Public Laundry

The final piga (squeezing water out) before hanging, by the road in Cebu.

It's a common element of Filipino jokes: the henpecked husband doing laundry, after being threatened by his wife, who is wielding a frying pan and ready to whack him on the head.

On the other hand, I see men washing clothes in public all over the country-- and they never look miserable. They are often talking to neighbors or other people hanging out in front of their houses.

I've been too chicken to take photos of those who decide to, at the same time, take a shower, and wash the clothes were wearing, retaining only their underwear. This happens more than you think.

Friend Finding

Go ahead, email her.

Filipinos have always liked making friends with random people. I remember living in pre-caller ID times, and having to turn down random calls from strangers ("Puede makipag-phone pal?). I would get ten-peso bills from the store with phone numbers written on them, begging for new voices and lives to peruse.

Then cellphones were born and hordes of folks began sending messages to random numbers, looking for "txtmates". Recently I've been seeing them-- cellphone numbers scrawled along sidewalks, on bus seats, on public restroom cubicle walls. Some have a little marketing involved: "Friends lang" (Just friends) or "Pogi ako" (I'm handsome).


And her too. She must be part of the "Simple Rockers".

In Cebu, I saw for the first time email addresses written on walls. In small towns where the internet has just surfaced, people are eager both to make new friends and to begin actually receiving mail.

It's the same for all the technologies above. People obtain some means to communicate, and then look for opportunities to use them. Think IRC chatrooms, though slower and in public spaces. The motivation mix varies-- trying to make the most of a sunk cost (cellphone unit, email account), looking for love or friends in the face of boredom or migration, plain interest in other human beings, etc.

Folk-Dancing Trannies

A trannie doing a male northern tribal dance in full makeup.

A recent trip to Cebu before the Sinulog got me thinking how, in almost every community fiesta or celebration in the Philippines, you can assume that gay, cross-dressing males take charge of the dance choreography. Increasingly, they are becoming part of the dances themselves.


The same dude as above.

We are lucky to observe how Filipinos integrate baklas into traditional dual-division of dance roles. I'm not exactly sure how many trannies are truly into folk dancing, but tourist demand, coupled with the Filipino gay eagerness to perform, has led to recent abundance of faux eyelashes in that area.


One of the hot-dogging dances involving balancing water.

At a recent small-town performance, the "male" role of the dance was (as far as I can tell) taken by a bunch of non-crossdressing gay guys. One long-haired transvestite was dancing with the female group. He had a slight alteration in costume, with the bib-like extension hanging shorter than in his women counterparts. If the modern flesh-tone bodysuit were to be excluded, the woven material would end right above his nipples, while his female troupe-mates would have their breasts covered. Otherwise, his costume and routine was identical to the females'.


The short bib-like thing is obscured by a large fan.

At another "traditional" dance showcase, the trannies were in the pant-wearing, foot-stomping male side of the dance. I still call them trannies because they were in full makeup and had long, female-like hair. However, they performed the typical moves with a lot more flair and hip movement than the usual versions.


Pandango and padded bras.

I'm not sure how they felt about doing the male dances. One friend from the province offered his take on it: "They are happy to just be dancing. Of course, they dream of doing female routines. But guests like us have opened up opportunities for them to perform, and they are pleased to participate in any dance they can."


Grace!

All this delights and interests me. It also makes me wonder about the growing absence of folk-dancing straight men.

(Note: The more urban arena of cheerleading is perhaps more flexible. A couple of years back, the half-time show of Ateneo rivals UST had a dance troupe composed of girls, straight guys, and male transvestites. The latter had their own uniform and routine, distinct from the first two groups.)