MEDIA’S REPRESENTATION of women is limited only to the roles of mothers and wives, leaving out the real problem they face in the society, a professor from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman told Artlets in a forum held Tuesday.
Bernadette Villanueva Neri, deputy director of UP Center for Women’s and Gender Studies Training, Outreach, and Extension Program, said women are being “misinterpreted” in the media.
“Nais ipakilala ang kababaihan sa media, sa patalastas, at sa pelikula, bilang mga ina, bilang asawa […] at [ang mga] babaeng martir ay biktima, mahina,” Neri said.
Citing soap advertisements in Philippine television, Neri said even commercials do not portray the real situation of the majority of women in the country, who experience physical abuse.
“Ang sinungaling ng mga patalastas, kasi sila (women), ang saya nilang naglalaba. Pasayaw-sayaw pa ‘di ba? At hindi naman siya makatotohanan. At kung sa mga telenovela ganoon din. Lagi’t laging may pinu-pursue,” she said.
In the Philippines, one woman experiences physical abuse every 31 minutes, 2014 data from women’s party-list Gabriela revealed.
The UP professor added that there are no television shows or commercials that discuss the danger and complication of childbirth, which is the leading cause of death among women.
The Department of Health in 2013 reported that there are 10 women who die every day because of childbirth.
“Sa mga patalastas, ni wala tayong nakikitang gawa ng ating pamahalaan na nagmumulat [at] nag-e-ere sa primetime para imulat ano ba ‘yung kalagayan ng ating mga kababaihan,” Neri said, adding that only extreme cases of rape and violence to women are reported in the news.
Statistics from the Center for Women’s Resources, a non-government organization, showed that in 2015, one woman experiences rape every 53 minutes in the country.
As women comprise half of the population, Neri said the voices of the females have to be heard in the society where they are subjected to oppression both socially and economically.
“The economic status of working women and the fact that they are being oppressed proves that only women urgently need revolution but also they are a decisive force to the success or failure of that revolution,” she said
The forum titled Danas: Gender Sensitivities is the third social issues seminar organized by the UST Literary Society. F – Vann Marlo M. Villegas
