Philippine pop-culture handout 3

• Popular culture can be described as a democracy.
• Popular culture is made by the people, for the people.
• People use popular culture to address topics that many seldom make conversations about.

Social Classes and Class Struggle

• Social class refers to a group of people with the same socioeconomic status

• Social classes have been extensively studied in social science.

• Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rosseau, and Max Weber studied Social Classes.

• The lower class is a large group of people living along or below the poverty line with limited means to meet necessities.

• Anxiety and depression may push the lower class to desperate measures.

• The middle class is the largest and most diverse group living along and beyond the poverty line.

• In most countries, the middle class serves as the backbone of the economy.

• The upper class is a small group with means to gain necessities, invest, and live in luxury, leading to apathy.

Indian Caste System

• Each country has its own social classes.
• The most famous social class system is the Indian caste system, which is divided into two major groups.
• One group is dedicated to service of nobility and divine.
• The second group is dedicated to service of the common folk.
• The Caste system was born out of the Islamic Rule in the 13th century and later reinforced during the British Occupation

The highest position in Filipino society is covered by two people

• The datu led the barangay.
• The babaylan is the highest religious position held by Filipino women and homosexual men.
• The maharlika were feudal lords allied together with the vassals of the datu and heirs
• The maginoo served under the maharlika as vassals.
• The timawa lived freely and served the land, including ordinary folk, scholars, and merchants.
• The alipin caste is subdivided into two groups:
  • Aliping namamahay serve as workers of the land similarly to peasants, and can acquire it through good produce.
  • Aliping saguiguilid were slaves, typically prisoners of war, who worked to earn freedom and join the timawa.
• The Filipino caste was overhauled by Spain and called the Casta system which taxes citizens based on racial heritage.

The Philippine Casta

• Indios and Aetas paid base taxes.
• Sangleys paid quadruple the base tax.
• Blancos were exempted from paying taxes.
• Mestizajes paid taxes despite mixed heritage
• The insulares were the first natural-born Filipinos with pure Spanish blood.
• Americanos were Spaniards born from American colonies.
• Peninsulares were Spaniards from the Iberian Peninsula.
• Mestizajes comprised various heritages with their own hierarchy.

Class Struggles

• Fall of aristocracy and Tsardom in Russia led to the Soviet Union.
• Ernesto “Che” Guevara represents a radicalized countercultural movement and rebellion.
• The Katipunan, local revolts, and Filipino-American War gave us icons that represented class struggle.
• During the Marcos period, people saw the rise of cronyism and nepotism and political opponents.
• Class struggle themes appear in music, films, and musicals

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (SOGIE)

• Puberty brings self-discovery, including SOGIE.
• Sex refers to the biological trait of reproductive function based on gametes present.
• Male produces sperm and the Female produces ovum.
• Intersex people have sex organ(s) different from normative organs.
• Intersex people are known as hermaphrodites Gender is a spectrum of socially constructed characteristics, norms, behaviors, and roles.
• Gender is one's self and their relationship with others.

Sexual orientation

• Sexual orientation describes one's inclination in romance, emotions, and/or sexual urges.
• Androphilia is attraction to men/masculinity.
• Men attracted to men are gay and women attracted to men are heterosexual.
• Gynephilia is attraction to women/femininity.
• Men attracted to women are straight, while women attracted to women are lesbians.
• Bisexuals experience androphilia and gynephilia, while pansexuals are attracted to all people.
• Asexual people lack sexual attraction.

Gender identity

Gender Identity is a self-evaluation regarding their gender from self evaluation with the individual Those whose gender aligns with their sex are cisgender.

• Transgender individuals identify with a gender different from their assigned sex.
• Transwomen identify as female, and transmen identify as male.
• Genderqueer individuals don't fit into cis or trans categories.
• Agender individuals do not conform to gender categories include non-binary people

Gender expression

• Is how people express their gender.
• Masculinity includes strength, courage, and leadership like those displayed by Paul Bunyan and Rosie the Riveter.
• Femininity expresses qualities such as empathy, gracefulness exemplified by Krishna and Maria Clara.
• Androgyny expresses both male and female which men could pass off as feminine, while androgynous women could pass off as masculine like Annie Lennox and yoshiki.
• SOGIE is gender inequality. There is discrimination that the bill looks to eliminate, including:
  • Proper pronoun use
  • Equal opportunities and rights
• This is tackled in songs, films, and TV shows.

Race, Racism, and Representation

• Humans are the only animals that define "race" as a social construct.
• Race divides humans into groups based on shared inherited physical and behavioral differences.
• It is a western ideology that sprang from the Age of Exploration, which profiles some as above others
• This led to Racism, the attitudes/behaviors that foster the belief that race determines human traits and that differences make one superior.

Racial Science

• Europeans used racial Science to deter rebels.
• It is used in pseudoscientific research that propagates that one race dominates the others in humanity with no knowledge of genetics.
• Carolus Linnaeus differentiated the different subspecies for humans
• Petrus Camper used facial angles and ranked races on their resemblance to his 'ideal appeal'. Johan Friedrich Blumenbach coined "Caucasian" and made the sketches displayed in Figure 9, while Samuel George Morton believed intelligence correlates to brain size

Racial and Cultural Appropriation of Indigenous People

• Appropriation is taking something for one's own use without the owner's permission.
• Racial appropriation subjugates one race for the benefit of the other.
• The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement fights for the marginalized people of color, particularly African-Americans.
• Segregation and hate crimes continues on in the modern world.
• Racial appropriation is exemplified in films such as Hidden Figures.
• Spaniards took the land for themselves for indigenous people
• The indigenous people fled to the mountains to survive as their traditions are replaced
• Luzon calls its indigenous tribes Igorot while Mindanao call them Lumad

Igorot:

• Tinguian of Abra

• Bontoc, Gaddang, Isneg, and Kalinga in Apayao

• Ibaloi and Kankanaey and Ifugao of Benguet

• Gaddang and Kalinga in Isabela

• Bontoc in Mountain Province

• Ilonot in Nueva Vizcaya Lumad:

• Tiruray of Bangsamoro

• Banwa-on, Talandig, Manobo, Kamigin, and Mamanwa of CARAGA

• Guiangga, Manobo, Ata, Tagabawa, Tagkaolo, Mandaya, Mansaka, Kalagan, and T'boli in Davao

• Bukidnon and Manobo in North Mindanao

• Blaam, Higaonon, Mamanwa, Manobo, and Ata pf SOCCSKSARGEN

• The indigenous people did not take land-grab kindly from the new colonial presence

• The indigenous fight heads on to the business that were present

• Businesses that exploit the resources of the indigenous people often get in conflict with those native to the region, which has led the government to conduct militarization to protect resources.

• Whitewashing in visual entertainment occurs through the use of Blackface

• Cultural appropriation is seen in the use of religious items from other cultures that is mocked or made fun of

• It is found in the Model Minority story as well

Some examples of cultural appropriation:

• Intellectual Property
• Artifacts
• Dance
• Clothing
• Language
• Music
• Food
• Religious Symbols
• Decorations
• Medicine
• Makeup
• Hairstyles
• Tattoos
• Wellness practices
• After the Age of Exploration, those of privilege recognized the appropriations of the indigenous

Peace Studies

• A field of study designed to understand conflicts
• Designed to help give an understanding for resolve and prevention
• It is also designed to create system
• Found in ideologies and countercultures such as the Hippie Movement and the Punk Movement