Feminist Media Studies

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfms20

“Fearless, powerful, Filipino”: identity positioning

in the hashtag activism of #BabaeAko

Aniceta Patricia T. Alingasa & Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo

To cite this article: Aniceta Patricia T. Alingasa & Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo (2020): “Fearless,
powerful, Filipino”: identity positioning in the hashtag activism of #BabaeAko, Feminist Media
Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2020.1791927

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1791927

Published online: 07 Jul 2020.

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FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1791927

“Fearless, powerful, Filipino”: identity positioning in the

hashtag activism of #BabaeAko
Aniceta Patricia T. Alingasaa and Mira Alexis P. Ofreneob
a
Department of Behavioral Sciences, U.P. Manila, Manila City, Philippines; bPsychology Department, Ateneo
de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This study investigated the discursive production and contestation Received 25 April 2019
of identities in the Philippine hashtag campaign, #BabaeAko (“I am Revised 18 April 2020
a woman”). Using Slocum-Bradley’s Positioning Diamond (2009) it Accepted 1 July 2020
explored the relational process of identity negotiation between the KEYWORDS
women of the campaign and the President along with his suppor­ Feminist mobilization;
ters. Explicit utterance of the identity category “woman” with attri­ hashtag activism; discursive
butes of fearlessness and power, and sustaining such positioning identities; identity
across social episodes, allowed #BabaeAko advocates to resist positioning; positioning
oppressive attributions grounded on structural inequalities. In addi­ theory
tion, the twofold storylines of calling out misogyny and calling for
solidarity established the discursive activism of the campaign as
both “talking back” and “calling for” likeminded individuals.
Findings are further discussed in relation to hashtag feminism and
political action along with the implications of identity claiming to
feminist online mobilization.

In a public interview in May 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that the
country’s next Ombudsman must not be a woman. This statement added to his repertoire
of anti-women remarks, rape jokes, and threats to shoot women in the vagina (Audrey
Morallo 2017; Vince Nonato 2018). Enraged by this declaration, a loose group of women
activists took to Twitter and on May 18 2018, the hashtag #BabaeAko (“I am a woman”)
started making rounds online. The online campaign urged other women to tweet out
a statement beginning with #BabaeAko, followed by their name, occupation or affiliation,
and their message for the president; the statement ended with #LalabanAko (“I will fight”).
#BabaeAko then became a women-lead social media campaign that mobilized like­
minded Twitter users to utilize the hashtag in calling out sexism and misogyny. Weeks
after its launch, the campaign attracted attention from international news outlets such as
Al Jazeera, which engaged with several #BabaeAko supporters on Twitter. Later on, TIME
Magazine named #BabaeAko as one of “25 Most Influential People on the Internet in
2018.”
Online demonstrations such as hashtag protests have become important channels for
women activists to call out gender-based violence (Tanya Horeck 2014; Jinsook Kim 2017;
Emma Turley and Jenny Fisher 2018; Guobin Yang 2016). However, investigations on such

CONTACT Aniceta Patricia T. Alingasa [email protected] Department of Behavioral Sciences, Up Manila,

Manila City, Philippines
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

forms of online engagement have largely been contextualized in the West where femin­
ism confronts political subjectivities challenged by neoliberalism and consumer-capitalist
discourses (Hester Baer 2016; Frances Rogan and Shelley Budgeon 2018). Meanwhile, in
the Philippines, women’s movements are hard-pressed by poverty, religious resistance
towards reproductive health reforms, human rights violations, and recently, the normal­
ization of sexual harassment and rape culture by President Duterte (Mylene Hega,
Veronica Alporha, and Meggan Evangelista 2017).
It is within this rising climate of misogyny and sexism in the Philippines that we
foreground the #BabaeAko campaign. We present #BabaeAko as a protest that follows
the identity claiming of early women’s movements as it takes on a new form and space
in online activism. We further suggest that the campaign occurs as a conversation with
other social actors within the digital space and the wider public sphere. Finally, we
propose positioning theory as a conversation analysis to unpack the relational patterns
of identity claiming among social actors involved in interactive exchange on the
campaign.

The digital turn in social mobilization

In this digital age, collective mobilization has shifted towards Web-mediated platforms.
From the blogospheres, forums, and chat groups of the early days of the Internet, online
activism has spread towards social networking sites such as Twitter (Ainara Ureta, Jordi
Morales-I-Gras, and Julen Orbegozo 2019). Twitter’s hashtag function, in particular, has
been popularly utilized in social media campaigns due to its discursive communicability,
ability to index, access, and store information, and effectivity in rapidly reaching a large
audience within a short period of time (Caroline Dadas 2017). Moreover, hashtags
encourage the participation of other users through tweeting, retweeting, replying, or
posting personal tweets (Yang 2016). The aggregation of hashtagged statements typical
of such discursive mobilization has been referred to as “hashtag activism” (Sylvester Ofori-
Parku and Derek Moscato 2018). Hereafter, hashtag protests specifically concerning
gender issues have been labelled as “hashtag feminism” (Rosemary Clark 2016).

