I tweeted below five years ago, when there was a noisy discourse in the Philippines regarding the word Filipinx:
The Philippines adopted gendered nouns from Spanish (e.g., doktor/doktora, abogado/abogada), but the precolonial versions of our languages had no gender (e.g., manggagamot, manananggol). And since the word Filipina exists today, one can't completely claim that Filipino is a gender-neutral term.
That said, I don’t think I have the right to object to the term Filipinx, as (1) I’m not part of the Filipino-American diaspora, and (2) I have no personal insight into the struggles of minorities, women, or LGBT people in the U.S. context — much less the gender debates among academics and activists there.
When I moved to Australia, I didn’t like the word Filo at all. It didn’t mean anything to me, and it sounded pretentious. Filipino is just as easy to pronounce and understand. But I learned that the term has been embraced for many years by Australians with Filipino ancestry.
The Filipino-Australian community has every right to claim the word, especially if it fosters a sense of identity and inclusivity. I’m now part of this community, and even though I still avoid using the word Filo myself, I respect others’ choice to use it as they please.
I don’t know the struggles of minorities in the U.S. who are misgendered or discriminated against. And instead of dismissing a term that wasn’t really created for me or my feelings in the first place, I would rather hear them out. #language #gender #filo #filipino #filipinx
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Jeff Hunt
