Transnational bebot-ism

So you’ve all probably been wondering, “where’s Michelle’s response to ‘why bebot?’” Sorry, I went on a trip and then got lazy, and well… I kept putting off posting, and then I started to hesitate writing.

Some of my hesitation on responding to this topic stems from the fact that I quite don’t know how to answer the topic question. Before the Black Eyed Peas put Stockton, California back on the map by shooting their music video “Bebot” there, I had no clue what the word meant. To be truthful, not many of my other friends who spoke Tagalog knew either. We were born here in the U.S. or came over when we were so young, that we hadn’t learned the slang used by our elder siblings, cousins, and other relatives.

A few weeks ago I called my mom and asked her if she knew what the word meant. I wanted to get a sense for how the word has evolved since she used it and how it is used now. Here’s how our conversation went:

Me: Ma, do you know what bebot means?

Mom: Hah? What’s bebot?

Me: You know, it’s sometimes what people call pretty girls… I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you!

Mom: Oh! Bebot… I think it has something to do with the ubet (Ilokano for butt).

Me: (Spluttering) What?! No mom, it’s not the butt. It means babe! You know, when a guy tries to hit on you by getting your attention by saying hey baby.

Mom: Oh, BEBOT! Yeah, it was never anything but a name to me. There were some girls in my village who were called bebot. It’s just a nickname. Why? What’s wrong with saying bebot?

Me: Nothing, nothing at all mom.

For my mother it served no negative meanings. I wanted to know what my friends in the Philippines thought of the word, so I asked them.

Friend 1: Here in the Philippines, I’d only use bebot for close friends and use it only as a joke. Other than that, I don’t ever want to be called bebot because it’s something that ghetto people here would call chicks… it’s a bit derogatory depending on who uses it.

Friend 2: It’s not really so nice because it doesn’t [connote] respect.

As Grace-Sonia pointed out, a word becomes transformed over time. But it also changes when used in different contexts. In the Philippines, some people may think it is a word disrespecting women. Yet here in the US, bebot doesn’t hold as much power in the negative sense.

So why use bebot? To me, this word is a metaphor for the transnational Filipina. Whatever the original meaning of bebot, it has become transformed and adapted to the culture that it was transplanted to. By cultural definition, I am Filipina. Yet, by US standards, I am every bit an American. My passport is blue, I pay taxes in California, and I vote every four years for president. Yet, this doesn’t make me any less of a Filipina as those who live in the Philippines.

This blog site will help the three of us understand the transformed meaning of Filipino-ness and how identity can be defined by our different experiences, both in the Philippines and here in the US, more particularly, in California.

Do you get where I’m trying to go with this? I sure hope so, because this is all I can say about it.