Hashtag feminism as a transnational phenomenon

Hashtag feminism has opened opportunities for feminist visibilities across diverse geo­
political contexts. In the West, hashtag campaigns such as #WhyIStayed have challenged
dominant discourses of domestic abuse (Clark 2016) and #AskThicke allowed for the
interrogation of sexualised violence (Horeck 2014). Additionally, the #MeToo campaign
and the German #Aufschrei have been instrumental in exposing varied experiences of
sexual harassment in everyday life (Ricarda Drueke and Elke Zobl 2016).
In the global South, where gender issues intersect with institutional politics, hashtag
feminism likewise gained popularity (Amanda Gouws and Azille Coetzee 2019). The
#Women2Drive campaign, for example, aided the efforts towards the legalization of
female drivers in Saudi Arabia (Heidi Basch-Harod 2019). Besides advocating for legislative
reforms, hashtag campaigns also foregrounded women’s cultural grievances within multi­
ple systems of oppression (Basch-Harod 2019). The #NudePhotoRevolutionary in the
MENA region and #EndRapeCulture in South Africa expressed women’s rage towards
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 3

the tolerance of rape culture and sexual violence, as well as the religious and cultural
policing of women’s bodies (Basch-Harod 2019; Amanda Gouws 2018).
Similarly, the Philippines operates within systems of strict religious practices, post-
colonial body politics, and more recently, the perpetuation of misogyny of a populist
head of state (Hega, Alporha, and Evangelista 2017). The present regime of Rodrigo
Duterte has been characterized not only by his bloody “war on drugs,” but also of the
persecution of vocal critics, many of whom are women. Contextualizing the #BabaeAko
campaign in this pressing climate of impunity and political oppression, we examine how
#BabaeAko advocates utilized the affordances of hashtag feminism as a mechanism of
resistance.

Hashtag feminism as discursive activism

Extant literature suggests that hashtag feminism triggered socio-political change as
women utilized social media platforms to counter oppressive discourses and assert
narrative agency over their personal experiences (Clark 2016; Lena Karlsson 2018;
Frances Shaw 2012; Yang 2016). In this capacity, hashtag feminism was implicated as
a form of discursive activism as it aggregated individual stories of shared oppression into
a collective voice pushing for social transformation (Baer 2016). This manifestation of
a shared agenda, through the convergence of individual concerns, is facilitated by the
connective nature of hashtags (Bernadette Barker-Plummer and David Barker-Plummer
2017). Unrestricted by formal group membership, hashtag campaigns work by linking
fluid social networks of likeminded persons through “personalized action frames” (W.
Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg 2013). Thence, hashtag feminism exemplifies the
interaction of the individual and the collective as women’s joint storytelling advance their
shared experience of systemic inequality (Baer 2016).

Identity claiming in feminist hashtag activism

The politicization of personal experiences has been a fundamental mobilizing strategy in
feminist activism (Rosemary Clark 2014). Second wave feminists, for example, unified
women to rally for their rights by emphasizing a “sisterhood” based on shared oppression,
thereby claiming “woman” as a collective identity (Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor 1999).
Similarly, hashtag feminism allows participants to construct collective identities by con­
necting shared cognizance of experiences, resistance of oppression, and solidarity
(Barker-Plummer and Barker Plummer 2017). Hashtag feminism thus adheres to the
identity-based consciousness-raising of early women’s movements as it is likewise trans­
formed by the affordances of contemporary digital spaces.
In this study, we investigate identity claiming in hashtag feminism as a protest
mechanism in itself inasmuch as it is a driver of mobilization. Current literature on
identities in digitally mediated protests have looked into identities as predictors of
collective action (Alexander Coppock, Andrew Guess, and John Ternovski 2016; Jennifer
Earl and Katrina Kimport 2011; Namkee Park and Aimei Yang 2012) and as products of
identity processes (i.e., shared symbols, narratives, and discursive strategies) supported by
the advantages of online platforms (Anna Priante, Michel Ehrenhard, Tijs van den Broek,
and Ariana Need 2018). We expand this existing scholarship by suggesting that the
4 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

naming of identities in hashtag feminism is in itself a political act, as do the discursively

produced meanings attached to these identities.
We further build on the assertion that collective identities are fluid and relational
categories that arise from social interactions with other actors (Francesca Polletta and
James Jasper 2001). While the multiplicity of identity categories in hashtag feminism is
exemplified by its intersectionality (Clark 2016), we add that the flexibility in such identity
claims lies in their discursive nuancing as these are constructed and challenged in
conversational engagement with other narrated actors. We apply these assertions to
the #BabaeAko campaign as we focus on their strategic deployment of the identity
category woman to counter oppressive statements. Lastly, we locate these identity claims
within a conversational context between two groups of social actors: the #BabaeAko
advocates and the President along with his supporters.

