Metrosexuality, Bromance & Sismance.

Reading Hagood's article on Brunos and Bromances, the idea of metrosexuality came up, reminding me of my very first week in my current job when I started March 2009. One of my close friends--a buddy--told me that my co-workers thought that I was homosexual because I always told my friends—guy or girl—that I "loved" them (and other similar renditions of it—“bromance”!) instead of saying the proper "thank you" whenever they helped me in some way. Apparently, even some of my female co-workers of my age even thought I dressed up way too nice as a guy and as a result, a "bakla".

(Okay... I'm not gay, and as for being a metrosexual, I honestly could care less. I don't just explode my money on clothes--I love video games and food just as much!)

Initially, I was surprised but I realized later that I have to keep my job professional about everything. Over time, they grew closer with me and I came to find out that it was the older women at work who had those initial thoughts of me being a homosexual and a metrosexual.

They were first-generation Filipino immigrant women.

In the Filipino culture, being heavily grounded on Catholicism, homosexuality is deemed as a sin, shunned upon by society. Metrosexuals (in this case, males with feministic traits such as caring too much about looks and being not as aggressive or daredevil as the stereotyped male) are viewed similarly. There were also female metrosexuals or “tomboys”. Basically, any human being acting outside of their sex is to be ostracized or unfairly treated in some way. This was the thought process of those women.

(Note that I am writing this all from experience, as I lived there for the first ten years of my life.)

Female homosexuals were uncommon in Filipino society, while male homosexuals were prominent. You were able to find at least one male homosexual per block in the city, while female homosexuals were harder to find. The Filipino definition of a homosexual overlapped with their definitions of a metrosexual to the point where both are traditionally just classified as homosexuals, or "bakla" in Filipino society. Because of the male homosexuality prominence, the word "bakla" was used to refer to any male homosexual and/or metrosexual, giving rise to another word "bakling", meaning "acting similar to a girl". “Lesbiyana”, a word similar to the English “lesbian” just recently came about, due to the common use of mixing Filipino and English words together, while the word “tomboy” has been around longer.

I guess the women thought I was a “bakla” and a “bakling”. However, now, because they know me more, they apparently don’t think so. I just found their way of thinking surprising since I had never before experienced it in any other environment such as this—a kitchen/dining room of a decades-old retirement home in suburban Seattle, as prior to living in Seattle, I lived in Olympia, where the topic of homosexuality/metrosexuality was less common.

But as for the Hagood’s “bromance”, I would like to add that bromance also comes about because of the male’s innate instinct to protect his peers—especially the ones most similar to him. In our society, there are males who seek to protect their fellow males from others, such as the environment or the opposite gender—the females. These males have adopted a motto, which is (pardon my language!) “bro’s before hoes”. I’ll admit I do tend to be more overprotective of my guy friends compared to my girl friends, and so, have adapted that motto.

Similarly, the females have developed a similar sisterly-romance, though what to call it, I’m not quite sure of. I have a close friend—a girl—whom I’ve known since I was in 7th grade. She also has a bestfriend—a girl—whom she befriended not too long before me. They call each other “girlie”, similar to how I call some of my guy friends “bros”. Also, she’s adopted a similar motto, but it might be too explicit/R-rated to say here, as this is a school-related blog after all. I’ve seen and recognized other similar instances of sisterly romance (Charlie’s Angels!)

It’s just interesting how both males and females are and act so similar and yet so different.