Week 2 - Power of Clothes

Alyssa Vang - ASA 141 -

Week 2 - Power of Clothes

While reading Mina Roces article Gender, Nation and Politics of Dress in Twentieth-Century Philippines I saw how important clothing was when it came to power. I personally don’t know much about Filipino culture but I do know their clothing are beautiful, including the Barong Tagalog. It’s features are simple but elegant with all the designs of embroidery and beading. I can see why this was used nationally as a clothing and used under political use. The Barong Tagalog as the dress or coat itself has influenced other countries in the making of their own style to put into their own culture (inspiration). In the reading the Tagalog gives important power to the Filipino men when they wear it but one thing that really upsetting me about the reading was how women are treated.

Women from the 20th century were not treated equally in the Philippines because of their class and power. Until that was changed in 1937 where most Filipino men were against women who were suffering through supporting the nationalist project meant lobbying for a government that would disenfranchise them.

As the Filipino culture evolves so does their clothing and because their clothing was so popular through political status, it had become a world wide inspiration. But as changes were happening, so was their own culture. Evolving to the West as a culture can deteriorate one of the most important sentimental images from history.

Why do we let other cultures take and change from our culture, knowing it might get lost in the future?