PhilippineOne
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26th May 2017
Being a Woman in the Philippines
As the eldest of three girls, I have heard the phrase “kababae mong tao”, a thousand times. When I wanted to roughhouse with boys my age, I would be reprimanded by my grandfather and told to go inside and play with my dolls, or play bahay-bahayan and lutu-lutuan (home-making and cooking roleplay).
“Kababae mong tao, laro ka ng laro sa labas,” he’d say. (“You’re a girl yet you play so much outside.”) For all his scolding, I never heard the same being said to any of the boys I knew and because of