Damas de Noche: A Take on Feminism

Martha Teodoro

Mga tauhan kami ng Damas de Noche. Sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas etsa puwera, etsa puwera. Damas de noche. Ito na nga kami, mujeres de publicas, dinahas ng sosyedad. Nasaan ang hustisya? Nasaan ang pagmamahal?

- Damas de Noche

First presented in September 2006, Damas de Noche (Ladies at Night) is a musical stage play performed by the UP Repertory Company, written by Dr. Josephine Barrios, lyrics by Romulo Baquiran Jr, directed by Nick Olangka and music by the University of the Philippines Underground Music Company.

In September 2007, a re-run was presented at the Henry Lee Irwin Theatre, Ateneo De Manila University. Actresses include Anne Gelene Tobias, a student of the University of the Philippines.

The plot tells the story of five women at the time the Philippines was in transition from the rule of the Spanish government to the American colonizers. Set in a prison cell, Maria and Juanita talk of getting out of prison in exchange for a one-night stand when another woman, Leonarda, was put into prison for walking alone at night. The four women tell of their stories as women labeled mujeras de publicas (women for public) or puta (whore).

Dreaming to be a star on stage, Juanita was raped by a recruiter for the zarzuela in hopes that he will help her in realizing her dreams.

Maria, from a cigarette seller, became a prostitute in her desperation to earn a living and save her mother from her cruel stepfather.

Clara was a laundrywoman for the Chinese Sytuco who brought fourteen men in her room and raped her.

Leonarda was caught walking alone at night as she had escaped from Don Vicente and in search for her lover, Miguel. Being put in the prison cell, she was misconceived to be a prostitute.

In all these, Magdalena, a character derived from the bible, acts as a storyteller and a reactor to the events happening to the four women.

Being trapped in a prison cell, Damas de Noche not only attempts to trace the history of prostitution but also criticizes the images of a woman being trapped in stereotypes and therefore present its own call to end such oppression against women.

Woman as the Image of a Nation

The play presented two images of women of the colonized eras.

The first image is that of being oppressed by the conventions of the society. This can be seen in the characters of the four ladies, such that one, Leonarda, is trapped in a stereotype that women of the night are prostitute though she never was, while the others, Juanita, Maria and Clara raped and still attempted to get out of society’s discrimination against them but failed to do so. These constructs further oppress them as women.

The other image equates women as that of the country, raped and taken advantage by one country then passed to another country to be used one once for their own interests. In the words of Clara, “Ika-13 ng Agosto, 1988, araw kung saan ginaganap ang tinagurian nilang Mock Battle of Manila Bay. Parang putang nakatihaya ang Pilipinas habang nakapatong sa kanya ang isa na namang mananakop.”

Clara: Silent to Reality

CLARA: Nagiging pipi kaming mga babae sa mga marahas na tanong, sa hindi pagtanggap sa amino sasabihin, sa hindi pakikinig.

MAGDALENA: Kung makikinig tayo, may maririnig tayo sa kanyang katahimikan.

At the start of the film, Clara was presented as a deaf-mute who helps Magdalena in telling the story of the three women. Towards the middle, she was seen as a mute by choice, keeping silent of what she sees as reality.

The Filipinos, though aware of the oppression and abuse of the colonizers, remains quiet. Though the country was politically freed from the colonizers, their mindset remains inferior and obedient to the oppressor until the present times.

Maria and Juanita: Out of Poverty and Dreams

Gusto kong sumikat Meron palang katapat Hindi sinabi sa akin Sa puri titimbangin. Nabasag ang banga Nabasag ang pangarap…

- Juanita (Song: Nabasag ang Banga)

Marxist Feminism explains prostitution in the perspective that the economic incapability of a person forces her to earn a living in any sort of means, of which one would be by using a female’s body as a commodity in exchange for money.

This exchange was depicted clearly in the play in many ways: through the characters of Maria and Juanita.

Maria, as mentioned above, started out as a cigarette seller. In hopes to take her mother away from her stepfather’s beating, she saw herself forced to use her body as a means of earning a living. With this, she was described as constantly being in and out of prison, often freed by “talking” to the prison wardens and chiefs.

The same exchange was also resorted by Juanita when Leonarda arrives. This, she justifies, as a manifestation of desperation as she desires to see her child. This child was the consequence for her attempts to attain her dream of becoming a singer in the zarzuela.

Leonarda: Misconceived Woman

MIGUEL: Bakit ka nasa karsel Mula nang iwan ka, Leonarda Di yata’t naligaw ng landas.

LEONARDA: Tiyak ko ang landas Nang hanapin ka kagabi, Miguel Panganib sinuong ko, mahal.

MIGUEL: Puri mo ang nanganib Sa paglakad mo nang mag-isa Bakit damit mo’y may putik?

LEONARDA: Nadapa sa daan Nang harangin Ng guwardiya sibil.

