Does ‘x’ Mark The Spot?: Negotiating Filipino/a/x Identities Online in the Philippines and the Diaspora
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2022
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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en
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Abstract
This thesis studies the different contexts behind and understandings of the term
“Filipinx”, which is intended to be a gender-inclusive alternative to “Filipino” but is now a
controversial topic that is largely divided along diasporic/homeland lines. In this paper I uncover
underlying tensions between Filipino(/a/x)s from the Philippines and from the diaspora, which
lie in the vastly different contexts and lived experiences that people from the diaspora and the
homeland have, all attempting to fit under the same identity term/s. In particular, Filipino/a/x
Americans (Fil-Ams), who grew up and live in the United States, tend to use and support the
term “Filipinx”, seeing it as empowering and a show of solidarity (or identification) with the
LGBT+ community and other marginalized communities in the US. By contrast, people in the
Philippines tend to consider “Filipino” to be already gender-neutral and see “Filipinx” as a way
to further impose the Western binary—and thus see it as a form of colonization.
Through an analysis of online Twitter conversations and two interviews, I tease out the
various definitions and connotations of “Filipinx” and show that “Filipinx” indexes a specific
(educated, activist) Fil-Am experience. I argue that the tensions that have risen around this word
are due to the desire among Fil-Ams for a sense of belonging and identity that is being denied by
those in the homeland, at odds with the resentment Filipinos from the Philippines feel towards
those perceive to be more privileged than them and who are assumed to represent them, but end
up doing so inaccurately (and, to some, in a colonizing way).