Constructing the Filipina: A History of Women's Magazines

by Georgina Reyes Encanto

The last 100 years of the print medium have seen many changes in newspapers and magazines and Georgina Encanto is wise to concentrate on women's magazines from the late Spanish to the early American regimes. For it is in this same period that women of the Philippines found themselves liberated to a large extent from their unsung role as homemakers of old.

121 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kylle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book as one of my supporting resources for my high school thesis on skin color and beauty in the Philippines. I was about 14 years old, entirely protected within the walls of a loving family, a safe and comfortable mode of transportation every day, friends who seemed just as protected, and a day-to-day agenda that gave me the idea that my topic could be framed solely with just media. I didn't ask enough why's. Reading this knowing what I know now and being angry about it gives this book a whole new meaning to me.

Magazines were used for hegemonic purposes and put people in their place -- it kept an unspoken order. It makes you question that with the power of social media and word of mouth if not magazines, are we going full circle? It would have been nice to see the cited sources in person, but I got the idea. The book explored significant eras for the Philippines from the Spanish pre-colonial period to around 2002, which was present day for when this was published. It reaffirmed every textbook excerpt, article, class discussion, movie, and piece of my national history I've collected over the years and associated with each era through a vague version of a glass ceiling. We all know the narrative. Seeing the stories through different lenses always feels emptying, as if I wish I could go back and tell these Filipina markets that they can't allow society to box them into personalities that don't put themselves first.

Despite all our progress since, we do have a long way to go. Books like these aren't just made for women. It's evident that changing our mindsets alone won't get us too far. The world around women needs to change just as much, if not more.

Daming sinabi. Sorry I read this at 4am because I couldn't sleep HAHA. Great read.

[Layla Lozada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Informs you on the many ways something as simple as a magazine can affect about half the population and how they look at themselves and the world around them. In this book, the magazine has done more than just advise women on how to cook or how to look beautiful. The magazine has been weaponized to make Filipino women complicit in our own suffering, and imprisonment to misogyny and colonial standards.