Maria Clara and the Short shorts: Concept of Consent and Safe Spaces

Lucille Dagpin-Galicha, MSDA
Social Behavior Change and Gender Officer, ReachHealth Project
Presented 27 Nov 2020 via Zoom during the Launching of the 18-Day Campaign to End VAW with the theme “VAW-free
community starts with Me” to the faculty and students of University of Southeastern Philippines, Davao City

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Maria Clara and the Short Shorts: The Concept of Consent and their Safe Spaces
1. Maria Clara and the clothes of Filipinas
1. What’s with short shorts?
2. No blurred lines in Consent
3. Safe Spaces for negotiating differences and
challenging oppression
4. VAW can occur anytime, anywhere, to anyone
5. EndingVAW is everyone’s business
OUTLINE OF DISCUSSION:

What does “short shorts”
mean to you?
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Just checking:
Go to: Slido.com
Code: 31688

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Should Filipinas wear
short shorts? Why?
Just checking:
Go to: Slido.com
Code: 31688

5
Just checking:
Should Filipinas wear
something like this?

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Who is Maria Clara?
• Jose Rizal’s heroine in Noli MeTangere
• the “ideal image” of a Filipino woman, “epitome
of virtue”, "demure and self-effacing" and
endowed with beauty, grace and charm
• Maria Clara and her traits were further described
by Rizal as an "Oriental decoration" with
"downcast" eyes and a "pure soul"
María Clara - Wikipedia

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“clothes are pieces of fabric;
these may or may not define
you” –-- a 1o yr old kid
What’s with Short shorts?

creates discomfort to whom?
Concepts of hiya, lugar/place in society, what is proper (norms)
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What’s with Short shorts?
“what were you wearing?”
(a troubling question usually asked of rape victims after they are abused)

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Clothes don’t
matter in sex
crimes
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/960553/exhibit-of-rape-
victims-clothes-shows-clothing-choice-isnt-to-blame-for-
sexual-assault#ixzz6drVtSTY8

photo: JOSH WILLINK/PEXELS |
https://www.cosmo.ph/style/short-shorts-not-the-
problem-sexual-harassment-a2517-20180727 10

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Just checking:
Go to: Slido.com
Code: 31688

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Consent is an important
concept for children to learn about
from an early age.
Understanding consent means
that a person has the skills to
leave a situation that doesn't feel
comfortable, and respects when other
people want to do the same.
Consent is also important for
online interactions and
relationships.
https://teachingsexualhealth.ca/parents/information-by-topic/understanding-consent/

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▪ one in every five children (17.1%) aged 13-17 years
old experienced sexual violence,
▪ while 124 (one in 25 or 3.2%) of all respondents
experienced forced consummated sex during
childhood.
▪ Perpetrators are often family members and that more
boys (65.2%) than girls (60.4%) reported
experiencing sexual violence.
(led by the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in cooperation with
UNICEF, the Child Protection Network, the Consuelo Alger-Zobel Foundation,
and the University of the Philippines Manila)
first National Baseline Study on Violence
Against Children (2015)
▪ October 1, 2020 – Senate panel approved bill to raise sexual consent to 16 yrs old.
▪ Prior to the approval of the bill, the age to determine statutory rape in the country was the
lowest in Asia and one of the lowest in the world at 12, only bested by Niger at age 11.

..
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● age of consent is different from age of
marriage.
● Abortion is still illegal in the country, and minors
need to have parental consent for contraceptives.
● POPCOM (2020): around 40 to 50 girls between the
ages of 10 to 14 give birth every week.That equates to
around 2,600 young girls who get pregnant each year.
● COVID-19 pandemic has made children more
vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation.
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“A 12-year-old child cannot in any way
properly discern abuse and consequently
cannot adequately defend herself or
himself from such.” Higher age of consent
will therefore help protect Filipino children
from sexual predators who might
approach them in person and online. --
Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns
“Provide space for such conversations and
perspectives about their future will help
young people broaden their horizons.We
need children to develop critical thinking
and not just follow the “don’t have sex and
you will be okay” mindset.” ---Veronica Gregorio,
www.broadagenda.com.au

