Co-Authors: Albus Wang (ins: @albusw), Yilin Wong (ins: @is_this_finally_my_name)
Published on: June, 9th, 2023
“On This Side of the World” is a musical that gives voice to Filipino immigrants. According to the Author’s Note, Paulo K Tiról draws inspiration by collecting stories from his immigrant friends. Although these stories are based on real-life events, we believe there are a few shortcomings in the portrayal of the female characters.
Composed of 16 standalone stories, offering a collage of 24 characters across the board, including three gay characters, the musical still lacks representation of any lesbians or transgender individuals/characters. According to statistics from GLAAD’s 2022-2023 report, 33 percent of LGBTQ characters on prime-time broadcasts are lesbians, 7 percent are transgender, and 34 percent are gay men. When we compare these numbers to the representation on stage, it becomes clear that this musical is behind its time.
Even with the women who fall into the heteronormative category and manage to make it on stage, their representation is noticeably flatter, lacking intersectionality, character development, and often falling into stereotypes compared to their male counterparts. Their representation does not break away from the roles that society assigns to females, especially Asian females. (unfortunately falls into stereotypes of women in Asian community)
In the musical, women are either portrayed as devoted to caring for other people’s children and families (Light of the Home), spoiled princesses (Yaya), gossipy (Ay! Amerika), loving grandmas (In This Kitchen), women learning a second language while still thinking about love (The Language Lesson), or women on a pursuit for a Green Card but being sidetracked by love (A Simple Transaction), and so on. Caretaker, lover, superficial, and materialistic, these are all stereotypical representations that simplify the complexity of the characters. When we look at the representation of gay men, we see fabulous gay men who decide to embrace their heritage after confusion (Rice Queen) struggle with his Filipino identity in a eurocentral community, and gay couples who want different things but are able to negotiate and find common ground (Crazy, if we remember correctly). And when we examine some of the heterosexual male characters, we see complexity in their character through their intersectional identity as uncles, with relatively stable jobs, trying to fulfill their family’s demands on them and struggling with it (Cool Tito). We also see men questioning their decision to obtain US citizenship (Proud), and actors who question their own decision to come to the US to pursue their American dream (Leading Man). Can we truly not find any women who are driven and have more complex background stories than caretaking roles?
We don’t think so. One of our co-writers has read the book “How to Stand Up to a Dictator” by the bisexual Nobel laureate Maria Ressa. In her book, there are many career-driven women who decide to come together and create their own publishing business while leading the country towards a brighter future. We simply cannot believe that strong and intelligent women like them would simply disappear into thin air once they board an immigration flight.
In summary, the lack of representation is truly astonishing. If we want to give voice to previously underrepresented groups, we believe that we should showcase the diversity among us. This musical attempts to address the problem of underrepresentation, but the materials it presents are too limited. The musical severely lacks diverse gender representation and perpetuates stereotypical portrayals of Asian females, which we believe will only serve to reinforce these stereotypes on non-cis male community. Therefore, our verdict on the musical is that it attempts to represent Filipino immigrants but falls short in providing adequate representation for characters other than cisgender men.
References:
Digital program:
Glaad 22-23:
https://assets.glaad.org/m/114d72edf8a779a6/original/GLAAD-2022-23-Where-We-Are-on-TV.pdf