Fashioning the Filipinas identity: A feminist study on the modern terno

• Main Author: Trinidad, Celestine S. D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Ternos > History; Clothing and dress > Philippines > History; Women's clothing > Philippines > History; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2525
• Institution: De La Salle University

Lilia Quindoza Santiago in her essay The Filipina as Metaphor for Crisis mentioned that fiction in the country portrays the Filipina as a weakling, a lunatic or at times a martyr. Authors of the novels she studied in her essay which are part of the countrys literary canon, perhaps by the virtue of their maleness, failed to recognize the Filipina who works. This is what the study aims to look for, the images of the Filipina who works, by analyzing a body closely associated to her-the modern terno. The study will apply Roland Barthes garment system on its analysis of modern ternos featured in the June issue of MEGA magazine. Using Barthes Mythologies it will construct a myth for each design and will situate the Filipinas identity in the present society focusing on the Filipina who works. It will analyze how the modern terno functions not only as clothing but also as a tool to reconstruct her character, making it more favorable to her identity. It is fashioning the Filipinas identity through studying her modern terno.