Dyosa or Dusa? (Goddess of Beauty or Suffering?): An Intersectional Positioning Analysis of Bakla, Gay Men, and Transwomen in Super Sireyna and Suffer Sireyna

Abstract

Following an essentialist perspective, available research has largely equated lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people with discrimination. However, other studies have documented that in some spaces, LGBT people are able to obtain recognition. Extant literature nevertheless continues to be silent on the discursive production by which LGBT people experience discrimination or secure recognition. This study explored how discrimination or recognition among LGBT people is discursively produced in social interactions. I argue that LGBT identities do not always inherently evoke discrimination. Rather, these identities are ascribed personal and moral attributes to produce discrimination or recognition. In locating how these social categories are assigned attributes, I looked at two popular segments in Eat Bulaga!, a popular noontime television show in the Philippines. Using intersectional positioning as lens, I specifically explored how personal and moral attributes are ascribed to the bakla, gay men, and transgender women candidates in Suffer Sireyna and Super Sireyna pageants. Implications of the results of the study are discussed in terms of how the duty to accept ridicule and the right to gain respect are ascribed among the candidates as well as their corresponding material consequences.