Exploring the Dolphy bakla: Queerness in Philippine cinema
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department/Unit
Literature, Department of
Document Type
Book Chapter
Source Title
Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema
First Page
583
Last Page
605
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
This chapter explores Philippine cinema’s representations of the bakla, a local gendered identitythat conflates ideas of male homosexuality and transgenderism. By examining the films of Dolphy, the chapter outlines tropes that have become associated with the bakla, including the conversion trope, where the bakla are forced to conform to traditional notions of masculinity. The chapter also identifies tensions between contemporary representations of the bakla as themasculine gay man and as the transgender woman in films – tensions that also exist within thewider Southeast Asian context. Looking at the bakla as the primary queer figure in Philippine cinema enables film audiences to examine more closely similar figures in other Asian cinemas: the kathoey of Thailand, the waria of Indonesia, and the mak-nyah of Malaysia
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Recommended Citation
Inton, M. N. (2018). Exploring the Dolphy bakla: Queerness in Philippine cinema. Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema, 583-605. Retrieved from https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/5942
Disciplines
Film and Media Studies
Keywords
Gays in motion pictures; Sexual minorities in motion pictures
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