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“Educate the men (and women)
in our lives about consent and
safe space rather than chase a Band-Aid
solution that has never worked in the first place.
There's nothing wrong about attempting to help
women feel good about themselves and the way
they dress by creating safer spaces for them to
express themselves.”
BUT do mind: Some places also have dress
codes and codes of conduct.
https://www.cosmo.ph/style/short-shorts-not-the-problem-
sexual-harassment-a2517-20180727

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Just checking:
Type in the chatbox

“safe space” dates to the late 20th century
women's movement, but it has since been used in many
different contexts.
Historical and contemporary “safe spaces”:
- “separatist” safe spaces in women's, anti‐racist, and feminist
communities,
- “inclusive” safe space classrooms
“should be understood not through static and acontextual
notions of “safe” or “unsafe”, rather through the relational
work of cultivating them.”
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“a means rather than an end and not
only a physical space but also a space
created by the coming together of
women searching for community”
a place intended to be free of bias,
conflict, criticism, or potentially
threatening actions, ideas, or
conversations - Merriam Webster
“a safe space is never completely safe. Even so, we
encourage the critical cultivation of safe space as a
site for negotiating differences and challenging
oppression”
Safe Space: Towards a Reconceptualization (2014), The Roestone Collective

“safe spaces “follow persons.”
Whether you are in a private or
public place, you have a safe,
inviolable, space around your
body that can only be entered
with your consent, online, or
offline.” – Atty. JC Tejano, Saligan
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https://www.rappler.com/nation/proposed-ordinance-vs-catcalling-gains-ground-
mandaue-city
“Sexual harassment is a means of
maintaining women’s status as
subordinate in society; it is also a
means of keeping women in certain
physical spaces and out of others, or
at least, of controlling women’s
behavior in those spaces.”
– Margaret Crouch, Social Philosophy Today 2009
Sexual harassment can occur
anywhere, anytime.

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NDHS 2017
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/03/09/more-women-raped-physically-
abused-last-year-govt-data/
Over 3,600 cases of
violence against
women, children
reported since
lockdown - Duterte
report | Inquirer News
Philippine StatisticsAuthority | Republic of the Philippines (psa.gov.ph)

A woman’s place is…
“A woman’s place is in her home. A woman’s place is in the
workplace. In the community. On the streets and in public
parks. In politics and leadership. In grocery stores, classrooms
and on college campuses. A woman’s place is everywhere,
and in every space, she has the right to feel safe and
welcome.”
But that’s only one part of the story.
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https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/compilation-take-action-to-help-
end-violence-against-women
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/compila
tion-take-action-to-help-end-violence-against-women
Ending violence against women is
everyone’s business.
10 ways you can make a difference,
safely and impactfully (UN Women)
1. Listen to and believe survivors. Do say: “We hear
you. We believe you. We stand with you
2. Teach the next generation and learn from them.
3. Call for responses and services fit for purpose
4. Understand consent. Freely given, enthusiastic
consent is mandatory, every time.
5. Learn the signs of abuse and how you can help

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https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/compilation-take-action-to-help-
end-violence-against-women
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/compila
tion-take-action-to-help-end-violence-against-women
Ending violence against women is
everyone’s business.
10 ways you can make a difference,
safely and impactfully (UN Women)
6. Start a conversation
7. Stand against rape culture
8. Fund women’s organizations
9. Hold each other accountable
10. Know the data and demand more of it

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https://www.facebook.com/FamiLIGTASPH

'Cause I'll breathe
When they try to suffocate me
Don't you underestimate me
'Cause I know that I won't go
speechless
All I know is I won't go
speechless
-Princess Jasmine
(composed by Alan Menken in
Aladdin)
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Maria Clara and
the Short Shorts:
The Concept of Consent
and their Safe Spaces
Lucille Dagpin-Galicha

Maria Clara and the Short shorts: Concept of Consent and Safe Spaces

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Maria Clara and the Short shorts: Concept of Consent and Safe Spaces