Over the years, Filipinas working overseas have been greatly stereotyped and put in a negative light. This documentary follows a collective group of global Filipinas who have been deeply affected by these issues and how they chose to respond by sharing the positivity, and the advocacy of a common mission — uplifting the morale of Filipinas everywhere.

Part 2 of 3
Family and the Filipina beauty

Over the years, Filipinas working overseas have been greatly stereotyped and put in a negative light. This documentary follows a collective group of global Filipinas who have been deeply affected by these issues and how they chose to respond by sharing the positivity, and the advocacy of a common mission — uplifting the morale of Filipinas everywhere.

Part 3 of 3
Beyond awareness – Filipino women empowerment

Over the years, Filipinas working overseas have been greatly stereotyped and put in a negative light. This documentary follows a collective group of global Filipinas who have been deeply affected by these issues and how they chose to respond by sharing the positivity, and the advocacy of a common mission — uplifting the morale of Filipinas everywhere.

• Dr. Arlene Marie “Bambi” Antonio-Lorica, pediatrician, lyric soprano, FWN Board Member, FWN 100 (2007)
• Atty. Loida Nicolas-Lewis, Chair & CEO, TLC Beatrice, LLC; Founder/President, Lewis College, Sorsogon; former Chair, National Federation of Fil-American Associations
• Marily Mondejar, President, Filipina Women’s Network (FWN), Executive Board Member, Leadership California; President, Friends of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women

WHEN:
Feb. 17, 2010, 6:30-7:30 PM (Manila, Philippines time)

HOW:
Kalikasan Kaunlaran Is accessible through:
• Radio: DZRH-AM radio (666 in Metro Manila, other kHz nationwide)
• TV: (Ch. 9 in Metro Manila, other cable TV channels nationwide)
• Internet: http://dzrh.prepys.com; http://dzrh.tripod.com

About Kalikasan, Kaunlaran’s feature on “Pinay Power for Sustainability”

Sustainability has three pillars—environmental protection, social equity and progress, and economic development. The Earth Institute’s “Aim for the Triple Bottom-line” with the three Ps—People, Planet, and Profit—have added two more critical pillars—Person and Peace.

Now we are adding Pinay Power—with a double “P”! Filipino women have played a major role in nation-building, especially in environmental protection, in the Philippines. Many say that “women in Philippine society have always enjoyed a greater share of legal equality” compared with their counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries. But what about Filipino women in other countries where more than two million Filipino women work?

The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, in its 2008 statistics, indicated that Filipino women or Pinays abroad are “generally accorded with low regard or are discriminated because 54.7 percent of the total female Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are laborers and unskilled workers. Remittances from female OFWs worldwide are relatively lower than their male counterpart.”

It is, thus, noteworthy when some Filipino women not only excel professionally in foreign countries but also contribute significantly to the upliftment of other Filipino women and the sustainability of their host countries, while continuing to help the Philippines develop more sustainably as well.

About Earth Institute

EARTH Institute Asia and DZRH co-produce KK!, with the support of Unilever, Unilab, Toby’s Sports, Le Cellier French Wine Selection, Yehey.Com, Management Association of the Philippines, and Brahma Kumaris with the cooperation of various organizations, groups, and individuals.

Inquiries: 671-3266, 0917-829-1718, or email earthinstitute@gmail.com.

i’ve been creating filipina sites and linking to other filipina sites for many years now. i’ve even linked my sites to “yan ang pinay” which now has donated its great logo to this blog. you see, i’ve been watching these searches for “filipina” since around 1995-96.

many of us watching the filipina image online for all these years know what’s going on. i’ve come to call the problem we are trying to solve “cybertyping” because of something similar to cyber stereotyping.

cybertyping. a process by which the internet creates a stereotype, false image or cybermyth through search engine results or web advertising.

filipina cybertyping is articulated when one does a search on “filipina” through search engines such as a google and yahoo and those results show mostly sites that slant the image of the filipina to a narrow representation. go ahead and try it. what are your findings?

