Gender and performativity in Tibok: Heartbeat of the Filipino lesbian

• Main Author: Ragragio, Ma. Carmelita L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2001
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1797
• Institution: De La Salle University

Lesbians are one of the marginalized groups in the society. They are degraded, oppressed and discriminated by the people around them and even their families. Tibok, an anthology of short stories, nonfiction narratives and poetry, compiled and edited by Anna Leah Sarabia (Anvil and Circle Books, 1998), is about the Filipino lesbians-who they are, how they truly feel and why they are the way they are. In this heteronormative society, heterosexuality is considered the norm and homosexuals are considered inferior to heterosexuals. The selected readings show how Filipino lesbians are marginalized and subjugated and how they subvert the heteronormative standards. This thesis paper also analyzes the texts Connections , The Smell of Sleep, Butch, Butcher, Butchest, Vantage Visions: Views from the Backseat, and Of Blind Dates, Bound Feet & Bound Lives and shows how gender is performed using Judith Butler's theory of performativity. Tina, the main character in Connections, has realized that she is a lesbian after engaging in sexual relationships with men and still wanting to make love with women. In The Smell of Sleep, language is used as a powerful tool to subjectivate the lesbian subject. Butchness is illustrated in the Butch, Butcher, Butchest and this shown by the pars who hunts for her mars. The backseater in the Vintage Visions: Views from the Backseat witnesses how lesbian couples do it on the road and how their relationships fail and succeed. In the three vignettes of Of Blind Dates, Bound Feet & Bound Lives, coming out to their families is a performance the Filipino-Chinese lesbians want to do. The study concludes that Butler's performativity theory is not that applicable to Philippine texts. Because Filipinos are different from Westerners, Neil Garcia purports that the concept of kalooban is intrinsic to the construction of the Filipino bakla. In contrary to Butler's idea that there is no depth in gender performances, the Filipino homosexuals have a core or loob, which defines what they truly feel inside. Therefore, Garcia's gay theory may be used in analyzing the texts in Tibok. Another study may utilize Jonathan Dollimore's theory of sexual dissidence, which looks into the heteropatriarchal order and identifies how the subculture, like the lesbians, counteracts the discursive and ideological practices of the dominant culture.