Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora

Perverse Modernities

by Martin F. Manalansan IV

A vivid ethnography of the global and transnational dimensions of gay identity as lived by Filipino immigrants in New York City, Global Divas challenges beliefs about the progressive development of a gay world and the eventual assimilation of all queer folks into gay modernity. Insisting that gay identity is not teleological but fraught with fissures, Martin Manalansan IV describes how Filipino gay immigrants, like many queers of color, are creating alternative paths to queer modernity and citizenship. He makes a compelling argument for the significance of diaspora and immigration as sites for investigating the complexities of gender, race, and sexuality. Manalansan locates diasporic, transnational, and global dimensions of gay and other queer identities within a framework of quotidian struggles ranging from everyday domesticity to public engagements with racialized and gendered images to life-threatening situations involving AIDS. He reveals the gritty, mundane, and often contradictory deeds and utterances of Filipino gay men as key elements of queer globalization and transnationalism. Through careful and sensitive analysis of these men’s lives and rituals, he demonstrates that transnational gay identity is not merely a consumable product or lifestyle, but rather a pivotal element in the multiple, shifting relationships that queer immigrants of color mobilize as they confront the tribulations of a changing world.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Anthropology, Theory, Queer Studies, Asia

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[maricar · Rating 4 out of 5]

(excerpt from a paper critique:)

…In recalling my reading of the author’s vignettes, it appears that he has dearth of representative informants—the bulk of his life histories were culled from bakla who have come from urbanized centers of the Philippines, living relatively well-to-do lives. As such, motivations among them for going abroad may be attributed to a longing for a change in lifestyle or social scene, or to assuage an emotional/romantic void. I suppose what I am trying to put across is not hard to guess—is the primary motivation of wanting to a earn higher salary for one’s self and one’s family, which is the driving force among other diasporic Filipinos, not a priority for some of the Filipino bakla? I am aware that my query is very leading, but it is difficult for me not to think about that, since more and more Filipinos nowadays do indeed prefer to go abroad in order to find better jobs (read as higher paying jobs). The possibility of living a chic lifestyle seems to be a reality attainable only after one has had months of earning that high salary (the primary goal).

But, really, among the Filipino bakla, what are the immediate as well as deep-seated motivations? Is it just to escape the chokehold of family? Is it to forge a blazing path of biyuti abroad? Or is it a growing disillusionment of what their Inang Bayan is turning out to be?

Or perhaps I am simply going too far, and there is really just that one obvious motivation that is universal to all Filipino immigrants: money.
If this is so, then there is a marked disjointedness in the author’s narrative; his Global Divas came to New York and, except for a chosen few singled out as the breadwinners of the family back home, these Filipino bakla were portrayed as sometimes single-minded in the pursuit of that white, masculine male lover in the midst of contesting identities with other foreign gays.

Furthermore, the heavy focus on the middle-class bakla, signifying a neglect of the ‘inner screaming queens’ from other sectors of Philippine society, makes for a narrative with a somewhat hollow ring to it, as if a vital part has gone missing from deep within the recesses. Understandable, of course, as ethnographies are always value-laden and biased for a certain ‘gaze,’ no matter what the well-meaning agenda might be. But an explicit statement beforehand concerning the demography of one’s unit of analysis could certainly help matters.

Just as interesting of note is how Manalansan somehow depreciates notions of race as an issue in the Philippines (56). Though not as prevalent nowadays, other nationalities (and even other ‘native’ ethnolinguistic groups) in the country used to be sources of amusement, if not outright ridicule, among Filipinos: from Indians, Chinese, to Koreans.

My point is that racism is not a discourse benignly brushed aside in the Philippines, and saying otherwise precludes providing an adequate explanation for the predilection of Filipino bakla in NY to cater to only certain foreign ‘masculine males.’ Manalansan’s book is rich in giving snippets of racism not just from the white gays but also from among the Filipino bakla. However, the reason for this behavior takes on an ‘out-of-thin-air’ aspect coming from the author’s threadbare mention of any sort of racism rising from the homeland.