cybertyping also takes place through ads that come up with the keyword of “filipina”, for example, “filipinas for great prices at ebay” or through google ads. these results combined create a cyberstereotype or a cybermyth of filipinas. cybertyping.

cybertyping is impersonal on the internet’s behalf. it’s painful on a personal level. it’s degrading on a nationalistic sense. it’s a blow to the whole filipina/o identity experience as you become more and more aware of it. of course we can go on with everyday life despite it all. but there is something wrong with it.

stereotyping is a common thing. it creates control factors in the mind’s little games of perceiving and processing the world. maybe people like stereotyping because it limits and belittles in order to quell insecurities and fears.

the experience of newfilipina.com starting in 1998 was about a concerted effort, for and by filipinas, to create an online community where the sharing and discussions helped create a more complete filipina image online as opposed to the one-sided cybermyth created by the deluge of websites about brides, pen pals, dating and visual sex. Nothing wrong with the sites about companionship, but certainly something wrong with the skewed filipina cyber-representation peppered with porn and sex tours targeted to male markets globally. (and certainly something wrong with the impoverishment of the filipino people that might cause them to want to leave their country in order to survive. and that’s another topic to explore)

this skewed representation is not necessary caused by stereotyping necessarily. it’s more because of narrow representation online for filipinas that has been present since the beginnings of the internet. this narrow representation of filipinas is articulated when one does a search on “filipina” through search engines such as a google and yahoo. it also takes place through ads that come up with the keyword of “filipina”, for example, “filipinas for great prices at ebay” or through google ads. these results combined create a cyberstereotype or a cybermyth of filipinas. this is what i will call cybertyping. it’s impersonal on the internet’s behalf. it’s extremely painful on a personal level. it’s insulting on a nationalistic sense.

we can’t rant and rave anymore can we. (i did when i first discovered what was going on). we must work against cybertyping.

10 years after we started, filipina cybertyping is still ongoing and the cybermyth of filipinas as sex/domestic subservient goddesses still exists through the types of sites out there about filipinas.

thus, newfilipina.com cannot retire, but will rather, evolve. newfilipina.com, as a blog now, will concentrate on the examination of how this has come about. it will also make an effort, with your help hopefully, on deconstructing the mind-set and illusions that have helped create this phenomena. spin-off sites are being designed and constructed to take on the many features newfilipina.com once had, such as featured filipina lives, art, poetry, books, opinion and discussions. we invite you to join us through those spin-off sites.

and we invite you to apply techniques of using keywords and links to help counter cybertyping. a few years ago, i sent out an email to a few hundred cyber pinoys and pinays on how to do this. but i’ll give you the quick tips right here:

Technique 1.
Place the word “filipina” in the meta keywords and, if relevant, meta title within the html coding of your index page and as many other pages of your site.

Technique 2.
Place the word “filipina” in the text content of your web page/s, and as many webpages that you manage.

Technique 3.
Create a web page list of your favorite quality Filipina/o sites at your web page/site.

Also visit www.newfilipina.com and its sister sites in beta stage at www.pinay.com, www.phenomenalfilipinas.com/pfilipinas, and www.fabulousfilipinas.net

ONE boredom buster I’ve shared with all my friends is Googling. It’s basically just typing in random words or names on Google and looking at the websites that the search returns. It’s actually a fun way to learn new things everyday. When you type the word “falafel,” for example, you can read the origin of the famous Middle Eastern food as well as yummy recipes that teach you how to make some.

Anyway, if you’re up for it, try typing in the word “Filipina.” Here are some of the results you’ll get — Filipina Penpals, Filipina Dating, Filipina Singles, Sexy Filipina, Pinay and Exotic Models. Yes, that’s apparently the stereotypical Filipina that is shown online.

