.
• Peninsulares were Spaniards from the Iberian Peninsula, holding the most power and influence.
• Mestizajes comprised mixed heritages with their own hierarchy.
• Mestizo de Español was the highest of the four because the intermarriage of Filipinos and Spaniards.
• Tornatras classified those with mixed Spanish, Chinese, or mestizo de Sangley blood.
• Mestizo de Bombay were people with Filipino and Bombay (Indian) heritages and were tax-exempt.
• Mestizo de Sangley were people with Filipino and Chinese heritages, who paid fewer taxes than Chinese and more than Indios.
• Class struggles inevitably arise when there's disparity between social classes.
• Examples in history and popular culture include:
  • The fall of aristocracy in Russia (films: Romanovy: Ventsenosnaya semya and Anastasia).
  • Ernesto "Che" Guevara’s countercultural movement.
  • Revolutionaries who fought against foreign rule (Andres Bonifacio, Jose Rizal, Diego and Gabriela Silang, and Antonio Luna).
  • Cronyism and nepotism during the Marcos period-Political oppression during martial law (Mendiola Massacre, Voltes V cancellation, Dekada '70, figures like Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr)-The theme of class disparity in music (Upuan, Tatsulok, Gangsta's Paradise) and film (Snowpiercer, Parasite, El Hoyo, The Purge, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon).

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression

• Puberty brings self-discovery, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE).

• Sex: Biological traits that determines the reproductive function based on gametes.

  • Male: sperm-carrying gametes
  • Female: ovum-carrying gametes

• Intersex individuals have sex organs differing from normative ones, known as hermaphrodites.

• Gender is a socially constructed spectrum of characteristics, incl. norms, behaviors, and roles.

  • Sex is what you are born with.
  • Gender is determined by upbringing, environment, social interactions, stresses, and self-introspection.

• Sexual orientation: Inclination to another person for romance, emotions, or sexual urges.

  • Androphilia: Attraction to men and/or masculinity.
    • Men attracted to men - gay.
    • Women attracted to men - deemed heterosexual (or straight).

• Gynephilia: Attraction to women and/or femininity.

  • Men attracted to women - deemed straight.
  • Women attracted to women - called a lesbian

• Bisexuals: Experience both androphilia and gynephilia. This is termed as ambiphilia.

• Pansexuals: Attracted to all people regardless of sexual orientation

• Asexual: People with no sexual attraction to other sexual orientations or genders.

• Gender identity: Self-evaluation regarding one's gender.

  • Cisgender: Gender identified with the sex they are born in.
    • Cis-males are male, regardless of sexual orientation
    • Cis-females are women, regardless of sexual orientation
  • Transgender: People whose gender is identified with the notion that they were born in the wrong sex.
    • Transwomen identify as female: regardless of sexual orientation are transwomen
    • Transmen identify as male: regardless of sexual orientation are transmen
  • Genderqueer/Queer: Gender does not fall into either cis or trans categories. Non-binary or Agender do not conform to those previous categories. Instead they chose to be agender because, in their perspective, there is no one gender can describe them.

• Gender expression defines how people express their gender through actions, mannerisms, and fashion choices.

  • Masculinity: Expression deemed characteristically male (strength, courage, independence, leadership, assertiveness). Icons include Paul Bunyan and Rosie the Riveter.
  • Femininity: Expression with qualities deemed characteristically female (empathy, humility, gracefulness, gentleness, sensitivity). Icons include the Hindu God Krishna and Maria Clara in Noli Me Tangere.
  • Androgyny: Expression of both male and female qualities, expressing gender-neutral characteristics.

• Gender fluidity can cause issues like bathroom access (Gretchen Diez).

• The biggest issue is gender inequality.

  • Gender Equality: During the pre-colonial Philippines, both women and men enjoy equal rights.
  • The Spanish colonization cemented the idea that women should serve men, and homosexuality has no place in society – or in the afterlife.

• Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression Bill (SOGIE Bill) promotes:

• The proper use of pronouns to address someone

  • he/him for males
  • she/her for females
  • they/them (or sometimes one's name) for people who want to be gender-neutral

• Equal opportunities and rights for men, women, and LGBTQIA+

• Reducing, if not eliminating, gender discrimination in various aspects.

Issues Tackled Through Song

• The issues of gender are tackled in the songs Sirena (by GLOC-9 and Ebe Dancel), Ituloy Mo Lang (by Siakol), If You Were a Woman (by Bonnie Tyler) and Freedom! '90 (by George Michael).
• The issues are also tackled in Films such as: Markova: Comfort Gay (by Gil M. Portes), Die Beautiful (by Jun Robles Lana) and Rainbow's Sunset (by Joel Lamangan)
• The issues are tackled in Tv Shows such as: My Husband's Lover (by Dominic Zapata), Destiny Rose (by Don Michael Perez), Dading (by Ricky Davao), Beki Boxer (co-directed by Jade Castro and Monti L. Parungao), The Rich Man's Daughter (by Dominic Zapata), and Pose (by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals).

Race, Racism, and Representation

• Humans define "race" as a social construct, dividing the species based on inherited physical and behavioral differences.

• Differences can lead to the development of racism: Belief that race determines human traits to make one superior.

• Dominance of race: Europeans thought it were their right to see themselves as superior over all other races.

• The foundation of racial science began using research rooted and skewed in the study of race.

• Carolus Linnaeus: divided humans accurately into different subspecies: African, American, Asiatic, and European.

• Petrus Camper: found that the ancient Greeks almost reached human perfection and the ultimate basis on "what is human-looking".

• Johan Friedrich Blumenbach: gave a racial name to white by coining, "Caucasian" to describe people that lived on the slopes of Mount Caucasus in Europe.

• Samuel George Morton: theorized that intelligence has a correlation to brain size.

• Racial and Cultural Appropriation of Indigenous People: Taking one's own gain usually without the express permission from the owner. If used on the aspect of race, it becomes the act of subjugating one race for the benefit of the other( Slavery).

• Black Lives Matter(BLM)is the most prominent, receives the most oppression, because their entire history in America had always been rooted in slavery, where countless Africans were forcefully shipped off their land.

• Redlining of suburban homes: Segregating people of color and white people even further, despite abolishment.

• Unfortunate racial appropriation: Is exemplified in films such as Hidden Figures, Django Unchained, and 12 Years a Slave, to name a few.

• Racial appropriation stemmed from the Spaniards taking the land for themselves and had the natives toil on it.

• Indigenous Peoples:

• Called Igorot("mountaineer"): By Luzon

• Called Lumad("Indigenous"): By Mindanao

Forms of Cultural Appropriation

• Whitewashing : casting white people into character's that are people of color narrative-wise.

• One (1) prime example of cultural appropriation is whitewashing in visual entertainment, where white people are cast into characters that are people of color narrative-wise. An example is the American actor Mickey Rooney doing yellowface (i.e., a visual method for white actors to approximate their features to be East Asian) on the film Breakfast at Tiffany's in order to portray a Japanese character. Another example is the casting of American actor Johnny Depp in the role of Tonto, an American Indian, in the movie The Lone Ranger.

• Intellectual Property: stories and knowledge of not being recognized for the indigenous peoples.

• Artifacts : American Indian feather headdresses worn in visual media without consent, nor credit.

• Dance: such as voguing being credited to Madonna instead of the LGBTQIA+ communities in the United States.

• Clothing and Fashion: such as Gucci selling US$ 800 turbans as an accessory, whereas Sikhs wear them as a symbol of devotion to their faith.

• Language: such as the English language used by white people being the "proper" way to speak the language.

• Music: such as rock music, where white people were credited for the genre and finding success while black people have been playing this genre for years and struggled to gain recognition.

Peace studies

• Peace studies is an interdisciplinary field cements itself on the studies on political science, sociology, history, anthropology, theology, psychology, philosophy, and other related fields to provide one with an understanding of how armed conflicts begin.

• Ideologies found in some countercultures:

• Hippie Movement: promotes peace

• Punk Movement: acknowledges the flaws of the various government systems