Professor says victim-blaming ‘historically conditioned’

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The issue of “victim-blaming”, which trended on social media after the death of flight attendant Christine Dacera, has been a fixture in Filipino society since the Spanish era, according to a professor on Wednesday.

On January 1, 2021, the 23-year-old Dacera was found unconscious in the bathtub of a Makati City hotel where she and several of her friends stayed and partied for the New Year. She later died in a hospital.

Police statements initially said Dacera may have been gang raped by her male friends during the party.

Makati Police Chief Harold Depositar said on January 4, that 11 men were “provisionally charged” with rape and homicide as a result of their initial investigation. The reports raised a lot of concern and anger on social media, with some directing their comments at Dacera for being with many men on late hours and wearing “suggestive” clothing.

Prof. Rose Asong, former director of the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) Gender Development Program and a member of the Philippine Commission on Women’s (PCW) National Gender and Development Resource Pool (NGRP), said in a radio interview that this behavior was “not new”.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, Asong said victim-blaming was a product of a Spanish-era norm called “gender-spacing”, where women and men should be in separate spaces. She explained further that going beyond that space would lead to the woman being criticized.

 

“I cannot [blame] also those who say those things because they have historical and socio-cultural bases. From the Spanish times, there is such thing called ‘gender-spacing’. It means that women can only be seen in one space, and men can only be seen in another space. So, when the women go beyond that space, if anything happens to them, it becomes their fault,” Asong added. She said this “conditioning” had been passed down to generations and persists today.

 

This, Asong said, has restricted women from showcasing their abilities and capacities, and also from reporting their experiences of sexual violence, including rape.

 

“Society has had that ever since and we were conditioned to think in such a manner. I sometimes also forget and say these things, but then let us realize that this is part of our conditioning, and because of this, women are disempowered because you limit her space and you limit her time, she can’t show her abilities and capacities. It’s always really a pity on the woman because they’re being boxed,” she added.

 

Asong said that this socio-cultural norm, coupled with rape cases, is the root of victim-blaming in Filipino society.

 

“The term ‘victim-blaming’ evolved because of cases like these. The feminist movement came up with the term like this because they focus on the women victims and that’s why we always hear the term ‘victim-blaming’. The focus is on the woman who was already the victim, and at the same time, is further victimized by society by blaming her,” she explained.

 

She also said that “victim-blaming” in the aspect of robbery is different from that of gender-based violence.

 

“It’s because there is an aspect there [in jewellery theft], but this is the body of a person involved in victim-blaming and sexual offenses. Just like opening your door to invite robbers in, I think that’s a different story. Being careful, in a way, we have to be all careful. Women are now being taught to learn self-defense because they cannot be sure of the people around. You arm yourself also. In other words, you don’t wait to be a victim,” she said.

 

Asong added that “gender-spacing” and “victim-blaming” have been at the forefront of the feminist movement, citing her experience as a UPV professor in past years when female students started to wear shorts out of comfort and convenience.

 

“Women are complaining because of this. Why are you limiting us to these kinds of clothing? It’s our right to dress this way, and that doesn’t mean [libido] can be released on us because we dressed that way. You have to be disciplined in the way that women can dress that way without you having to be affected by that. She is not telling them to ‘Come rape me because I am in this outfit’. Women were already in walking shorts [at UPV] because for them, it was more comfortable and easier to wash. Women were already reacting during that time, that they would like to dress up in such a manner and not because they wanted to be raped or victims of these men,” she said.

 

Asong urged the public to stop victim-blaming because “times have changed”, and the ideation of women have also changed along with it.

 

“We have to stop victim-blaming. Whether you like it or not, she is a victim, so let’s stop blaming her, because we have now changed our ideas on where women should be, and what they can do. She can enjoy life. There is a small thinking that goes beyond tenderness or passion or whatever,” she said.