newFilipina.com

I’m sensitive about the whole Filipina cybertyping already. There is a web link below to an online petition to BBC because of the comedy, Harry and Paul, that airs this clip about a Filipina housemaid in Britain:

Recap: The main character is shouting at the character of the Filipina housemaid, already twisting and wriggling, to dance more and more provocatively for the third character, a neighbor sitting on a chair in his front lawn. The main character shouts at the maid to mount the man in the chair and then gruffly orders her to give the guy a better view of her rear end. She complies and bends over, gyrating all the while. The main character is ordering the Filipina house maid to behave like a nudie bar dancer. He orders rudely and she obeys quickly—the supposed silliness of it all is that the man is pimping his maid to his neighbor, but the neighbor, a “northerner,” is too daft to pay heed to the sexual wares being displayed to him. Disappointed with his neighbors lack of response, he disgustedly orders her to return home, exclaiming and clapping at her like she’s a dog he’s shooing away. She quickly scampers off to obey him. Then his buddy runs after her—seemingly interested in getting out of her what the neighbor did not respond to.

Maybe you’re like me. I found this offensive.

There are thousands of domestic workers out in Britain who are striving to live with dignity and earn a living abroad, away from their families, including possibly their children. This show just plops a another little ugly stereotype into the laps of narrow-minded, mean spirited people who might want to toss it around and use it against Filipinas to degrade them, pre-judge them, exert privilege over them. In jest or not, this is exploitation of exploitation— using the story of exploiting and demeaning domestic workers, Filipinas at that, for laughs. Ugly indeed.

It’s also another smutty piece of trash to feed “the beast” of objectifying Filipinas, in other words, classifying Filipinas as sex objects—women who are paid for, imported, subservient, desperate enough for money and will do anything you tell them to do even if it means degradation and humiliation.

On hearsay, the irreverent British show makes fun of everybody, even the British Queen—nothing is sacred and all people are fair game to make fun of and metaphorically kick around. So the whole blasted, bloody show is a glitzy, televised, mass medium about having respect for noone. 

All in all, here is another man-told story about a Filipina that adds to a monstrosity of ugliness in many forms (websites, catalogues, sex tours porn, trafficking, prostitution, exploitation) told about Filipinas, that many Filipinas have been living with or been fighting against for a long time(depending on their lot in life).

Every Filipino person in this world has a right to their dignity. Many Filipinos who are at the poverty levels or who are in danger of getting to the poverty level, struggle to not only keep their dignity but also to survive, to feed themselves and their children. Many of these people become domestic workers to stave of their poverty— and some thousands of Filipinas have become housemaids to foreigners or expatriates abroad. Filipina domestic workers don’t need an idiotic, ignorant and insensitive TV show to push them down and degrade them further.

Yes, the above clip is supposed to be comedy. It’s at least some people’s comedy. Is it comedy because Harry and Paul are so idiotic and ridiculous and they need to ridicule the rest of the world? Or is it just plain idiotic comedy that encourages the rest of the world to ridicule each other? 

Let us continue the battle against the degradation of Filipino women. Let us not sit back in our couches watching tacky tv shows, playing video games, remaining complacent, too lazy to do anything—just saying its all okay or what’s the big f-ing deal.

“ Loline Lualhati Reed, who heads the Overseas Women’s Club, and Michael Duque, who heads the Philippine Nurses Association in UK, are campaigning to get the BBC to issue a public apology.” —Inquirer.Net.

You too can speak up against it by joining this petition at: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/dignity-and-respect-for-the-filipino-worker.html. I’m going there right now and signing. I hope many of you choose to do it too.