What is the image of the Filipino man and woman in the short story "Magnificence" by Estrella Alfon?
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What is the image of the Filipino man and woman in the short story "Magnificence" by Estrella Alfon?
To summarize, Estrella Alfon took a big step in changing and challenging society's perception of women and men. Women can be brave and fierce, too can be seen as a symbol of strength, love, and care. Like what was mentioned in the synthesis, the story magnifies the cruciality of knowing the people that interact with our children and the crucial role of parents as guardians.
To synthesize, the central ideas in the story Magnificence by Estrella Alfon are gender neutrality and pedophilia. Just like the points presented above, Estrella destroys the notion of gender stereotyping and shows the vulnerability of children to sexual harassment. The mother is portrayed in the story as a sturdy figure and Vicente as a pretentious perpetrator, which contradicts the conventional concept of society to gender; women holding little importance and men being great. Also, the story magnifies the cruciality of knowing the people that interact with children. The story reminds us no matter how kind, compassionate, etc., a stranger is, it doesn't limit his or her capability in doing immoral acts. Some people possessed evil motives coated with temporary goodness.…
Thank you for the question, Kenneth! To be honest, it is extremely difficult for people to put malice on a woman's action especially if she shows endearment to the little girl before the writing scenario. However, if the mother caught the woman in the act harassing her children, then this is also a different story. The mother may react the same way as she reacted to Vicente when she saw him taking advantage of the little girl. This can also be a lesson that sexual harassment knows no gender. That is why we must be vigilant against the various forms of sexual harassment.
Interesting... But what if we change something in the story- If Vicente was a woman, do you think that the Mother will see him differently before the writing scenario? after the writing scenario?
Every literary texts can influence people’s mindset. If people on 1960’s read Magnificence maybe they would question why a man would be timid or why did he let a woman slap her etc., but if we read the text now (just like what we did), we will understand that women can be as brave or authoritative as man, and we would not accept any toxic masculinity like “boys don’t kiss boys” because it’s just like saying men shouldn’t show affection/emotions towards people with the same gender.