Positioning theory as a theoretical framework

Among the different approaches dissecting identities as a discursive phenomenon, the
Positioning Diamond proposed by Nikki Slocum-Bradley 2009 is distinct in its ability to
explain identities as interactive meanings that arise in discursive contestations. This
model is established from the Positioning Theory paradigm developed earlier by Rom
Harré and colleagues (Rom Harré and Luk van Langenhove 1999; Rom Harré and Fathali
Moghaddam 2003), which redefines the meanings constructed in talk from being arbitrary
messages into purposive social acts that achieve individual or collective goals. Thus, talk is
a form of political action; an act of protest and mobilization. Conversations are henceforth
seen as an exchange of attempts at positioning the self and the other in the context of
structured social interactions or social episodes. In this paper, we analyze Tweets of
#BabaeAko advocates and the President’s supporters as an unfolding conversation,
interpreting each utterance as an act of positioning the identity/identities of woman/
women and other narrated actors.
Initially conceptualized as a triad (Harré and van Langenhove 1999), Slocum-Bradley
(2009) expanded positioning as having four mutually determining elements: storylines,
identities, rights and duties, and social force. Any given social episode, exchange, or
interaction can be structured in terms of storylines or the loose narrative patterns of
positioning where rights and duties are located (Slocum-Bradley 2009). For instance,
calling out misogyny is an example of a storyline. In a storyline, identities are discursively
produced “meanings applied to persons or other narrated actors” (Slocum-Bradley 2009,
17) that have two components: categories and moral attributes (Slocum-Bradley 2009).
This particular formulation of identities exemplifies their fluidity as meanings can be
claimed, contested, and negotiated across social actors. Furthermore, positioning empha­
sizes the “doing of identity” as it focuses on its production within the moment-by-
moment nature of talk (Eleni Andreouli 2010). Applied in this paper, the meanings of
the category woman are made multiple and fluid as identities discursively produced in
social episodes. A woman can be positioned as weak in one moment and strong the next;
with each act of positioning open to negotiation and contestation.
Evoked with these identities are rights and duties (Slocum-Bradley 2009); with each act
of positioning ascribing either a right or duty on the self or the other. Rights and duties
inform how people must think and behave in accordance to their cultural understanding
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 5

of identities, and as such, follow the moral order established in the course of
a conversation (Cristina Montiel and Judith de Guzman 2010). For example, a woman
positioned as strong may be granted the right to govern whereas a woman positioned as
weak may be denied this same right. Rights and duties, along with identities, are relational
and may be rejected through the act of counter-positioning (Harré and Moghaddam
2003). These utterances consequently serve a significant purpose, or a social force, which
is the social meaning evoked on interlocutors involved in the conversation, as well as on
third-party actors (Montiel and de Guzman 2010). As such, an utterance has the power to
either legitimize or delegitimize misogyny, to claim rights for women or to assign duties
upon women.

Data collection
The data pool consisted of #BabaeAko tweets and related news articles. Tweets were
harvested using Twitter’s Full Archive Search API; usernames were altered and tweet
content were translated and paraphrased to avoid de-identification. We also collected
articles from news websites of Philippine national broadsheets (e.g., Philippine Daily
Inquirer, Philippine Star), social news network websites (e.g., Rappler), and international
news outlets (e.g., Al Jazeera, Time Magazine) in order to map the discursive context of the
hashtag campaign.
The starting date of data collection was May 18 2018, which marked the launch of the
campaign on Twitter and the end date, June 30 2018, indicated #BabaeAko women’s
recognition as one of TIME Magazine’s “25 Most Influential People on the Internet.” The
period of data collection was determined by referring to the time-proximity of the
conversational back-and-forth between #BabaeAko advocates and the President’s camp.
The discursive exchange between social actors had been contingent and successive from
#BabaeAko’s launch until TIME’s recognition. Following this, sustained interaction
between social actors remained sporadic. Within a positioning framework, the “proximal
occurrence” of interactive talk lends to richer relational meaning-making and a coherent
understanding of conversational dynamics (Montiel and de Guzman 2010). Thus, as an
archival project, this study focused on the initial episodes of disruption in which
#BabaeAko advocates contingently and contiguously engaged in acts of positioning
against the claims of other narrated actors.

Data analysis
Firstly, through the news articles gathered, we mapped out the discursive background of
the online campaign and its engagement with the President’s camp. We then identified
the sequence of social episodes that contextualized the digital exchange by time-
referencing the news articles with the discursive flow of the tweets in the data set.
A social episode was thereby determined when an external event (e.g., the President
kissing a married OFW woman) triggers a narrative shift in the conversational theme of
the online talk. During the analysis, we marked three social episodes. Episode 1 (May 18
2018) is referred to as “Duterte states that the next Ombudsman must not be a woman.”
This utterance sparked the launching of the #BabaeAko campaign on Twitter. Episode 2
(June 3 2018), referred to as “Duterte kisses an OFW woman,” refers to the president’s
6 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

public act of kissing a married OFW woman during a press conference in South Korea. The
third and final episode pertains to the culmination of the #BabaeAko campaign through
an on-the-ground protest held on June 12 2018.
We then analysed the data using positioning theory as interpretative framework. We
examined the data set of tweets and statements to ascertain shifts in the relational
meanings produced over the course of discursive contestations. Following the four
mutually determining elements of the positioning diamond, we coded the tweets and
the statements according to the identities claimed and imposed by each social actor. We
then identified the rights and duties that were invoked and challenged according to
associated identity claims. Then, we determined the storylines where these discursive
meanings unfold, and finally, we analysed the significance of invoking these storylines by
highlighting their social force.

