"We have the voice and power to show our own pride."
By Nijel Matthew Aquino
Foreign-made stories featuring Filipino people and culture have always been a source of pride for our countrymen, with positive reactions and comments praising the creators for featuring Filipino content. In a country with millions of active netizens, one is bound to stumble upon at least one video or content featuring our culture, and how people from other countries appreciate the Philippines and everything in between.
But when these content creators use our culture for their gain or benefit, that is not a source of pride anymore, as it would amount to exploitation. The popular term for this is called “Pinoybaiting”, a portmanteau of Pinoy and clickbaiting, the latter meaning deliberately producing content to gather clicks or attention. With this, the definition of Pinoybaiting would be the creation of content aimed to attract the Filipino audience for attention, or much worse, for profit. This is possible due to some online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube paying content creators when their videos amass a certain amount of views.
Not long ago, Nas Daily and the man behind it, Nuseir Yassin, made headlines for allegations of exploiting the legendary Filipino tattoo artist Whang-od through his online learning platform NasAcademy. Whang-od’s granddaughter claimed the online course “Whang-od Academy” was fake. Yassin insisted it was not — they had signed a contract consenting to the release of the online course.
The plot thickened with other personalities accusing Nas Daily of his alleged disrespect, which was met with opposing views between the accuser and the accused, turning the whole situation into a fiesta of finger-pointing. Through all of this, Nas Daily has been accused by numerous Filipinos online of Pinoybaiting.
Beyond these issues and problems, there are some things to be noticed. First of all, the intention was good – to feature Filipino people and the work they do. After all, Filipinos and our culture deserve global recognition in this age of globalization.
But when it comes to profiting using Filipinos and their culture, that is where things go awry. A mere P750 for the legendary tattoo artist’s way of doing her craft just seems wrong. Besides that, Whang-od has mastered the art of tattooing through years of experience, and it is fair to say that it is unsightly to be sold off as an online course by a foreign man. While he already claimed that their intentions were not exploitative, the act of selling a part of indigenous Filipino culture, as well as the seeming lack of knowledge regarding laws and regulations surrounding indigenous artists such as Whang-od is proof of exploitation and disrespect.
Perhaps one thing we can learn from this whole mess is that admittedly, we Filipinos love it when we’re in the spotlight, and we brag to the world when our culture has been noticed. We comment “Pinoy pride!” in videos and articles that foreigners make about us.
Still, that is not an open invitation for cultural exploitation.
There are and will always be foreign content creators and personalities who will try to capitalize on Pinoybaiting through the use of flowery language and sugar-coated remarks on our culture and identities. It is also unavoidable that there will be those who will continue to feature anything related to Filipino culture, but they should know that to be respectful, they should let the people and the culture speak for themselves, and not through how they perceive it to be.
Filipinos need not pay attention to such content, as we have the voice and power to be proud of our culture without the need for gratification from foreigners. After all, the value of “Pinoy pride” would be much greater if done through our efforts.
The author is a senior year journalism student from the University of Santo Tomas.