I’ve seriously thought about what and how it is to be a Filipina, and the stereotype always comes into my mind. The ideal image of the Filipino woman is Maria Clara. She symbolizes beauty, grace, simplicity and obedience. Growing up, I usually hear the term Maria Clara but never dug deep to its history. To those who do not know, Maria Clara is a character symbolizing the perfect Filipina created by Jose Rizal, our national hero, in Noli Me Tangere. Please correct me if I’m wrong. In my school, an all girls Catholic high school, the teachers promoted good behavior and obedience to God, family and school. When I say good behavior, I mean, “follow orders or get lost”. In my small town of Bacolod City, there wasn’t much diversity. Your actions and words are dictated to you by family and society. It wasn’t until I left my home to work abroad that I felt empowered.
Let’s go back to being a Maria Clara, many Filipino men prefer Maria Clara type of girls. These are the type of girls that they can introduce to their mothers without society raising an eyebrow. In a Catholic society of like ours, we are usually conservative in our ways, and being the Maria Clara type often solves problems. Why men prefer a Maria Clara type of woman, I only gave you my theory. And like the rest of you, I can only guess.
It is sad that our society barely empowers women, although we have a female president. I’m am lucky because I had parents who really pushed me hard to be my best, and sometimes for their best. Sometimes I wish there was a Filipino version of Oprah or Suze Orman because these women empower other women to be successful and happy with their lives. In our history, there were heroines that we just forgot, and none of them were the Maria Clara type. They broke the stereotype, and they were as tough as the men at that time. I wonder if there are more women who can challenge themselves and others to change the stereotype. Being a Filipina is no excuse to being subordinate or less valuable. I want to empower women but I also want them to realize that we are not better than the men but are equals with them. And another thing I want to stress is that although I want to empower women, I don’t wanted to be treated like a man but be treated like a woman.
I choose not to be a Maria Clara, I don’t demean others who have chosen to be one. I only want other Filipinas to realize that they have enough power to change their lives. They only need to choose to change. For me, not being a Maria Clara means I have control over my life, and I can make my own choices. I don’t need the perfect teeth to have the perfect smile, I don’t need others to validate me, I need only myself to validate me. That’s the reason why I chose not to be a Maria Clara.
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I have to disagree.
Full disclosure: I’m not ethnically Filipino, but I’ve grown up around Filipinos and identify, as a fellow island Southeast Asian, with their culture. I call myself a “Noypi” as a joke – I’m Pinoy, but from the outside in, rather than by birth. =P
But back to Maria Clara. Rizal would probably roll over in his grave if he could see what’s happening to poor MC. While Maria Clara might be co-opted by Philippine schools, Rizal never meant her to be the ideal Filipina woman. Nick Joaquin’s work on Rizal attacks this impression of her, as well as the general sanctification of Rizal and his work (which he claimed kept people from reading Rizal’s books as they were supposed to be read – namely, with pleasure.) She’s just a character among others – Filipinos don’t use Father Florention or Crisostomo Ibarra as archetypes for Filipino manhood, after all. Rizal wanted to entertain and incite – Maria Clara wasn’t supposed to be “ideal Pinay,” but just “Maria Clara,” a sweet mestiza woman in love with an idealist and who just happened to get screwed by Spain.
Do English speakers use Juliet as a placeholder for Anglo womanhood? No, and they shouldn’t.
While I recognize that there IS a phenomenon called “being a Maria Clara,” it has more to do with a constructed image post-Rizal, expressed in Bayanihan’s “Maria Clara suite” with its barongs and waltzes and conquettes, and its adoption by Fil-Am dance troupes.
yes, you are right, it’s not what rizal had intended. i do not know how the transition happened from being a character in a book to the ideal filipina. i guess i need to brush up on my history. but this post needs to be read in context of the current definition of maria clara. this concept is more prominent in rural areas or conservative filipinos. so don’t be alarmed if most of your friends are not the description above.