Results
We present the results of the study as a chronological discursive exchange between the
#BabaeAko advocates and the President’s camp. The subsections are organized according
to the sequence of storylines invoked by each social actor, as responses in the course of
the online conversation. Subsequent elements of the positioning diamond are further
explained in each storyline.

Social episode 1: the President states that the next Ombudsman must not be
a woman
The President’s maligning women storyline: women cannot be trusted because they
lack integrity
This social episode opens with Duterte’s statement regarding his preferred prospect for
the next Ombudsman appointee: “I want someone whose integrity people believe in. Of
course, it could not be a politician, especially not a woman” (Nestor Corrales 2018a). In
this utterance, Duterte positions women as lacking integrity. In the Philippine society,
where politicians are widely regarded with mistrust (Jodesz Gavilan 2018; Anelle Tayao-
Juego 2019), qualifying a female candidate as a graver alternative further conflates the
positioning of women as morally degenerate. Positioned as immoral, women’s right to
political office was questioned. Furthermore, as Duterte self-positioned as a moral
champion for the masses, he claimed both the constitutional and the moral right to
appoint the “man” worthy for the job. This narrative can therefore be interpreted as
a maligning women storyline which exhibited the social force of delegitimizing the
character of women.

#BabaeAko’s calling out storyline: #BabaeAko are fearless women calling Duterte
a misogynist coward
Upon media dissemination of Duterte’s remark, a counter-position was launched by
a group of women activists in the form of a Twitter hashtag campaign: #BabaeAko (“I
am a woman”). Conveners of #BabaeAko denounced Duterte’s statement as sexist. They
alternatively positioned him as a misogynist, macho-fascist coward and ascribed to him
the duty to cease vilifying women. Positioned as such, Duterte’s right to belong in
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 7

a morally progressive society was contested; likewise, his right to the presidency was
rejected.
#BabaeAko’s narrative of contestation, herein explicated as a calling out storyline,
delineates a new moral order which impugned Duterte’s self-positioning and exposed
his hatred and fear towards women. In advancing counter-positions, #BabaeAko women
positioned as fearless fighters who claimed the right to champion for the rights of women
and the oppressed.
Sparrow (@m_sparrow). “YOU’RE A COWARD DUTERTE. You’re scared of women who cannot
be swayed by your vulgarity.” May 20 2018. Tweet.

Teresa (@Tere). “A backward thinking person like Duterte does not belong in a progressive
country. Stop bullying women because we will fight!” May 20 2018. Tweet.

SusanPeres (@Spts). “Women are not afraid of the macho-fascist Duterte. We will continue to
fight for the rights of women and the nation’s minority.” May 20 2018. Tweet.

The discursive engagement of #BabaeAko likewise incited the public at large as women
advocates invited fellow women and allies to join in concerted efforts against the abuse
and oppression of the current regime. This invoked a calling for solidarity storyline in
which women were positioned as accountable for the welfare of other women, thereby
ascribing to all women the duty to stand with the cause of the campaign. This duty was
also assigned towards male allies who were identified as “real men” who have “mothers
that care, sisters that support them, wives who fight for them, and women-friends who
align with their principles to be just and fair.”
The embedded storylines of calling out and calling for solidarity advanced convergent
social forces: exposing the President’s misogyny and challenging the public to sympathize
with the campaign. Alternatively, certain identity positions ascribed by #BabaeAko advo­
cates, e.g., male allies as “real men,” may instead be perceived by the passive public as an
act of emasculation. These statements may advance the negative social force of discoura­
ging neutral observers to support the campaign.

Duterte supporters’ political destabilization storyline: #BabaeAko women are

utilizing a political campaign to attack Duterte
In response to the campaign’s accusations of misogyny, Duterte supporters retaliated
with a political destabilization storyline which argued that, far from being a noble cause,
#BabaeAko was instead a political propaganda intended to attack the President. Duterte’s
Special Assistant, in particular, called the campaign “unfair” and “clearly political” (Pia
Ranada 2018). Duterte supporters likewise criticized the campaign’s claims as unjustified.

Anthemyst (@natl_anthem) “Duterte has a foul mouth and archaic ideas about women but
he’s not really misogynistic because he’s done a lot of notable things for women. He hired
several women for his cabinet too.” May 25 2018. Tweet.

Isabel (@Isabel). “Do we really have to create an issue OUT OF A FOUL MOUTH? I’ve seen many
presidents and all they had were sugar-coated words. In Duterte, I CAN SEE CHANGES.”
May 24 2018. Tweet.

In these statements, Duterte was positioned as a pro-women legislator and an agent for
change. The amalgamation of these acts of positioning served to vindicate the President
8 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

from his vulgarity, thereby affording him the right to be defended from claims of
misogyny. This counter-position consequentially transforms the distribution of identity
positions from #BabaeAko’s calling out storyline: since #BabaeAko “injected political
issues” to otherwise trivial statements, they were positioned as political opportunists.
Moreover, since many in the hashtag campaign expressed support for staunch female
critics of the current administration, they were likewise positioned as hypocritical elites.
These discursive acts therefore disputed #BabaeAko’s moral qualifications to advance
a politically unbiased campaign.
Kathyb (@kathyb). “Not inject political issues? When they use #BabaeAko in the same
sentence as ‘I’m gonna fight against Duterte’. How can that not be political? You should
blame the militants.” May 25 2018. Tweet.