MIGUEL: Totoo ba ang sinabi Maraming nakukubli Sa dilim ng gabi Bakit walang maasahang pag-ibig na busilak May dumi ng alinlangan ang nadatnang hirang Paano ko siyang sa dambana ihahatid Mas magulo na ang isip sa magulong himagsikan.

- Mapait na Halik

Sinong lalaki ang magpapakasal sa isang indocumentada, isang babaing wala na sa talaan ng mga babae?

- Maria

As partly mentioned above, Leonardia comes into scene as she was put into prison for walking alone in the middle of the night. She had been working for Don Vicente who tried to touch her. When she was able to pay their family’s debt, she decided to escape in search for her lover Miguel, a revolutionary. The two finds each other inside the prison. Being a woman in prison, Miguel thought her to be a harlot caught in the night. Though she never was a harlot, the stereotypes of a woman in the kartel as well as in the lodging house during the American colonial Era, Miguel left her and died as a revolutionary.

Throughout the play, Leonarda was depicted as a hopeless romantic in search for a man that will love amidst the labels that was put upon her.

Ang Parisukat: Image of a Woman

Parisukat, parisukat Mundo nami’y nilalahat Di ba puwedeng lumaya Sarili’y hanapin nang kusa? At bakit sa babae lamang Ang mga tawag na ito Pansukat sa moralidad Gayong huwad na huwad Ang una’y isang dakila Anak, asawa, ina Ang pangtalawa’y masama Kiri, kerida, puta

- Awit ng Kahon

The four women, having their own stories yet having only one image, a prostitute. In exchange for this image they can never live the decent life again.

In Mary Daly’s book titled Gyn/Ecology, she claims that in order for a woman to actualize her full potential, she must make contact of her true, natural self, the image of the ”wild female”, and delve away from the image of femininity that the patriarchal society has created of her.

Awit ng Parisukat depicts the image that boxes what a decent woman should be. It criticizes the dichotomy between the dakila, seen as a mother, daughter and wife, in contrast to the masama, the mistress and the whore.

Magdalena: From Harlot to Saint

MARIA: Ano bang gagawin mo sa pira-pirasong banga na iyan?

LEONARDA: Pagtatagpiin ko. Baka sakaling mapakinabangan pa.

Caught with nowhere else to go, the four women still dreams of a life far from what was expected of them. Towards the end, Maria comes back offering her friends to come with her to Palawan and live far away from the city, from men, the three women sees the hope but is afraid to take the risks of changing their situation, changing the way the society thinks of them.

This makes the theatrical production even more interesting as it plays up the stereotypes, the box that has trapped the four women in contrast to Magdalena, a major player in the story and presentor of the most important commentaries on women, as by describing herself as:

Ako si Magdalena, ang puta ng lahat ng panahon. Sino ba rito ang hinid nakakakilala sa akin? Ako ang babaing nahatulang mamatay sa pamamagitan ng pagbabato, ngunit iniligtas ni Hesukristo. Dahil dito, nagbagong-buhay ako’t naging santa. Ngayon ako na ang simbulo ng putang may ginintuang puso.

Amidst the trap, Magdalena signifies a certain hope for an escape in this prison. This call to action makes the stage play worthy to remember.

Paglaya Mula sa Pagkakahon ng Lipunan

Sa isang panahon, sa kinabukasang humahalaw sa nakaraan, sa isang sandaling walang nakatitiyak, sa isang lunan na maaaring nabubuhay lang sa isipan ng maraming babae, may nagaganap na ritwal... Ang totoo, ipinagtataka ko na rin kung bakit sa maraming pagtitipon ng mga feminista, ritwal sila ng ritwal. May kasama pang konting lupa, konting asin, konting buwan. Pero saan nga ba tayo magsisimula kundi sa pagkilala sa sarili’t pagbibigay ng mga bagong kahulugan sa mga salita?

- Magdalena

The play ends with a ritual, criticizing all other rituals. Instead of going back to the roots of inequality which was believed to be before the coming of the Spaniards led by Ferdinand Magellan, Magdalena call for a ritual claiming the ownership of a woman’s body her own, of destroying all gender insensitivity in the society and starting anew.

This call, although almost similar to the radical feminism call to gender equality, the obliteration of gender and its similar constructs, Damas de Noche’s tenets still relies on Marxist feminism. It gives emphasis on body ownership and this sense of property as the root cause of all other gender inequality. To be free from gender inequality, women must reclaim their bodies and be given the power of their bodies.

May panahong, tanging sa magdamag

Ang dama de noche’s nangangahas

Kayang taglayin ang halimuyak

Na higit sa sampaga at rosas.

Isang umaga, sa hinaharap

Dama de noche ay mangangahas

Siya’y bubukadkad sa liwanag

Tutuparin ang bawat pangarap

- Finale■