[Aydan · Rating 2 out of 5]

some really cool parts of this book I liked,,, unfortunately there was a lot that didnt work for me :/

[Ai Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful read that really interrogates ideas about a global gay culture by instead focusing on the ways that Filipino gay men experience their own identities and the world around them. Manalansan delicately uses his informants' interviews to highlight a diverse set of topics like family, relationships with religion (specifically Catholicism) and relationships with friends and lovers, as well as AIDS. Some of it I felt was touched on too fleetingly- I could read an entire book, for example, about AIDS- but I think Manalansan does an excellent job of keeping his analysis moving while still driving home his point. It's a great examination that the seeming-monolith of white Euro American gay culture is in fact hyper specific and it's less a question of globalization and more about sliding between and around dominant cultures in specific places.

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book examines the life narratives of Filipino gay men living in New York in the 1980s and 1990s. The book moves between block quotations from informers to blocks of cultural analysis. The author is concerned with cultural citizenship, or a sense of belonging and a right to belong. Performance is a key theme through which he analyzes the lives of the men he interviews. He refutes an understanding of cultural citizenship as a process of assimilating into US or global gay citizenship from a Filipino understanding of balka (gender non-normative) traditions. Instead, he sees this as a process of rearticulation, of maneuvering among identities, in performing one’s place in modernity. There is a useful chapter on the ethnography of AIDS in the Filipino queer community. The author does an exquisite job throughout the book in paying attention to geography and the powers vested and negotiated through space and place.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manalasan’s work here is highly readable and fascinating. While on the surface this work may appear to appeal to only those readers who are interested in the intersections of Filipino and queer identities, Global Divas also interrogates such notions as cultural citizenship and the way space functions as a way to relegate identity. I feel as if Manalasan could have done more with his academic interrogation here regarding how the diaspora reflects the homeland in more detail, but Global Divas is still an engaging read, especially in regard to the Manalasan’s work on Swardspeak, a language unique to gay Filipino/bakla culture.

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-done ethnography the shows the complexities of nationality, ethnicity, class, and sexuality and how they intersect in ways that do not match the "grand narratives" of the West or America. Most of all, this book is great for getting a grasp of methodology that can help examine the Transnational perspective. He starts with broad life narratives, then narrows down to daily life and geography, ending on specific rituals and groups.

[Arḡie Boto · Rating 3 out of 5]

It'll be epic, probably.

[Mills College Library]

305.38966 M2669 2003

[Inverted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2003, Global Divas is an anthropological inquiry into the lives of (mostly) immigrant Filipino gay men living in New York in the '90s. The author decidedly went against an all-encompassing theory about the bakla behavior and instead chronicled the kaleidescopic (sometimes contradictory) strategies employed by immigrant Filipino gay men when crossing cultural, national / legal, linguistic, and sexual borders, and when reconfiguring their identities in a new country.

Fascinating to read this work two decades after its publication (or three, if you consider the timeframe of the study). A few notes about things that changed and things that remained the same:

1. The internet has definitely pervaded and reshaped modern social connections in general and gay hookup culture in particular (especially with the advent of apps like Grindr and Scruff). For instance, cruising (and the theatrics involved in it) is not as mandatory as they were before, if one wants to get laid. Or, at the very least, there is an alternative path to realizing quick, transactional sex.

2. The chapter on HIV/AIDS eeriely echoes some more recent horrors, like first- vs. third-world distinctions when it comes to public policy and immunization / treatment (recalling COVID) and the genderization and homophobia that gets latched on to some of these public health crises (ex. monkeypox). Distinctions between HIV/AIDS and these more recent concerns make the similarities all the more poignant; they often feel like a different mug on the same face.

3. Conclusions related to gender, class and racial hierarchies are still pretty much true and relevant today. Hypermasculinity, wealth, and whiteness are still pretty much valorized markers and impossible aspirations used to exclude historically marginalized groups.

Plan on coming back to this, once I've gone through my reading list on the topic. Very curious to see how those other works inform my second reading.

[FluffyNyctea]

This one was quite a letdown. But I do like Manalansan’s more recent work!

[Jiguurt]

Oh my this is wonderful book i like it book
i'm mongolia.He's most and sexy but stupid ha ha ha

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

planning on re-reading over break!