Social class and gender in the Philippines

Originally posted 2022-02-14 14:47:08.

I have met significantly more than a few Asian autogynephilic transvestites and the majority profile is quite clear.

They tend to have their first ‘feelings’ at around the age of 15-16 and begin HRT, usually in the form of contraceptive pills, soon after that. While late-transitioning autogynephilic transvestites do exist, they are rarely public. A good recent example would be Ian King, a racing driver and son of a wealthy ‘Fil-Am’ family.  Social class and gender are strongly linked, as we shall see.

This particular individual fits the Western profile of the Autogynephilic transvestite exactly, but that appears to be related to his social class. This is interesting, because a similar social divide is found between masculine presenting homosexual males, macho gays locally or the New Gay Man, and the traditional highly feminised type. Here again, the former tends to be rare and found only in higher social strata, while the latter is both much more common and more associated with lower social class.

And another: ‘I’m an Asian transsexual (sic) living in USA and I have mad respect for (ladyboys)…in fact, I’m also attracted to them.’ This statement implies attraction to femininity and that the person expressing it must be Autogynephilic, since that person is a male-to-feminine transitioner.

The rewards discussed by Blanchard, leaving aside cross-dressed fetishistic masturbation, which is usually only found in transvestites, are similar for both types of male transition. The most important of these is affirmation, or acceptance as a woman. Indeed the Asian model is current throughout most of the world, with only certain parts of the West, notably the Anglo-Saxon and particularly USican ones, being different.

The social class divide

In the Philippines at least, the social class divide seems to affect trans expressions in two ways. Firstly, for young working-class males, there is no real resistance to feminisation, on the part of the society around them. In fact there is some encouragement for it, especially if the boy is beautiful. This appears to lead directly to a raised level of Transsexual Homosexuality, since a ‘gay boy’ could never be accepted as a man. Therefore there is no point in him even trying, especially when, if he is attractive as a girl, he can gain both social and sexual affirmation through that.

The above is the pathway which most people think of when they consider concepts like ‘ladyboy’ – a highly feminised, homosexual male; in fact a complete Sexual Invert. However it also provides succour for adolescent Autogynephiles because transition gives them a path to pursue their own expression of femininity, without being overly criticised, since homosexuality is not disapproved of here as it has been in the West.

Effectively, they align themselves with Transsexuals even though they are not themselves primarily homosexual, because being both heterosexual and feminised, for a male, is more problematic here. Having boyfriends, or at least making a show of pursuing them, gives them cover and also the reward of affirmation.

Blanchard described Pseudo-Bisexualism as being a state in which an Autogynephile would pursue men for sex while in role as a woman. This appears true; but what if you live as a woman all the time, every day. You get up that way, live your life that way. Wouldn’t your pursuit of men become your primary sexual interest? I propose that it would and that this then is an acquired form of homosexuality which derives from, rather than provokes, a cross gender identification in the individual.

This would explain why some ladyboys don’t really fit the textbook descriptions of Homosexuals. They may be bigger, bulkier, perhaps less naturally feminine (although hormones can fix most of that.)

Kabaklaan

A subculture which supports this position is well established across Southeast Asia and in Luzon, in the Philippines, it is called Kabaklaan. This is ‘the way of the bakla’ or the unmasculine male. But note that Kabaklaan draws no distinction between homosexual males who feminise because they want straight male lovers  and those who do so because they want to ‘be’ women. For the culture innate Sexual Inverts and those Autogynephiles with acquired homosexuality are united: both are baklas, although it is recognised that there are different forms. Equivalents to this culture appear all over the region and indeed, the world.

This means that for a young male with Autogynephilia, it is relatively easy to transition. They just adopt a bakla identity – or a ‘gay’ one in Western terms – which will give them access to a ready-made subculture that will support them. The society around them will accept them as ‘gay’ and for the most part leave them alone. Such males are likely to seek sex with men partly because of pseudo-bisexualism, which describes where a male with Autogynephilia does this to affirm his pseudo-feminine alter-ego, but it also encourages the rest of the culture to see them as ‘gay’ and as part of Kabaklaan, which is a semi-protected status.

Being part of Kabaklaan, or its equivalents elsewhere, affords another opportunity for Autogynephilic transvestites. Many of them are strongly attracted to Transsexual Homosexuals, indeed sometimes even more strongly than they are to women, probably because of Transsexuals’ elevated femininity. This is something all Autogynephilic transvestites desire to possess, both socially and sexually. Being a part of Kabaklaan puts them in close contact with their sexual targets, in a manner which is unlikely to be commented on by the broader culture.

However, social class and gender has to be considered, because all of this only occurs in the lower social strata, where there is no taboo about anal sex and where male feminisation is both commonplace and largely accepted. In the higher social strata, Western modes of behaviour are much more usual and here, male feminisation is despised.

Boys are expected to be masculine and if they are not, then they are unlikely to be successful in whatever career their family propels them towards. Male bonding is a powerful part of life in this group and masculine men will not bond with overt baklas. Effectively, even if such a boy were born into a middle-class family, by behaving like a bakla he would propel himself out of that culture and into the more traditional one, whether he liked it or not. Both his social class and gender are important in determining how he will present in society.

This has effects on more sex-typical Homosexuals too. The first is that within this part of the culture, the ‘macho gay’, a hyper-masculine expression of male homosexuality, is dominant over the traditional type, to the erasure of the latter. That is because the negative social consequences of feminised appearance or behaviour are just too costly. In order to maintain his middle-class social status, a Homosexual in this group must appear to be masculine.

Silahis

This seems to lead directly to a local phenomenon called the silahis, or ‘blade that cuts both ways.’ These are ‘real men’ who like to penetrate as men but also to be penetrated like women. They are a shadowy group who hide themselves and do not court attention, but all baklas know of some. They are thought to be ‘bisexual’ but this doesn’t ring true, because bisexuals here are invariably feminised and may even form pseudo-lesbian relationships with each other. Much more likely, they are Autogynephilic men, living in stealth, much as such men lived in the West until recently.

So, in the upper social strata, we tend to find pseudo-masculine homosexuals and a profile of Autogynephilic transvestite which is rare, but much more like the Western one, and in the lower, highly feminised femboys and ladyboys, alongside transitioned Autogynephilic transvestites. (But note that the culture itself draws no distinctions between these latter types: they are all baklas, or whatever the local term is.)

The West

This is paralleled exactly in the West, where the New Gay Man had, by 2000, almost completely destroyed the older, feminine or ‘pansy’ Homosexual type. This might have been due to a movement of homosexual identity away from the working classes and towards the liberal, educated ones. In 1950, for example, sexually receptive males were considered to be ‘homosexual’ and their partners were not; and the recipients overwhelmingly tended to be working-class. On the other hand, their lovers tended to be more middle-class. Again, social class and gender are linked.

Social Class and gender divisions elsewhere

These distinctions in social class and gender, which remain in place in southeast Asia, have somewhat disappeared in the West, so that they are no longer dominant. Interestingly, one result of the blanket condemnation of male femininity and the adoption of middle-class mores by the ‘gay’ community in the West, is that in recent years there has been a resurgence in transition, as naturally feminine homosexuals reject the foetid atmosphere of the New Gay Man’s locker rooms. This looks very much like a fight-back.

This hostility towards male expressions of femininity also acts on Autogynephilic transvestites. Within the middle class group, boys cannot express femininity in adolescence and so their activities, if they are Autogynephilic, must be covert, just as they were in the West until recently, and for the same reasons.