Good thing the top-ranked site now is a blog called The Filipina Images.

read more at Changing the Filipina image, one blog entry at a time

FilipinaImages.com is proud to be part of the Iblog 4 Summit which was held at the College of Law’s central auditorium, also known as Malcolm Theater. I invited all the bloggers present to contribute their stories to our portal or to even link to FilipinaImages.com.

And here is the video

View iBlog4 Afterglow.

Here is the Powerpoint Presentation:

| View | Upload your own

100% Pinoy interviewed me for a segment on “Modernong Maria Clara” that was aired Thursday, April 24, 2008. The episode talked on the image and the evolution of Filipino women.

(If you don’t want to view the whole video, here is the short snippet on filipinaimages,com)

Maria Clara is said to be the quintessential Filipina icon. But the image of Filipino women is said to be evolving. From Rizal’s Maria Clara to the worldwide web’s connotations of the word Filipina, has the essence really changed or is it all perception? If it has, are the changes enough to alter the view of ordinary Filipinos to the Filipina persona?

With the launch of Playboy Philippines, is it fair to say that the public is more comfortable with a non-conservative Filipina image? 100% Pinoy finds out in an actual Playboy centerfold photoshoot. Miriam Quiambao explores the proverbial changing image of Maria Clara, particularly on how it is depicted in the arts and modern day media.

Behind the Scenes

(Click on thumbnails)

The interview for FilipinaImages.com is basically on the goals of seeking balance in the Filipina images that are available online. I hope the segment producer understood the objectives. I reminded him that we are not out to clean the images. Through our blog posts, we show the world that Filipinas are a diverse group of women.

The short segment was aired after Saksi thursday night and if you are based abroad, it will also be shown Pinoy TV International.

100% PINOY is GMA7’s magazine show about Philippine Arts and Culture and its significance to nation building. It aims to bring back the pride of every Pinoy in our heritage, tradition and identitiy as Filipinos. The program is hosted by Ms. Miriam Quiambao and Mr. Joaquin Valdes.

Congratulations to the WikiPilipinas Filipina Stories Contest

1st prize: The Filipina Doctor: Coming Full Circle by Dr. Claire Francisco

2nd prize: The Evolving Beauty of a Modern Filipina by Eddie Oguing

3rd prize: The Cyber Feminization of Poverty: Mail-Order Brides and the Image of the Filipina by Genevieve Ruth Villamin

And the winner of the Ipod nano is from Netherlands. Sorry I can’t remember the entry right now.

To the winners: Please Contact mindy@wikipilipinas.org.ph for more details.

Photos

At the Women Can’t Wait at the SMX Convention Center (In Celebration of World’s Women’s Month)

Dine Racoma being interviewed for the “Sexy Mom” nickname.

Me showing a Powerpoint presentation of the FilipinaImages.com website.

Some bloggers who joined the contest.

(To be continued)

Questions like:

1.Why did you put up this website?

2.What inspired you to change the online image of
Filipinas?

3.Can you explain to us how creating a website can
contribute to the enhancement of the image of
Filipinas online?

4.Who are the pioneers of this site?

5.(to Ms.Dine Racoma) Can you tell the story when
someone reacted to your online name as “sexy mom”?
Why did you choose this name in the first place?

6.It’s been seven months since the site started. What
are the latest developments?

7.So far, how many bloggers are helping you in your
advocacy?

8.How can other Filipinas help in your campaign?

9.Your site already received a reward. Can you tell us something about that award?

10.Your message to our viewers.

Of course you know the answers to all that. You can view the Dine’s speech over at “Story Behind FilipinaImages.com” and mine at Using Technology in Uplifiting the Filipina Image.

Good morning to everyone here today who are taking time out from their busy schedules to celebrate this launching of cyberspace tools for success — for Filipinos, about Filipinos, and by Filipinos — wherever they are in the world.

This is what I would like to do today for our topic, “Using Technology in Uplifting the Image of the Filipina.”

First, I will continue relating the story of FilipinaImages.com. Dine Racoma, our co-founder, continues to delight us with her perspectives about her life as “the Filipina Sexy Mom.”

