Pagkalalake at Maka-Diyos: Understanding the Filipino family through the lenses of masculinity and religiosity
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Written by Michael J. FAST
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ABSTRACT
A dialogic study I conducted with Filipino men revealed that having a proper relationship with family is a key aspect of maka-Diyos (Fast 2019). It also revealed that men closely connect their masculinity with both family and with being maka-Diyos. These two aspects, maka-Diyos (Office of the President 1998, 1996; Department of Education 2013; Bautista 1989; Talisayon 1994; Bernardo and Ortigas 2000; Muyot 2003; Recto 2005; Clemente et al. 2008; Muega 2010; Bernardo, Clemente, and Liem 2014) and family, as “the most fundamental building block of relationships in Philippine society” (Torres 2015, 225), are key aspects of Filipino identity. In this paper, I will seek to understand Philippine masculinities’ close connection with both family and maka-Diyos. After defining masculinities and looking at how masculinity studies have developed in the Philippines, revealing a masculinity that is both diverse and well-defined, both informally and formally, I will draw some conclusions about how both masculinities and being maka-Diyos shape the Filipino family into what it is today.
BIONOTE
Michael J. FAST, Ph.D. is an ordained minister with the Baptist General Conference of Canada. He currently serves as the Academic Vice-President and Dean of the South East Asian Theological Schools, Inc. and as an Adjunct Faculty Member of Canadian Baptist Seminary. He holds a BA in Religious Studies from the University of Saskatchewan, an MDiv in Missions from Trinity Western University, and a Ph.D. in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. His interests center on the transmission and appropriation of faith and how these interact to form a lived religion. He and his family have lived in the Philippines since 1999.
