Kabaklaan: the performance of beauty

Transwomen in the Philippines are classified locally as 'gay'. The specific word used might be 'bakla', 'beki', 'bayot', 'bading' or any one of several others, depending on location and dialect. Note that here, 'gay' does not mean what it does in the West. It means you are male but not a man; that you have 'green blood'. In Luzon, the most popular local term is 'bakla'. Their lifestyle is called 'kabaklaan' and it is centred on the  performance of beauty.   The domestic space Within traditional 'two group' societies, found ll over the world, the domestic space is entirely matriarchal. Women are in charge of the home, the household budgets, discipline, educating the younger children and so on. Outside the domestic space, the world of work, toil, hunting, war and hurt, is the men's domain. Here there is an operational patriarchy. But that patriarchy does not regulate the home. The spheres are complementary but separate. This is how humans are evolved to live and st