Second, I would like to articulate some of the founders’ hopes and aspirations, as well as the milestones and achievements of this advocacy blog and news portal. I’m proud to announce that we will be celebrating our first anniversary on August 8, 2008. We are pleasantly surprised that wikiPilipinas recognized Filipina Images as one of their “Newsmakers of 2007,” website category.

And third, I will briefly explain how we make this online campaign work. For the non-techies in the audience today, let me reassure you, that this portal is for the creative-minded and the technologically-challenged. Among the three of us, co-founders, I’m the only techie person.

My sister, Lorna Dietz, the co-founder who is here in spirit with us today, resides in San Francisco, California. She is a member of the Filipina Women’s Network — or FWN.

Lorna is also a member of the FWN’s Committee for “Shaping the Filipina Image” Campaign — so one July morning last year, we had an online discussion about the term “Sexy Mom.”

Fortunately, this enlightening chat convinced me that we did not have to adhere to the common-place meanings of the term, “Sexy Mom.” We could reclaim the word — just as our US Filipina sisters had purposely made their group’s name redundant, using “Filipina” and “woman” so that internet searches for these words would somehow find their professional association popping up among the gazillion entries about Filipina dating services, marriages, and others. FWN also wanted mainstream USA to know that the correct term for a woman of Philippine ancestry is “a Filipina.”

Lorna told me, “You have to define if ‘Sexy Mom’ is for the workplace or if ‘Sexy Mom’ is to signify liberation from stereotypical images of mommies.”

So, Dine and I consulted our blogging community as well as some SEO experts. SEO, by the way, means Search Engine Optimization. I’ll explain later why the term SEO is of prime importance to our online campaign.

The three of us, together with many of our blogger friends, launched an informal online campaign in July of 2007. By no means is our group’s efforts a new or unique strategy.

We want to thank the internet leaders who came before us, among the many —

We are blessed to have a supportive community of bloggers who take the time to share their knowledge and experiences with us. We are forever grateful.

The question many of you might have is: “Why does this website exist?” And “Why Filipina Images? Why not Filipina Image?”

Because we want to “take back” the keyword “Filipina” from its usual search results.

Why don’t you do this when you get home today? C’mon, try it. It’s really easy.

Go to the Start Page of your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or what-have-you. Look for the Search function, which is usually google or yahoo.

Then, type this word: FILIPINA.

In less than one second, you will see the first page.

Then, what you want to do is count the number of entries that are not about “how beautiful the Filipinas are,” or about “finding the right Filipina to date or marry.”

Guess what? In the first page — which has 20 entries — you might only see TWO non-dating sites. Keep going to the next page. Then, make a tally.

It is safe to conclude then, that any person who does a search for “Filipina” on the internet thinks that the Filipino woman is only about physical attributes, marriage, or dating.

So, you see, the Filipina is not about ONE image. Therefore, the name is FILIPINA IMAGES. A diversity of images.

FilipinaImages.com’s goal is to achieve a balance of these Search Engine Results Pages or SERPS as they are commonly called. We are not out to eliminate the dating or marriage sites.

This means that there needs to be a conscious effort by many bloggers worldwide to direct the keyword, “Filipina” to a non-dating or non-marriage site. In other words, the more people there are who link the keyword “Filipina” to one or two websites that highlight the achievements and dignity of the Filipina, the better our chances are at getting these chosen websites to the top 20 in the SERPS.

When we launched the “google bombing” campaign in July, we used the Filipina Women’s Network website as “the link of choice.” Then, we created FilipinaImages.com so that contributors to the online campaign could use this independent portal to link the keyword “Filipina.”

Our Filipina sisters in the US can continue their own SEO campaign in “Shaping the Filipina Image” by linking the keyword “Filipina” in their blog postings to FWN. During last October’s FWN Summit in Washington DC, Lorna was a member of a panel discussion on “Crafting the Filipina Image.” Among the five panelists, she talked about how blogging can effectively impact social change by explaining exactly how the Filipina Images website operates its online advocacy campaign.