Pearberry (@p___b). “This really makes me so mad. It’s sickening all these hypocritical moves by
these elite women. They think they’re the only ones who are pure. #BabaeAko.” May 25 2018.
Tweet.

The unfolding of these identity positions within the storyline of political destabilization
exhibited the social force of disqualifying #BabaeAko activists as gender advocates,
consequently delegitimizing the campaign.

#BabaeAko’s politicizing storyline: #BabaeAko is a non-partisan campaign that is

being attacked by the Duterte regime
#BabaeAko advocates counter-positioned Duterte supporters by asserting that the cam­
paign is inclusive of all sectors and political colors. Constructing a politicizing storyline, they
claimed that the campaign’s push for human rights and justice, regardless of affiliation,
prompted the current regime and its supporters to mark them as political opponents.
Verona (@J_verona). “Targets come in all colors: women peasant leaders, urban poor leaders,
civic workers, indigenous women. You talk of human rights and justice, you’re Duterte’s
enemy. #BabaeAko.” May 27 2018. Tweet.

Josefa (@JEscoda) “Color-shaming doesn’t work anymore, trolls. Targets of Duterte regime’s
abuse span across the color wheel . . . like the women who have pushed back at this abuse.
#BabaeAko.” May 26 2017. Tweet.

Isadora (@Isadora). “The misogynist’s PAs evaded valid issues raised by women in #BabaeAko.
Davao laws were not gifts from Duterte. They were fruits of struggle by women’s groups.”
May 23 2018. Tweet.

#BabaeAko participants positioned themselves as targets, thereby claiming the right to push
back against the regime’s persecution of women and the marginalized sectors. In contrast,
Duterte supporters, who were positioned as trolls, were given the duty to cease attacking
the campaign and spreading misinformation to justify the President’s misogyny. These acts
of positioning exhibited the social force of asserting the inclusivity of #BabaeAko.

Duterte’s maligning women storyline: women are incapable of facing threats and
intimidation
The strengthening of #BabaeAko in the online sphere prompted a response from the
President himself, who claimed in a speech that he is not anti-woman. Rather, he merely
believes that there are certain jobs not appropriate for females.
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 9

“Us men, we grew up with a mindset prone to violence. Women must be prim and proper.
I believe in woman, the competence, capability, but not everything in life must be. It’s not
appropriate. You cannot stand threats and intimidation,” he added (Jhoanna Ballaran
2018).

In this utterance, Duterte self-positioned as a “man,” claiming patriarchal attributes of

violence and male dominance. Exploiting the power asymmetry in this discursive location,
Duterte asserted his right to determine women’s personality and place in society. Women,
positioned as inherently weak, were given the duty to accept their relegation to the social
spheres deemed appropriate by men. This narrative can be interpreted as a maligning
women storyline, which invokes the social force of perpetuating oppression in its dis­
cursive restriction of opportunities available for women.

#BabaeAko’s calling out storyline: #BabaeAko are powerful women overcoming

Duterte’s power and manhood
On Twitter, #BabaeAko retaliated with a calling out storyline which argued that the
President’s propensity towards showboating and abuse of power belies a deep-rooted
fear of powerful and intelligent women. They rejected Duterte’s assertion of male dom­
inance by claiming that women, who were equipped with nothing but bold words and
actions, had “more balls” than his grandstanding of manhood.
Wondermore (@Wmore) “The macho image is nothing more than a front. Why are people still
so fond of seeing a man showboat his being a man? Women have more balls, with nothing
but powerful statements and bold actions. #BabaeAko.” May 28 2018. Tweet.

OneChange (@1_change). “#BabaeAko. It’s the strength of women that will surely make the
President surrender. Have you ever thought of why Mother Nation’s a woman?” May 30 2018.
Tweet.

Diega Silang (@diegasilang). “Is this the man you voted to lead a country? Looks as if its only
himself he considers a person. This isn’t the president to represent a country of equal rights.”
May 30 2018. Tweet.

They positioned Duterte as a weak man and he was ascribed the duty to surrender to the
strength of women. Discursively positioned as such, Duterte’s right to govern was
challenged. In contrast, #BabaeAko activists’ positioning as powerful women asserted
their right to reject a president who perpetuates oppression. These counter-positions
within the calling out storyline advanced the social force of resisting Duterte’s authority
and governance. However, in #BabaeAko’s claim that strong women have “more balls”
than men, a negative social force is exhibited in its adoption of a masculine identity to be
considered powerful.

Social episode 2: Duterte kisses an OFW woman at a meeting in South Korea

The President again incited public outrage when, in a televised meeting with overseas
Filipino workers in South Korea on June 3 2018, he kissed a married Filipina woman on the
lips. This act, determined as the opening of the second social episode, catalyzed a shift in
the discursive context upon which we foreground #BabaeAko. Contingent to this episodic
development, the discursive engagement among social actors shifted from contestations
10 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

regarding women’s political participation, towards arguments concerning sexual

harassment.

