The Long Stag Party: Women and the Imperialist Game in Manila

Abstract

The Philippine is a prime example of how the layering process of colonial power distorts the feminine population, for a colonial invasion is not only a theater of carnage, both physical and psychological, but it must be an impregnable realm of men's space in order to perpetuate itself. Imperialism, whether Islamic, Spanish, or Yankee is also a feminist issue, although this specific recognition has been a bit tardy in coming. Philippine women have belatedly begun to reexamine their own pre-colonial status unlike in the past, not because men have suggested they do so to function as support groups during pockets of political rebellion or even in the interest of nationalism. The woman question in Southeast Asia is not contingent on nationalism, unless one accedes to the existence of a distinct Filipina uterus, a Vietnamese uterus, or an Indonesian uterus. The purely anti-feminine content of imperialist domination is no longer being deflected by masculine political priorities.