FilipinaImages.com, once again, is the example of an online advocacy campaign that my sister explained to her colleagues to help the non-techies in their e-learning classes. Lorna is now quite a strong blogging advocate in the communities she works in. I’m very pleased to say that she’s a very good student of mine.

When you have the time to browse through our portal, please read our contributors’ stories. If you have a blog and you would like to become a FilipinaImages.com supporter and contributor, please e-mail us.

This online campaign to uplift the dignity of the Filipina can be transposed to whatever goals you have. You can exercise your leadership by consciously complementing your community-organizing or grassroots efforts with an internet presence. All it needs is a blog. You don’t have to be a tech whiz to manage the contents of your blog.

FilipinaImages.com IS a movement to achieve social change. We fulfill a need that we did not know existed. The proof is in the tremendous growth and progress we have made in having more contributors join us. They provide fresh stories and insights for us to reflect on — and to celebrate.

Whatever your interests are — whether it’s a hobby, your family, a political statement, or a talent —

Our message is very clear: Blogging gives voice to your passions, to your ideas, to your opinions. It is easier than you think.

If you can e-mail, you can blog. We can teach you. There are many of us.

After all, blogging is all about conversations and discussions.

It’s that simple.

Thank you.

Thank you, Noemi and good morning to all of you.

Sexy Mom—that was what my kids called me, many years back when I didn’t even know the existence of blogs. So when I opened a blogsite in November 2006, fresh from early retirement, Sexy Mom has become my pseudonym, my cybername—my internet nickname. My blogsite was known as “The D Spot.”

It was going very well in the beginning, it was even fun, as the name was catchy, easy to memorize and had a following. If you google searched the word Sexy Mom, you would find my blogsite, The D Spot, as number one from among the almost 1 million search results in the world wide web. Even yahoo or hot mail had the same results. I did not even have to give away calling cards when people asked me for my website. I just told them to google search Sexy Mom for them to access my blog.

I was happily sharing my thoughts, my experiences through the blog, gaining friends, readership, yes, even getting writing assignments. My blog has become not only my online publication, but my network to the world as well.

By the way, it was through this blog that the Joaquin family came to know about me and assigned me as their local representative in Manila in relation to the Nick Joaquin biography planned to be launched in 2009.

Everything was going well, until one fine day 7 months later, in June 2007, I got a comment (repeatedly at that) from a person who called him/herself as “decent mother”, which I quote: “You are a disgrace to the Filipino women. We have been trying to change the image of the Filipino women in the internet. Foreigners type “filipina” to search for women to have sex. The same kind of people (pedophiles and perverts) type “sexy mom” and it points to You . You are an embarrassment to our country. Stop using SEXY MOM. Filipino mothers are loving caring mothers. Leave the SEX part in your bedroom. Mommy bloggers laugh behind your back because of your pseudonym. Filipino women are too polite to tell you to say that using sexy mom is killing the filipino women.”

At first, I was not bothered. I told myself everyone was entitled to his/her own opinion. What could I do if I could not humor a humorless person, I told myself. But “decent mom” did not stop there. To make matters worse, same comment was made in my 3 sons’ blogs (my family is known as a blogging dynasty, btw, and I was thankful that “decent mom” did not leave a message in my 10-yr old son’s blog, and did not know my 3 daughters’ blogs), with an additional sentence, which said, “Let this serve as a warning to your family.”

What to do? My family was under attack!

Breath in…breath out. First time in my life—I was at a loss, I didn’t know what to do. I could not even write a rebuttal, I was more afraid than angry, the creative juices in me gone! Afraid for the safety of my 4 boys and 3 girls. What if this “decent mom” were a paranoid person, out to do harm?I sought the advice of my blogger friends through a blog post—I was surprised with the pouring of support.