Duterte and supporters’ entertainment storyline: the President initiated the kiss to
entertain the audience
This social episode opens with Duterte’s justification of his behaviour as a harmless act
that was staged for the audience’s enjoyment. Invoking an entertainment storyline, he
claimed that his “show” was received positively by the audience present at the event.
‘”It was (a) showbiz and everybody enjoyed. If you’re asking for malice, I don’t do it in public if
there’s malice. I would pull the woman somewhere along the empty halls,” [Duterte] said
(Nestor Corrales 2018a).

“I believe that an overwhelming majority of Filipinos continue to support the President and
found the kiss a light moment that’s very accepted in the culture of Filipinos,’ [Presidential
Assistant Roque] said. “The woman made it clear that there was no malice in it . . . and if you
were there, the Filipino community appreciated the act. It was an act of endearment towards
all OFWs,” (Nestor Corrales 2018c).

The President’s assistant also supported this storyline by claiming that the kiss was
a culturally acceptable act in Philippine society, and that which was met with appreciation
by the woman and the Filipino community. In these utterances, Duterte self-positioned as
an entertainer, while his supporters positioned him as a leader. Hence, the President
gained the rights to entertain and to express affection towards his people. On the other
hand, the OFW woman and the Filipino people were positioned as constituents and were
ascribed the duty to receive and appreciate Duterte’s actions. These statements advanced
the social force of asserting the lack of malice in the President’s kiss insofar as it is done for
the “good” of the people.

#BabaeAko’s calling out storyline: #BabaeAko is calling out Duterte’s kiss as a public
act of sexual violation
Online, #BabaeAko advocates called out Duterte’s kiss as an act of sexual harassment.
They asserted that the kiss was a blatant abuse of the power attached to the Presidential
position, inevitably debilitating the OFW woman from rejecting the sexual violation.
KMorgan (@K_Morgan). “Defenders would say she wasn’t forced into receiving the kiss. The
violence inflicted on her wasn’t visible. Power is most effective and threatening when the
person exerting it renders his subjects incapable of free will. #BabaeAko.” June 3 2018. Tweet.

Margiebells (@MargieB20). “The President’s exertion of power to coerce a woman to publicly

kiss him is a global embarrassment! The man is a maniac and uses his position to repeatedly
degrade women. #BabaeAko.” June 3 2018. Tweet.

In this calling out storyline, #BabaeAko advocates positioned Duterte as a sexual predator
and a “mang kanor”, which is a Filipino moniker for an old man who preys on younger
women. The kiss was likewise identified as a global embarrassment especially to Filipina
women. These acts of positioning disputed the impunity enjoyed by Duterte despite
committing sexual violation. It also asserted his duty to feel shame for his deed and
resisted his right to represent Filipinas. Meanwhile, those who cheered for the President
were positioned as accomplices and their enjoyment of the act was described as “male
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 11

entitlement.” Moreover, #BabaeAko stated that the kiss was “culturally and morally
wrong,” rejecting the justification of Duterte supporters and ascribing to them the duty
to cease legitimizing sexual harassment.
In contrast, #BabaeAko advocates positioned women as prey or targets of sexual
harassment who gained the right to preserve dignity in the face of humiliation.
#BabaeAko further asserted women’s right to be defended from victim blaming, as
women experience debilitation in the midst of power and coercion.

Merba101 (@M101). “#BabaeAko. Take it easy on her. Can’t blame her. She was intimidated,
and though she was hesitant, she couldn’t do anything. The crowd was cheering. Then it was
the president of the country that did it to her.” June 3 2018. Tweet.

Further in the narrative of #BabaeAko is the insistence that women must not allow
themselves to be victims, assigning to women the duty to fight back in order to “not let
any man, President or not, make [them] a sexual target”. Principally, this storyline
achieved the social force of demonstrating resistance against Duterte’s act of sexual
harassment and rebuking the false justifications from his supporters.

#BabaeAko’s empowerment and call for action storyline: #BabaeAko are empowered
women who are enabling other women to stand against abuse and denigration
#BabaeAko further argued that some women may be more vulnerable to harassment than
others. The duty to capacitate women against abuse was thereby claimed by #BabaeAko
advocates, who positioned themselves as empowered women unconstrained by socio-
political biases. As empowered women, #BabaeAko declared their right to lead the call for
action against the oppression.

Mariaclara (@Maria_C). “While some women of this administration preaches that a woman can
defend herself, not every woman can. Specially when the leader & his followers perpetuate
misogyny. #BabaeAko is here to help empower the woman—no biases.” June 5 2018. Tweet.

Contingent with the former empowerment storyline is the call for action storyline, which
summoned fellow women and the general public to unite against the denigration of
every Filipina.

MariaMakiling (@M_Makiling). “Fellows! Let’s meet at the #BabaeAko Women Freedom March
on June 12! Let’s fight for Mother Nation! Let’s fight against macho-fascism and the disregard
of our sovereignty.” June 7 2018. Tweet.

