Every struggle is intersectional. The fight for accessible education, for example, demands you to think of class hierarchy, geography, and ethnicity. Similarly, feminism demands a more all-encompassing approach that accounts for LGBTQ+ rights and racial contextualization. Clearly, intersectionality is ideal everywhere, including the discussions of the gruesome and tumultuous Martial Law era of the Philippines.

The primary point of exposure to the atrocities, if available, comes in the form of neatly stated statistics painting blood-stained pictures of the so-called golden years. One can consider themselves lucky to even know a thing or two about the true awfulness of the regime, given the sheer amount of propaganda and historical revisionism. However, “Beyond the ‘Gloss and Discipline’: Martial Law as Written by Women Journalists in the Philippines,” an exhibit at the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALiWW), seeks to combat the ignorance and shift the discussion to a new but equally important angle – that of female journalism.

The installation was located at the ALiWW, and it showcased newspaper and magazine clippings of women-led reportage during the Martial Law Era. Journalist Paulynn Sicam described the time as “gloss and discipline,” pertaining to the strong feminine tone of the courageous reporting she and fellow female reporters offered at the time. An opening ceremony to unveil the exhibit was held on September 18, three days before the anniversary of Marcos Sr. declaring Martial Law in the country. The exhibit was available for viewing from then until September 30.

The event served to show the importance of continuing to remember the Martial Law era while giving a platform for female voices and narratives to shine through – a rarity for general and Martial Law-related commemorations. To monumentalize the exhibition, an esteemed panel of guests such as author and journalist Jo-Ann Maglipon ushered in the exhibit’s inauguration.

The joint effort between ALiWW and the Ateneo Martial Law Museum and Library primarily exhibited archival papers in glass cases. Enclosed within the display were annotated transcripts and newspapers written and documented by female journalists such as Leticia Jimenez-Magsanoc and Paulynn Sicam. However, a highlight of the exhibit is the website displaying digital scans of the reportage at the time. Clippings from fashion magazines, national broadsheets, and campus newspapers were available. These documented school-wide boycotts, profile interviews of the female Marcoses, and protest haute couture available on the runway.

Headlines and quotes such as “utang ina mo” and “brod, this is it – the revolution” took on a more casual tone than usual. These still feel familiar to a contemporary audience, serving to humanize the reportage of the gruesome period of Filipino history. Even so, the candid nature of the reports did not take away from the severity of the era’s crimes and atrocities. Instead, they communicated witty messages to a youthful audience at a time when there have been many efforts to curtain press freedom.

Noticeable in Filipina reportage of Marcos’ Martial Law are flamboyant descriptions of the period’s figureheads. As the exhibit details, female reporters were marginalized and limited to producing fluff pieces about home life and pageantry, making them default to a frivolous tone in their reportage. This approach proved to be useful and fitting in accurately portraying the Marcoses’ shameless enjoyment of their exorbitant excesses. For example, feminine reportage, or as Sicum says, the “gloss and discipline,” allowed people to better see the personalities of Imee and Imelda Marcos for what they truly were: unapologetically pompous and self-serving underneath their socialite-like personas.

There is value and importance in showing these sides of the story as every Marcos played a role in making marginalization and inequality evident in the country. It was quite the irony for members of the family to indulge themselves in expansive shoe collections and artistic pursuits while the country was struggling under the oppressive administration. The inclinations and intricacies of the female Marcoses could be best captured by female reporters, whose womanhood allowed them to examine and critique these figures without resulting in the misogyny that chauvinist male reporters were known to propagate against the demographic they dubbed as “newshen.”

A woman’s place, after all, is in the revolution, which journalist Anna Leah de Leon claims to be “glamorous.” The exhibit effectively documents the stories of Martial Law and the Marcos administration in a novel manner while highlighting the misogyny that added more layers to the fight for freedom of speech, expression, and the press. Ultimately, “Beyond the Gloss” presented the landscape of the Martial Law era while shedding light on the plights of women and students as well as class struggle, proving its commitment to intersectionality.

Ally studies Communications Technology Management at the Ateneo de Manila University – a flowery way of saying marketing, where marketing is the accountant parent-approved way of saying she wants to make a living out of telling stories. To avoid completely falling into corporate slavery, she writes essays and articles published on Rappler, Young STAR, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, and The GUIDON. She has concretized her interest in Korean pop culture with a minor in Korean Studies because to her, ambition ceases to exist without some form of obsession.

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