Tag: pageant

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Kabaklaan: the performance of beauty

kabaklaan-arielle-kiel

Originally posted 2020-04-29 18:49:58.

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.

 

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Pageant Bakla: Memoir of a Filipina beauconera

pageant-bakla

Originally posted 2021-05-07 14:28:41.

Many people seem to think that ladyboys are a recent phenomenon, but this is far from true. It’s hard to find older material but I found this story on a Philippines website, from a publication that is now defunct. The name of the author is not known. It gives insight into the ladyboy pageant scene in the country and across south-east Asia, and also reinforces the observation that the ‘gay’ and transgender scenes are closely intertwined.

A pageant can be a small local affair with a stage set up on the back of a truck, or as grandiose as the Miss Tiffany contests, held in Thailand, or Super Syrena, in the Philippines.

https://youtu.be/SLyPtln18aA

books by rod flemingTo read the story, click the Read More link

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