After a recent controversial win over his long-time foe
Juan
Manuel Marquez and a looming
Floyd Mayweather showdown closer than ever (Money
announced today a proposed May 5, 2012 fight date),
Manny Pacquiao's notoriety
shows no sign of waning, even though critics argue that his fighting ability is
on the decline. As a congressman in Sarangani Province, the globally popular
Filipino icon has had to juggle between his political responsibilities and his
sports career. Was this juggling the
cause of his uncompelling and indecisive win over Marquez?
Filipinos in the U.S. and around the world cheered for their
champ, with some making the holy pilgrimage to Las Vegas to simply be within
Pacman's orbit. And for Filipinos in the
Philippines, waking up early and missing holy mass was a legitimate excuse for
the sake of a Pacquiao fight. The whole
world watches when the athlete once featured in Time Magazine's "most
influential people" list steps in the ring.
And the whole world also wears him.
Nike's "Team Pacquiao" brand has become
recognizable to many non-Filipinos, with the Philippine flag colors becoming
synonymous with the boxer. For sure,
Pacquiao gear (and also Philippine flag-themed gear) has set its place at the
table of Filipino American fashion sensibilities.
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| Blue Scholars don't mind the jologs |
But do the meanings of Pacquiao's image, especially through
Pacman fashion, remain the same for all Filipinos around the world?
I was surprised to learn that in the Philippines, many
Filipinos regard Pacquiao as symbolizing "jologs," which roughly
translates to "ghetto" or "kitsch." Yes, the heroic
Filipino icon represents more dimensions than mass admiration. But that's just it. "Jologs" operates as a disparaging
marker for people who are seen as mindless and naive (think people who wear too
much Steelers or Lakers paraphernalia).
Hip hop too in the Philippines, as I try to show in my film
Lyrical Empire: Hip Hop in Metro Manila (also viewable in the right column), represents
for a certain segment of Filipinos a supposedly "uneducated"
"jologs" spirit.
For Filipino Americans, Pacquiao is an emblem of Filipino
pride, identity, masculinity, and power. Even for non-Filipinos, as
Davey D
argues, Pacquiao has become a "People's Champion" because of his
pro-common people values.
But there is an undeniable phenomenon among many Filipinos
in the Philippines in which they will happily watch the Pacquiao fights, but
will refuse to wear Team Pacquiao clothing.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Team Pacquiao merchandise sold in the
Philippines was mostly purchased by Filipino balikbayan tourists.
For some reason, Pacquiao in the Philippines and Pacquiao in
the Filipino diaspora isn't the same person.
Certainly a major explanation is class (and the specter of
class aspirations). Since Nike's
takeover of Pacquiao merchandise, it has been much more difficult for poorer people
in the Philippines to buy expensive Nike-brand Pacman shirts, hence the noticeable (and ironic) lack
of Pacquiao clothing among the masa in the islands. But the middle classes aren't sporting it
either. The real market, it seems, are
those Filipinos "out there" across the globe who are unaware of the cultural
politics in the mother land, who are oblivious to "baduy,"
"bakya," or "jologs"--epithets that describe the cultural
tastes of the masa.
When Pacquiao makes his post-fight interviews, we might flinch and chuckle. In the
Philippines, the "jologs"-induced cringing moment could not be
stronger. As a major political figure who
has little education, limited English (compared to more-educated citizens), and
a manic masa following, Pacquiao exemplifies at best an ambivalent figure for
many Filipinos in the Philippines, especially among those who have been critiquing civil society and are engaged in the political process,
a process in which the champ has quickly assumed a degree of leverage and power (think
Erap).
When Pacquiao sings Karaoke songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live, many
Filipinos in the diaspora embrace him for his levity and charm. Without the "jologs" factor in
their vocabulary of Filipino cultural politics, Manny remains harmless. He might seem as simple as the poor people
who sing on variety shows like Wowowee, but he is excused for his pronunciation
and grammar "errors" because he is a winner--a masculine embodiment of Philippine nationhood.
But in the Philippines, the complex and often
contradictory cultural politics of everyday life manifests itself when
the boxer-legislator appears on the TV screen.
In a poor country, "being" Filipino means much
more than wearing the three colors. When
Pacquiao fights his opponents in the ring while also fighting key legislation such
as the Reproductive Health bill, the cultural consciousnesses of
Filipinos around the world become strangers.
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