| October
22, 2001
Goodbye Billy
By Michael L. Tan
WHEN PLDT started the
first of its "Hello, Billy" ads last year, the public reacted
with amusement to its characters. The ad featured Billy, a Filipino
living overseas, and his mother, who’s always calling in and poking
into her son’s personal life and probing about a mysterious Gracia.
The "Hello, Billy" series, as with most ads, played on
stereotypes, especially that of the nosey Pinay mother. Billy’s mom
wasn’t just stereotypical, she was archetypal. After I wrote about
Billy’s mom in my column, I had friends--Italian, Jewish,
Chinese--calling in to claim her as their own.
Ads can poke fun at society’s stereotypes, making us think and say,
"Yeah, that’s silly." In some cases, ads may even stimulate
the public to create their own plots and scripts, challenging
stereotypes with other stereotypes.
Which is what happened with the PLDT ad. Early after the ads first
appeared, there were already text messages going around, spoofing the ad
itself. One particular variation had Billy’s mom calling her son.
"Gracia?" she asks the person answering the phone. The other
party replies, "Hindi po, si Graciano."
The gay community took that variation in stride; in fact, I suspect it
was someone gay who started that text message going. Suddenly, a TV ad
character became the object of intense tsismis: was he straight,
gay, bisexual?
But even as people debated about Billy’s sexual orientation, a gay
character emerged in the ads. Courtesy of Billy’s mother, now
stereotyped as the tsismosa Nanay, the nation learned that Billy
was indeed serious about this Gracia. Out from the shadows emerged a new
character, Joey, apparently one of Billy’s gay friends, depicted as
someone completely dismayed by the news.
Again, there was speculation in the gay community: Was there some shared
past between Billy and Joey? How many San Miguels did they drink
together? Why was Joey hiding behind a luggage cart at the airport,
looking so broken-hearted as he spied on Billy bringing home his Gracia?
Then PLDT did another episode showing a disturbed Billy asking Joey
about ugly rumors concerning Gracia. Who could have spread such vicious
rumors?
The camera pans across Joey’s face and we know, immediately, who the
culprit is.
Gay groups were furious. The Library Foundation (TLF), an organization
that has been quietly doing information, education and advocacy work
with gay men, fired the first salvo, followed by Lagablab, a lesbian and
gay advocacy coalition. One reader sent me a compilation of rather
scathing anti-PLDT comments taken from chat rooms, including calls to
boycott the entire Metro Pacific business conglomerate (which controls
PLDT) and Ace/Saatchi, the ad agency.
Again, I have to emphasize that stereotyping itself is not necessarily
bad. I loved the ad for Skyflakes showing two burly men, one with
tattoos and the other there to comfort his special friend.
Likewise, in the PLDT ad, Billy’s stereotyped mom got many Filipinos
chuckling. In fact, the ones who probably laughed out the loudest were
the ones among us who have such moms--moms who never stop hounding us
about girlfriends (or boyfriends), and moms who write letters to scold
nasty people who dare to criticize their sons. (If it were not for his
venerable age, Sen. Blas Ople would have gotten the public’s wrath
descending on him for daring to criticize a Pinay mom.)
All that is different from the way gay men are stereotyped in the PLDT
ad.
The Skyflakes ad tells the public a jeepney driver can be gay too and
gruffly gentle. The PLDT ad tells us the bakla is dangerous when
jealous, ready to do anything to destroy perceived rivals.
Joey’s stereotyping, Lagablab points out, exposes the gay community to
"ridicule and abuse" because it reinforces existing
prejudices: "Priests who have condemned homosexuals for immorality,
parents who have taught their children that homosexuality is evil,
comedians who believe that slapping homosexuals is funny, and, yes,
advertisements that portray homosexuals negatively--they all have a role
to play why some homosexuals lose their job, get unfair treatment from
restaurants or hospitals, or even get killed. All because of their
sexual orientation."
Lagablab makes an important point: the ads reinforce already adversely
negative attitudes toward gay people in Philippine society. Television
comedies are even worse, with bakla characters subjected to
outrageous indignities. The other night, I caught one television episode
showing a bakla’s face being dunked in a pool of urine, accompanied by
canned laughter. Is this just another harmless instance of Pinoy toilet
humor? I don’t think so. Repeated day in and day out, such images make
it that much easier for a gang of thugs to beat up a bakla
"just for fun."
What’s disturbing, too--and Lagablab points this out--is that many of
these anti-gay ads and TV scripts are actually done by gay men. I’m
not surprised. We like to claim Filipinos are tolerant about homosexuals
when in reality, the biases are so overwhelming and pervasive that they
are internalized by gay men as well.
Ricky Villabona, a friend who works with the ad industry, told me he
wasn’t offended by that last "Hello Billy" ad. What he did
find disturbing was the way a gay character was inserted into the whole
series, even before the last episode. Joey is there not just as comic
relief, but as a joke in itself. The message that comes through, for
Ricky, is that being gay is one big bad joke in itself.
He’s right. The image of the weak, desperate, scheming gay man,
deserving only ridicule and spite, seeps into society’s collective
psyche, and that includes the minds of gay men as well, who then work on
more anti-gay ads and scripts.
The PLDT ads had a good start but it’s time to say "Goodbye,
Billy."
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