Hippie Colors

I’m taking a class at U.P. on Pierre Bourdieu this sem taught by Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario, Vincetian. That class, that teacher, that author I like. Bourdieu helps me make sense of life as a transplant and as an academic.

Ever since the class started, I’ve been writing short essay after short essay so I decided to set up a site where I can post those essays: http://lelanddelacruz.blogspot.com/. Just a fair warning, some of the essays will sound more like lectures, a working out of concepts.

The first essay is something I’ve entitled "Do you feel misunderstood?". The next one will be an essay entitled "Are you stiff?" Since I have the material already, I thought I’d post regularly, say once a week, probably every Monday when I am otherwise not productive. Enjoy!

For the past two weeks, I’ve been catching glimpses of Philippine Idol in-between taking care of Sinta and cooking and washing the dishes and everything else a father and husband is expected to do in a maid-less household.

I couldn’t help but notice that a big deal is made about the third sex including gays, lesbians, transvestites, transgenders (and no matter how often my LGTB or LGBT friends educate me, I can never quite seem to get many of those genders right). Two episodes ago, they kept teasing the audience with the feminine legs of someone who turns out to be a transgendered male (or female, whatever). Last episode, there were a couple of lesbians and they were featured as such. Every time third sex people come up (hope that is politically correct), the judges make it a point to emphasize that gender does not figure in judging.

I’ve been watching American Idol since season 2 and to my recollection, gender was never an issue. I wonder what this says about us and about the Americans. Are Americans a "don’t ask, don’t tell" people and in that sense less liberated (or more liberated because they fear a backlash if they make it an issue)? Are third sex persons not allowed to reach higher stages in America Idol?

Are the repeated references to sexuality a way for Philippine Idol to justify itself to more conservative audiences? Or are our third sex crowd just a lot more flashy than the American third sex crowd?

It would be interesting to see how this all turns out and how people react to the overt discussions of sexuality.

One more pop culture gender thought: Will a male ever win Pinoy Big Brother? I have a hunch that it will be difficult for a male to win because males are expected to earn their money some other way. PBB is like charity and I doubt that charity will be given to males.

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Last weekend I got the inspiration to change the name of this blog to hippie colors. Will eventually change the name of my website too.

One day, while I was still in college, I had a particularly bad saturday (back when rotc was still required) and on my way to LHS for a meeting, I looked up at the sky and saw that the sky was painted in hippie (pastel) colors. I felt that was life’s way of cheering me up and it did. Back then my prayer was that I could look at my life and see those same hippie colors.