Thomasian feminist scholars asserted that sexual violence is a “matter of making [a] person powerless so [one] can feel powerful” and is deeply rooted from perceived injustice of earlier sexual abuse.
Asst. Prof. Rhodora Lynn Lintag-Tababa, a sociology professor from the Faculty of Arts and Letters, said during her talk about gender-based violence that sexual violence results from the idea of a person being more powerful and has more advantage than others during the “Say No: A Talk on Consent and Violence Against Women” held at the Central Laboratory Auditorium yesterday, Nov. 6.
“[This] violence is coming from the idea that in the first place, ‘I believe I am more powerful. I have more advantage over you,’ so some people have the tendency to really discriminate and undermine other people and practice their power, and therefore can result to harassment and violence,” according to Lintag-Tababa.
Lintag-Tababa said that the explanation as to why sexual harassment is rampant up to this time is because “personal is political.”
“’Away mag-asawa ‘yan. LQ ng mag-jowa ‘yan. Wala tayong pakialam diyan because that’s personal,’… That is being used by the society [to not] actually look into the matters of the women who are being abused,” she said. “Because it is something personal.”
Women’s issues and concerns, according to her, are often disregarded, treated as petty or irrelevant, and considered as a personal matter in which no one should interfere.
Lintag-Tababa mentioned American sociologist C. Wright Mills’ concept of sociological imagination which identifies the personal as a reflection of something greater or wider political issues.
“The personal should be political. That is the cry. That is the statement. That should be the slogan that should empower women,” she said.
Matter of sexual control
“Rape is a legal term [and] not a medical entity. It is a crime of violence. […] Rapists use sexual violence to dominate and degrade their victims and to express their own anger,” Asst. Prof. Ma. Georgina Manzano of College of Nursing said.
According to Manzano, rape is perpetrated not because of the sexual urge but because when a person’s self esteem is threatened, he or she projects the feeling of being helpless and powerless to the victim.
“It is an issue of having power and control…It is not about having sexual urge towards the person [who is] wearing bikini. [It is when a] person sees the woman as a vulnerable individual. He might take over the ability of [the woman] to fight or protect herself,” she said during the open forum.
“The abuser or the rapist may have [had] some childhood experiences that could have triggered this kind of aggression towards another person,” she added.
Photo by Schiatzi Lonzanida/TomasinoWeb
Manzano emphasized that in social media, when men see pictures of women in revealing clothes, the initial reaction is not to have control over the latter through force or threat but is attributed to the Philippine culture in which women are expected to wear Maria Clara clothes.
“It starts with you, and it will end with you,” Tababa said. “Violence starts with you, especially if you are not aware that you are actually harassing or doing something that is already promoting violence against women […] It will also end with you if you will do something about it.”
The event “Say No: A Talk on Consent and Violence Against Women” was organized by the Thomasian Debaters Council, in partnership with UST Hiraya, Fotomasino, Tiger Media Network, and TomasinoWeb.
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