Romina (@Romina_Mondragon) “I think enough is enough. Let’s take action about this.
I heard there’s a protest on Tuesday for #babaeako. Why not join and show these people
that we’re FILIPINO.” Tweet. June 7 2018.

#BabaeAko’s positioning of women as targets of disempowerment ascribed to the latter

the duty to respond to the campaign’s invitation. The same duty was attributed to the
Filipino public, who were positioned as “tulog (asleep) at tanga (stupid)”. This positioning
incited Filipinos to cease tolerating the increasing dehumanization of women in the
nation.
These embedded storylines had the social force of eliciting support from women
and the general public thus inviting allies to join in an offline protest. On the other
hand, certain identity positions in this storyline may advance a negative social force.
12 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

For example, identifying Filipinos as “stupid” may be interpreted as demeaning,

thereby discouraging the observing public to express support for the campaign.

Social episode 3: #BabaeAko marches on #HindiPendence Day

On June 12 2018, #BabaeAko’s call for action materialized as demonstrators joined the
#HindiPendenceDay rally, marking the culmination of the hashtag campaign into an
organized street protest. We mark this as the third social episode, noting the discursive
shift of the preceding online conversation from sexual harassment, towards contestations
on the legitimacy of the social media campaign.

#BabaeAko and media’s legitimization storyline: #BabaeAko is a social media

campaign that materialized into an actual protest on the ground
In this storyline, #BabaeAko demonstrators positioned themselves as protest leaders,
claiming the right to display defiance against numerous abuses permeating the nation.
Cassie (@Cassandra_Jane). “For as long as Filipinos are not yet free, for as long as there’s still
poverty, discrimination, and disrespect of the nation’s sovereignty. #BabaeAko, we are
women who will be free in protest. We will fight!” June 12 2018. Tweet.

MarthaDizon (@MarthaDizon). “On this day, women will lead the march in the streets to show
our defiance on the macho-fascist regime of Du30. #BabaeAko.” June 12 2018. Tweet.

Local media outlets, as third-party actors who covered the event, also described #BabaeAko
as a “catalyst” and a campaign that “became alive” when “it took to the streets”.
What was once a social media campaign-only movement, became “alive” when Filipino
women and other groups took to the streets the call to end sexism and misogyny in the
Philippines, on June 12 (Kenneth Leonardo 2018).

More than 1,000 women marched in Manila on Tuesday to tell [Pres. Duterte] they’ve had
enough of what they termed his repeated misogynistic words and deed . . . Their #BabaeAko
hashtag caught on quickly . . . and the thousands of posts since were the catalyst for Tuesday’s
Independence Day rally (Ayee Macaraig 2018).

The #BabaeAko movement thereby claimed for themselves, and was likewise ascribed by
the media, the right to be recognized as a legitimate campaign. This evoked the social
force of legitimizing #BabaeAko as a “real” public protest.

Duterte supporters’ maligning women storyline: #BabaeAko is a doomed campaign

led by weak women
In response to the online and on-the-ground presence of #BabaeAko, President Duterte’s
daughter, Inday Sara Duterte, released a statement arguing that the campaign was
doomed because it was led by weak women:
What he [Duterte] doesn’t like lies not in the gender, but in the character, he has no respect
for weakness. And many women and some men are known to be damsels in distress, that
#babaeako included (ABS CBN News 2018).

In this utterance, she positioned the President as man who respects strength. Therefore,
he was granted the right to criticize any form of weakness. Juxtaposed with this identity is
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 13

the positioning of #BabaeAko women as damsels in distress. Therefore, they have the
duty to receive disrespect. This narrative, implicated as a maligning women storyline,
evoked the social force of delegitimizing the character of #BabaeAko women, and
effectively, the campaign itself.

#BabaeAko’s legitimization storyline: #BabaeAko is an influential movement

#BabaeAko advocate’s legitimization storyline argued that, far from being doomed, the
campaign has been successful in its fight against tyranny. Central to this argument is the
recognition gained by the #BabaeAko movement upon being named as one of TIME
Magazine’s “25 Most Influential People on the Internet in 2018”, released on June 28 2018.
“Under the hashtag #BabaeAko (I Am Woman), they uploaded videos calling out sexism in the
Duterte administration [. . .] Since then, Filipinas across the country have spoken out, includ­
ing Congress representatives and a former Duterte cabinet member [. . .] On June 12, eight
days after Duterte kissed a married woman onstage in Seoul, 1,000 protesters marched in The
Philippines with #BabaeAko banners (Naian Bajekal 2018).”

According to TIME, those featured in the unranked list were evaluated based on their
“global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news”. TIME’s nod towards
#BabaeAko was also quoted and circulated by major Philippine media outlets (Gaea
Cabico 2018; Arianne Merez 2018; CNN Philippines 2018). This recognization by an
international news magazine, and its acknowledgment by Philippine media, was averred
by #BabaeAko advocates as a measure of validation for the legitimacy and impact of the
campaign.
Juana (@Juana). “Long live #BabaeAko! “Doomed,” said the president’s daughter, but these
Filipinas against tyranny are included as “most influential people this 2018!” June 28 2018.
Tweet.

