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Reproductive Dilemmas in Metro Manila pp 85–119Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

“The Middle” and the “Masipag”: Ideas on Faith, Family, and Responsibility

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Part of the book series: Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia ((GSCA))

Abstract

In this chapter, Collantes begins to explore the tensions, contradictions, and incongruities of individual sentiments about reproductive health and religion. Despite the “either/or” dialectics of the RH Law debates, individuals from parishes, faith-based organizations, and academia complicate the binary rhetoric on faith and family planning with their own ideas and views on reproduction. In addition, Collantes discusses the concepts of responsibility and self-discipline (“masipag”), which “pro life” discussants argue to be necessary to natural family planning and to the preservation of the country’s moral fabric. Even without direct references to the workings of global markets, such viewpoints on reproduction, family, and individual sexual conduct are underlined by neoliberal ideology, which guides and upholds global development and restructuring.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Field notes (handwritten), March 11, 2013.

  2. 2.

    Interview (recorded), April 1, 2013.

  3. 3.

    Interview (recorded), April 1, 2013.

  4. 4.

    Interview (recorded), February 20, 2013.

  5. 5.

    This mandate is written on the organization’s official page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Catholics4RH/info

  6. 6.

    Interview (recorded), February 8, 2013.

  7. 7.

    Interview (recorded), February 8, 2013.

  8. 8.

    Interview (recorded), February 20, 2013.

  9. 9.

    Interview (recorded) March 20, 2013.

  10. 10.

    During our conversation, Charles showed me an article by Dumaual and Chua (2011) on his computer, which featured Ramon Revilla Sr.’s large family.

  11. 11.

    Interview (recorded), March 20, 2013.

  12. 12.

    Field notes (handwritten), May 24, 2013.

  13. 13.

    This argument and the research that supports it are influenced by Charles Murray’s (1990) writings on the British underclasses in the 1980s. He linked crime and unemployment to the growing trend of “illegitimate” children from single-parent households (where in most cases, the fathers were not present).

  14. 14.

    Both the “contraceptive mentality” and “slippery slope” concepts assume that societal standards of morality will decrease more and more over time, as more “threats” to the institutions of marriage and the family become legalized consecutively. Examples of this include the legalization of same-sex marriage , abortion , and divorce in other regional contexts (Hundley 2013).

  15. 15.

    Field notes (handwritten), May 24, 2013.

  16. 16.

    Field notes (handwritten), May 24, 2013.

  17. 17.

    Interview (recorded), April 17, 2013.

  18. 18.

    Interview (recorded), January 29, 2013.

  19. 19.

    Field notes (handwritten), May 24, 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

    Christianne F. Collantes

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  1. Christianne F. Collantes
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Collantes, C.F. (2018). “The Middle” and the “Masipag”: Ideas on Faith, Family, and Responsibility. In: Reproductive Dilemmas in Metro Manila. Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5391-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5391-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

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