Aug

27

A Different Filipina

Filed Under Filipino Artists, Philippine Comics | 30 Comments


Francisco V. Coching
Pilipino Komiks #286, May 17, 1958

Comics are rife with images of women, and Philippine komiks are no exception. Probably too much exposure is given to the more “physical” aspects of women, specially Filipinas. It’s no crime to show Filipinas as beautiful and attractive, but certainly, it’s no crime to show how much they can kick ass as well. Case in point:


Elpidio Torres
Tagalog Klasiks #108, August 22, 1953

That is Jill from Mars Ravelo’s classic “Jack and Jill”. A modern Filipina in a conservative Philippine society in the early 1950’s had the audacity to show that women can make it in a men’s world.


Caguintuan
Bituin Komiks #22, June 20, 1950

Don’t mess with this Filipina or she will cut you in half! This is no damsel in distress!


Nestor Leonidez
Pioneer Komiks #97, August 8, 1966

This Filipina is not going to take it anymore!

The Filipina Writing Project
http://w3o.blogspot.com/2007/07/filipina-seo-keyword-campaign.html

Comments

30 Responses to “A Different Filipina”

  1. Jose Mari Lee on August 27th, 2007 1:36 pm

    I can only say that this strong women in Philippine komiks must have been influenced by the so-called “Chemin des Dames” (Women’s Way), where it was very prevalent in Greek Tragedy. Most notables were:

    EASCHYLUS (c525 – 456 BC) (ORESTEIA)

    SOPHOCLES (496-406 BC) (ANTIGONE; OEDIPUS REX)

    And the most prolific and had concentrated on “Chemin des Dames”, the one and only:
    EURIPIDES (c.525-456 BC)
    If we examine all his surviving 19 plays, we’ll notice that they all show important innovations in the handling of traditional myths, such as the introduction of realism, an interest in feminine psychology, and the portrayal of abnormal and unnatural states of mind: MEDEA; HYPPOLYTES; ELECTRA; TROJAN WOMEN; BACCHAE; are some very well-known ones.

    Even SAPPHO (early 7th Century BC) a resident of Lesbos who wrote poems about strong women, thus have given rise to her association with female homosexuality.

    The classic must have inspired our old komikeros. Mars Ravelo wrote strong women characters as well (BOKSINGERA is an example. Or was it by PSG?). There was ALING CUCHERO; There was TALUSALING;There was INFANTA JUDITH; BERTANG PALAKOL; BARTOLA; DABIANA; and many, many more.

    I think the whole world Is fascinated by the “Chemin des Dames” and most probably was also the foundation for Women’s Liberation movement in the modern world.

  2. dennis on August 28th, 2007 2:10 pm

    The tradition of male-dominated komiks had long been broken by Filipino komiks creators, earier tha their American counterparts, and even more numeous. I can add the serials like Diwani, Darna, Basahang Ginto, Inday Bote, etc.
    Btw, Jack en Jill was written by Mars Ravelo, and not Gomez.

  3. Gerry Alanguilan on August 28th, 2007 9:44 pm

    Oo nga pala! Salamat Dennis! Info is corrected. :)

  4. dennis on August 28th, 2007 10:41 pm

    No problem Gerry! Grabe naman pala yung pag sulat ko mali mali spelling, ngayun ko lang napansin hehe. Punta ka sa Bookfair Gerry (mas magandsa kung Sunday, para mameet ka namin ni Mr. Gaspar Vibal. May proyekto kaming 100 Top Komiks serials, and I nominated two of your serials to be part of the list. Sana makapag-usap tayo minsan..maganda ito Gerry!

  5. Robby Villabona on August 29th, 2007 12:04 am

    Actually it’s no surprise we’ve had strong women characters. Wala sa kultura natin ang gender discrimination. Our country ranks 6th in the world in the “Gender Gap” list, the only 3rd world country in the top 10. Highest is Sweden (U.S. ranks 23rd).

  6. auggie on August 29th, 2007 7:46 am

    Gerry,

    Nakabili ako ng DVD ng JACK N JILL starring a young Dolphy, and an equally young Lolita Rodriguez. In B&W, pero ang sama ng reproduction, kinunan straight from the film, kaya ang sama ng audio at pati visuals. From Sampaguita Pictures, pero hindi digital ang recording.

  7. dennis on August 29th, 2007 11:36 am

    Hi Auggie,
    Re-issued na itong Jack and Jill sa DVD Auggie. Yung copy ko mukhang remastered na pero yung sound hindi pa. may in-issue ding dvd na mga pelikula ni Carmen Rosales at Rogelio dela Rosa

  8. Gerry Alanguilan on August 29th, 2007 1:06 pm

    Auggie… di ko pa nakita yung movie, pero nakita ko na yung DVD. Balak ko nga kolektahin ang lahat ng komiks related movies and then make a comparison with the komiks. :)

  9. jose mari Lee on August 29th, 2007 7:48 pm

    Sampaguita and LVN are selling their films but the sad thing is: they’re all VHS. I ordered some and they’re not too bad. The ROSA MIA starrer: INANG MAHAL is quite an old film, yet it came out very good. There’s PETRANG PAMINTA with Jeanne Young and Eddie Miller, not too old (done in 1969 by Pablo Gomez and Alex Nino), yet the film is so heavily damaged. Some Premiere classics are also available, but again, on VHS. Larry Santiago Productions might release some of their films as well. LEA Production is another company that produced some really good tagalog movies and it would be nice to see them again.

    So far, the list of available films are quite big, but who watches VHS these days?

  10. Robby Villabona on August 30th, 2007 5:55 am

    JM,

    You can order those same VHS tapes on DVD. The catch is it’s just the same VHS content on DVD media (well at least matagal masira).

  11. Janette Toral on September 3rd, 2007 7:26 am

    Hi Gerry. I noticed that your entry is now at page 5 of Google search engine results for Filipina. Highest so far from all entries.

    I also suggest putting Filipina in the alt tags of all your images in this post as well.

    More tips for visibility is posted at
    http://digitalfilipino.blogspot.com/2007/08/attaining-search-engine-visibility-for.html
    Cheers!

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  14. Janette Toral on October 11th, 2007 5:28 am

    Hello. Thank you for supporting the Filipina Writing Project. I also encourage you to create an audio version of your entry and we can include it in our Filipina Writing Project Podcast at http://filipina.podbean.com

    Thank you!

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  16. JOSE C. CAMANO on October 30th, 2007 11:23 pm

    MAGANDA AT COLORFUL ANG COVER NG MGA KOMIKS. PUEDE BANG MAGDAGDAG KA PA NG MGA COVERS KUNG MAYRON KA PANG NATATAGO?. THEY BRING BACK OLD MEMORIES WHEN I WAS IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES AND READ ALL THOSE STORIES… MAYRON KA BANG KOMIKS KUNG SAAN ANG COVER NAMAN AY SI KENKOY AT ROSING? DITO AKO NATUTONG MAGSALITA AT MAGSULAT NG TAGALOG. BIKOLANO AKO AT HINDI TAGALOG.

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  28. neto on April 7th, 2008 2:36 pm

    i do,i collected classic movies that i buy from lvn and sampaguita pictures,kahit na sa vhs ito…asan naman nabibili ang sa premiere productions at lea productions…

    please email me….

    remraf911@yahoo.com

    thanks

  29. philippine seo on June 10th, 2008 5:31 pm

    I can only say the real different Filipina was immortalized with Darna.

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