Lee (@Lee). “A powerful affirmation that no matter how small your voice is, use it! Coz you
won’t know how much courage you’ll inspire! #BabaeAko” June 28 2018. Tweet.

Naomi (@Naomi_D). “#BabaeAko is successful because it’s empowering particularly to

women. Effective, simple in implementation, easy to understand.” June 30 2018. Tweet.

In the statements above, #BabaeAko leveraged upon the characterizations of the media,
most especially the TIME article, in their self-positioning as influential women. In so doing,
they claimed the right to represent the voices of Filipinas in the global online sphere. The
meanings that unfold within this storyline invoked the social force of affirming the
legitimacy of the campaign, thereby allowing #BabaeAko advocates to declare that the
movement is victorious in its reach and influence, in the face of—and despite—the
backlash from the President and his supporters. To #BabaeAko women, this validation is
their strongest counter-position.

Discussion
The construction and negotiation of #BabaeAko advocate’s identity claims can be
observed in the dynamic interchange between the women of the campaign and the
President’s camp. Duterte’s gendered positioning ascribed to patriarchal ideologies while
his supporters’ discursive contestations echo populist rhetoric. #BabaeAko advocate’s
14 A. P. T. ALINGASA AND M. A. P. OFRENEO

counter-positions disputed these positionings by discursively challenging the ideologies

advanced by Duterte and his supporters. In self-positioning as targets of political persecu­
tion, #BabaeAko asserted their identification with the marginalized whose rights have
been violated by the government. However, #BabaeAko did not claim disenfranchised
identities. Rather, they transcended the discourse of victimhood by positioning as fearless
and powerful, hence declaring rights to resist and reject Duterte’s discursive authority.
The relational nature of positioning thus afforded #BabaeAko the agency to counter-
position in ways that tipped the scales of narrative power. In essence, by imposing the loss
of rights and ascription of duties on Duterte, while claiming rights for themselves and for
the oppressed.
These findings draw attention to the strategic affordance of identity claiming as
a mechanism of political engagement. #BabaeAko advocates leveraged their resistance
on the discursive power of fluid identity claims. They favourably reconstructed not only
women’s identities, but also resisted and negated the identity claims that condone
structural inequality. This resonates with Slocum-Bradley’s assertion (2009) that identities
are evoked in specific situations to accomplish a desired task. In the case of #BabaeAko,
the purpose of claiming fearlessness and power was to counter oppression and disrupt
the President’s politics of fear.

Practical implications on feminist movement building

Modest implications towards the strategies of discursive activism are highlighted in
#BabaeAko’s twofold storylines of Calling Out Misogyny and Calling for Solidarity/
Action. The embeddedness of these storylines demonstrates that discursive activism
can both be a “talking back” (Turley and Fisher 2018) against oppression and an active
“calling for” support and solidarity. This beckons attention to the discursive work of the
politicization of personal experiences central to feminist activism. This likewise
expands on the existing body of literature that implicates online collective identifica­
tion as an organizing mechanism for offline collective action (Kim 2017; Summer
Harlow 2012)
We also observe certain social forces that can have important indications for hashtag
feminism. Firstly, the social force of positioning as fearless and powerful encourage others
to engage in similar acts of identity claiming as a form of discursive resistance. Secondly,
we note that #BabaeAko advocates asserted their positions as representatives of Filipinas
in the digital sphere by anchoring on the positive recognition of media actors. These
discursive claims achieved the positive social force of asserting the legitimacy of the
hashtag campaign amidst strong political criticisms.
Conversely, we noted negative social forces in the conversational engagements of
#BabaeAko activists that call for the rethinking of rhetorical operations in feminist
protests. For example, the identities that #BabaeAko ascribed towards others (e.g., the
President as a coward, Filipinos as stupid) may achieve the negative social force of
advancing polarizing identity claims, especially for casual supporters of Duterte. The
public may likewise consider this an insult, deterring them from sympathizing and/or
participating in the campaign. Lastly, #BabaeAko advocate’s positioning of women as
having “more balls” than men inadvertently perpetuates the notion that women must
adapt a masculine language in order to assert discursive authority (Mary Beard 2015).
 FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES 15

Therefore, activists and prompters of online conversation need to reflect on how they
claim and assign identities, cognizant that public talk shapes the meaning-making of
narrators and observers. Such self-reflexivity in hashtag feminism allows for a critical
interrogation of current rhetoric in social media engagement, and open opportunities
for the transformation of discursive mechanisms in future digital campaigns.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Aniceta Patricia T. Alingasa served as Assistant Professor at the Department of Behavioral Sciences
of University of the Philippines Manila. She is also a Fellow of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders
Fellowship Fund. She has a masters degree in Social Psychology and a bachelor’s degree in
Psychology. Her research interests include gender studies and computer-mediated communication.
E-mail: [email protected]
Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo is Associate Professor at the Psychology Department of Ateneo de Manila
University. She has a doctoral degree in Social Psychology, a masters degree in Counseling
Psychology, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics. She is an advocate of gender equality and
sexual diversity and has worked with local and international organizations on building affinity
politics and an ethics of care. E-mail: [email protected]

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