Essay Planning - Philippine Literature and its Role Against Inequalities in the Country

Requirements

Outline:

1. Introduction (5 sentences maximum)
2. Summary (5 sentences maximum)
3. Arguments

Armor

1. Introduction/Relevant Background

• Drug War
• Toxic Masculinity

2. Summary (Key Events)

1. Ronnie loses everything so he plans to kill himself
2. Ronnie finds something he must do before dying
3. Ronnie meets Biboy, someone related to him and is also in a similar situation. They decide to help each other.
4. Ronnie almost achieves his final wish, but Biboy—someone he has developed an strong emotional connection with—gets involved with his issues.

3. Main Arguments (2)

3.1. The Drug War is a Counter-Productive Approach to the Drug Problem in the Philippines

1. It is one-sided
2. It is dishonest

Supporting Quotes

• People who faced horrible conditions are the ones affected the most by strict drug policies
  • Three weeks earlier, his assistant had emptied the cash register and split, taking boxes of expensive hair coloring products on the way out. The betrayal came on the heels of a huge blow. Ronnie’s straight male lover, whom he’d supported through college, had left to marry a girl he’d gotten pregnant.
• People who, presumably, are not involved with drugs have bad moral character
  • The whole town would watch him compete again, hundreds of his neighbors—who’d already written him off as a cautionary tale—would see him at his glamorous best, see him in a long gown, on that stage, spotlights beamed on him.
  • Ronnie had forgotten how nosy the neighbors could be.
  • Oliver was talking to him about a list they had at the community hall, a list of targets. Someone had tipped him off about Ronnie’s name being in it. Oliver was telling him now so he could leave town before they found him
    • “So this is why you wanted me out of Mintal.”
• Drug users have good moral character despite their involvement
  • “You know, gwaps, I can help you with that,” said Biboy.
    • Context: he saw the golden arm and uses his industrial arts background to selflessly help Ronnie
  • Ronnie had to close down the salon and move to a boarding house in a compound used mainly as an automobile workshop. To pay rent, he started going door-to-door, offering makeup, hair styling, even manicures and pedicures. Occasionally he would choreograph dance numbers for local government employees who needed “intermission numbers” for their parties.
  • “Don’t mind them, gwaps,” Biboy said. “Next to you, they look like clowns.”
  • The boy’s presence calmed him. Biboy was still there, the one who’d been with him from the start. He thought about where the boy would go after all this was done.
  • On stage Ronnie tried to move. He tugged and heard a rip—the armored sleeve had snagged on the hip of his dress. He fumbled to get the thing off but his large fingers couldn’t seem to close. He looked up and saw the boy’s long narrow body being pulled toward the end of the hall.

3.2. Toxic Masculinity is Rampant in the Country

1. It is present in places where you least expect them to be in
2. People avoid helping each other instead look down on people struggling
3. Substance abuse is looked down on in society
4. Main characters do not share their feelings
5. Homophobia

Toxic Masculinity

Toxic masculinity pertains to harmful behaviors and tendencies rooted in taking the traditional male roles to the extreme.

It perpetuates

• homophobia;
• domination;
• poor mental health; and
• aggression.

It is characterized by

• Toughness: Men should be physically strong, emotionless/stoic, and aggressive.
• Antifeminity: Men should reject traditionally feminine behaviors (e.g., showing emotion or accepting help).
• Power: Men should aim to obtain power and status (social and financial) to gain other people’s respect

Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-toxic-masculinity-5075107

Examples, Signs, and Effects of Toxic Masculinity

• Men are discouraged from getting help—depression and substance use is viewed as a weakness.
• Toxic Masculinity results in behavior that avoid helping others; therefore, people are less likely to console a victim, stand up to perpetrators, and etc. People are expected to help themselves.
  • Toxic masculinity leads to people to avoid intervening in any conflict if it compromises their reputation as being traditionally masculine
• Men call women “whores” for having sex outside of a monogamous relationship
• Man controls their partner’s outfits and the people they are allowed to interact with
• Men cannot be emotionally vulnerable; they are expected to power through it.

Supporting Quotes

• People should help themselves and are discouraged from getting help
  • The whole town would watch him compete again, hundreds of his neighbors—who’d already written him off as a cautionary tale
• Unnecessarily aggressive and mean-spirited behavior
  • “What you have there?” a bayot asked him. He had long, ironed hair touching his bare shoulders. “Secret,” Ronnie said. “You’ll have to see for yourself.” “Chos!” sneered another one, frail and much younger, with unusually pale skin that was almost gray. “When was the last time you joined? The 1960s?” Ronnie was going to say something lighthearted when he noticed the way the youngsters were looking at him.
• Desparate for power
  • “So this is why you wanted me out of Mintal.”
• Homophobia and Anti-feminity
  • Ronnie’s straight male lover, whom he’d supported through college, had left to marry a girl he’d gotten pregnant.
  • The one with flattened hair asked him, “So how does it feel to be a thank-you girl?”

Generations

1. Introduction/Relevant Background

• Dehumanization of Women
  • Author suggests that the younger generation should stop it
• Feudalism
  • Exploitation of farmers
  • Oppressive class structures and culture

2. Summary (Key Events)

1. Grandmother’s death
2. Selo’s past
3. Father’s concern over his rights, which gave rise to his violent response
4. Father’s arrest and his daughter’s sacrifice
5. Father’s death and the bath afterwards.

3. Main Arguments (2)

3.1. The Role of the Youth in Stopping Misogyny/Patriarchy

Supporting Quotes

• No one cares about women except other women
  • Old Selo, on the other hand, could not remember that evening. One day his wife was there; the next, she wasn’t.
  • Mother, a Lysol-soaked rag in her hand, chased the steaming bats and shouted for the rest of the family to keep away. It was hard work, but she would not allow anyone to help.
• Gendered violence was normalized and the older generations allowed it to perpetuate, or was powerless against it
  • There was the sound of a slap, a sharp cry. Then, the creaking of the ladder as someone came down in a hurry.
  • “Stop him,” the mother cried out.
  • “Waiting,” he mumbled. “That’s another word for it. Waiting.” He gave a short bark of laughter.
  • “His daughter walked in front of him and he was seized by an impulse to tell her how he had first met her mother.”
• The daughter stopped a misogynist
  • “I have the right”, the daughter said.
  • “Of course, flies are lovely, with rainbow wings. But let them settle on you and they’ll lay eggs. They breed maggots.”
  • “We’ll tell mother. But first, we must take a bath.”

3.2. The Story Highlights How Farmers Are Exploited and Treated Unfairly in the Country

• Farmers were not treated with respect for their services
  • the landlord’s goon squads started kicking house doors down. The massacre went on for months, with the odor of putrid flesh mingling with the harvest fragrance.
  • The father was trying to convince the two soldiers that a man had the right to get drunk where and how it pleased him. Particularly when the harvest was involved
  • he was a man, and man had rights. So the law decreed.
• Class structures are unfair—the landlord gets the most benefits despite putting the least work
  • “Tell your father he left only thirty sacks of rice for the proprietario. He should have left fifty.”
• Children of farmers robbed of their future
  • The girl, he said, could be indentured now, as a servant to the landlord.
  • Like her, the actress had limpid eyes and a small mouth. The girl sighed and lifted the weight of her hair from her nape. God willing, she would have a future.
  • With her large eyes, her nice mouth, she could have a future.