First to come to my rescue was my 17 year old son, B.A., who wrote in his blog: A disgrace? An embarrassment? Really now? Let me read it to you.

Lemme start this entry with a bit of history.

A few years back, my mother was so conscious of her figure, that every night she would ask us kids, “am I fat?”

Being the lovely kids we are, we always replied, “no mom! You’re sexy! The sexiest mommy of all!”

And thus, the pseudonym Sexy Mom was born.Now, on with the rant.

Just this afternoon, I received a threat in the comments section of one of my entries. A certain “decent filipino woman” (filipinowoman@gmail.com) was ranting against my mom’s use of her pseudonym.

Of course, I did not approve the comment (but wtf, I’m posting it here It’s also published here.).

Aaaaanyways.The “decent” filipino woman said that my mom was a “disgrace to Filipino women” because her use of the pseudonym “Sexy Mom” leads to promotion of perversion in the Philippines.

How?

According to her comment, when perverted foreigners type “sexy mom” in the internet, it points to my mom. And this, the filipino woman says, is a disgrace and an embarrassment.

Great.

Let’s do a bit of role playing. I’ll be a dirty pervert, looking for some alternative mommy sex. And my mom, plays as herself, the Sexy Mom of the blogosphere.

I go to Google. I type “sexy mom in the Philippines” on the box, and then click on “I’m feeling lucky today!”

What pops out? The D Spot.

Ok then. Sounds naughty enough. Now I start looking for some sexy pictures…

Aaaand… I find none.

What do I get instead?Tips on Filipino motherhood. On parenting. On learning. On travel. On patriotism.

Filipina sex? None. Malicious pictures? None. Sexy moms having sex? NONE.

So, tell me, “decent” filipino woman. How the heck does this lead to the embarrassment and disgrace of our country?

Don’t you think my mom’s blog is doing otherwise?

Yes, people continue to search for dirty, malicious content by using the keywords “sexy mom.” But instead, what do they get? A wholesome blog.

Rather than promoting how sexy and sex-able Filipinas are, my mom is promoting the Filipina mother in a very wholesome way.

And that, my friend, is nowhere near to saying that the Filipina woman as a foreigner sex object (as how your comment implies).D

Does her blog disgrace the country? No.

Does her blog embarrass the Filipina woman? No.

Does her blog show how good Filipinas are in bed? No.

So here I go again, saying my favorite line…Before saying anything and attacking the person personally, please, know the person first.

And if it’s us bloggers you’re attacking, please, learn how to read before you attack.

What’s so wrong with using a pseudonym?

From there, other mommy bloggers took action. Taking pity on my plight, Noemi consulted her sister, Lorna who provided an insight, “The anonymous writer has good intentions but I think doesn’t understand that fighting hackneyed perceptions about “sexy mom” means also fighting the women’s cause by using the same weapons — that is, the same words”.

Noemi got inspired with Lorna’s insight. She then blogged about Reshaping the Sexy Filipina Image based on previous “Filipina” campaigns in the past like Search Engine Optimization Expert (SEO), Marc Macalua; The Filipina and “Yan ang Pinay”, Fabulous Filipina Presence and others.

And many Filipino bloggers, mothers or not, males and females, followed suit. They wrote in their blogs, reclaiming the dignity of the Filipina woman, and reshaping the clean image of the Sexy Filipina.

At that time up to this time, I still continue to maintain #1 ranking for Sexy Mom, SexyMom, Sexy Filipina Mom, with other mom bloggers in page 1. This page used to be fully occupied with the pornographic and dating sites.We needed to work out on the “Filipina”.

Moving on… I am very very glad that this negative issue has spurred an advocacy for reshaping the online and sexy Filipina image.

Half a year ago, when you google search “Filipina”. All you got were dating and pornographic sites.

Now, Google search Filipina. You will see, in page 1, rank 1 “The Filipina Images.” Page 1 will now look more like a combination of the healthy and dating and pornographic sites. We would like to fill it with the clean image—and you can help us do that!

Thank you.