論文

Gender Relations in the Contemporary
Retelling of the Tales of GrandmotherBasyang: Going Beyond Gender
Stereotypes and Gender Roles
Leilani Ogalesco DE VERA

Chapter 1: Introduction
Children’s picture books are considered by educators, parents, and other caregivers to be an invaluable tool for developing children’s language skills(Dickinson, et al., 2012). Children’s picture books, unlike textbooks, can beacquired and read by children even when they are very young. So, even whenchildren are not yet in school, they can get exposed to picture books and get
started early with developing their language and communications skills.
However, language development is not the only function of children’s picture
books. It may be one of the goals of the writers, but consciously or
unconsciously, the makers of these books contribute more than that to theyoung readers of the books. John Stephens (1992), a scholar in ideologicalcritique of children’s literature, states that children’s books have an impulse tointervene in the lives of children. This can be considered as part of the didactic
characteristic of children’s books, but scholars like Stephens look at it as some
sort of attempt to socialize children. Stephens explains:“The use of story as an agent of socialization is a conscious and deliberate
process. In practice it ranges from the didactic extremes of ‘bibliotherapy’,
books which purport to help children confront and deal with specific problems
in their lives, to books with no obvious intent to be exemplary. Every bookhas an implicit ideology, nevertheless, usually in the form of assumed social
structures and habits of thought.”(Stephens,1992, p.9)

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This places children’s books, then, in a very important place in ideologicaland cultural acquisition. And as such, children’s picture books increasingly wereused not only to entertain children but also to teach them good moral behaviors
and practices.

1. 1 Feminism’s Role in the Development of Children’s Literature: Start of the
Academic Interest in Children’s Literature
During the 1970s, at the height of the Second Wave of Feminism, a study
done by Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, & Ross (1972) became one of pioneer studies
on gender representation in children’s literature. In this classic study entitled
Sex-Role Socialization in Picture Books for Pre-School Children, the researchers
looked at Caldecott Award winning books from 1967 to 1972.
Caldecott Award is a recognition given by the Association of Library Service
to Children, a division of American Library Association to “the artist of themost distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the UnitedStates” (American Library Association, 2022). The award-winning books werechosen for they are deemed the very best and of high quality. However, after
tabulations of the number of male and female characters in the title, central
roles, and illustrations, the authors found out that women are greatly
underrepresented in these award-winning books. The researchers called thisphenomenon “the invisible female” (Weitzman, et al., 1972, p. 1128). Even whenfemale characters can be found in the books, they often play insignificant roles,
remaining both inconspicuous and nameless (Weitzman, et al., 1972). The study
also found that in books where women do appear, their characterization
reinforces traditional sex-role stereotypes: boys are active while girls are
passive; boys lead and rescue others while girls follow and serve others. This
study also concluded that girls and women depicted in the chosen CaldecottAward winning books are dull, and received attention and praise for their
attractiveness, while boys are admired for their achievements and cleverness.
After this first look at gender representation bias in children’s books, several
more studies looking at women portrayal in children’s literature followed. Somelooked at other format of children’s picture books like children’s coloring books(Fitzpatrick and McPherson, 2010), while others looked at the material culture
used in picture books representing gender roles (Crabb and Bielawski,1994).
These studies found out that picture books and coloring books studied contain2

Gender Relations in the Contemporary Retelling of the Tales of Grandmother Basyang: Going Beyond Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles

men and women with gender stereotypical roles and traits: women being
passive, gentle, mostly doing indoor activities, and are often in possession ofhousehold items like kitchen utensils; men being active, mostly outdoor, and inpossession of productive items like machines, industrial tools, etc.
Other studies followed the same methodology of Weitzman et. al, which istabulating the number of women in the title, in the stories, and in theillustration. (McCabe., Fairchild, E., Grauerholz, L., Pescosolido, B. A., & Tope, D.,
2011; Hamilton, M. C., Anderson, D., Broaddus, M., & Young, K., 2006; Williams
Jr, J. A., Vernon, J., Williams, M. C., & Malecha, K., 1987). McCabe, Fairchild,
Grauerholz, Pescosolido and Tope (2011)’s study found from their comprehensive
look at picture books from the 1930s-2000s that there are disparities in gender
representation and the pattern in representation shifts with the gender politics
of certain times. For example, the picture books after the 1970s show lesser
gender disparity compared to the books in the 50s and 60s. Hamilton, Anderson,
Broaddus, and Young (2006), on the other hand, found out that modern picture
books (1990s-2000s) continue to “provide nightly reinforcement that boys andmen are more interesting and more important that are girls and women”.
Williams J.A., Williams M.C., and Malecha (1987) share the same findings in theirstudy of picture books for pre-school children. In their research, Williams andothers suggested that the girls and women depicted in the picture books are adull and stereotyped lot.
As more studies looking at gender representation in literary text continue toexpose biases and gender inequality in texts, contemporary writers tend to be
more careful in their depiction of men and women. Writers for children’s books
are mindful of balancing the visibility of all genders in their stories, as well as
they roles and attributes.

1. 2 Limitations of Fairy Tales and other Traditional Literature
The inclination to be mindful of the gender representations in children’s
literature, like picture books, are more easily implemented in contemporary
stories that are set in a more modern time. This trend can be difficult to apply
in stories that are more traditional. Traditional literature includes folktales,
fairytales, myths, legends, and fables. These stories tend to be more time boundand must have some specific elements. The characters mostly include royalties,
settings in feudal or medieval times, and practices including chivalry and other

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patriarchal beliefs.
Traditional picture books or picture books of fairytales are therefore sites
thought of to contain general gender biases because of their traditional origin.
Studies like that of Fisher and Silber (2000) which look particularly on women
portrayal in this sub-genre of children’s literature demonstrate this claim. This
research found that women in fairytales, even with lead characters, tend to becompliant, patient, and with beautiful outward appearances. As for those
female characters who are self-serving, rebelling against societies’ rules, andwillful, fairytales usually portray them as evil, or witches and they usually meettheir demise at the end of the story.
Perhaps because of this pattern in many fairytales and folktales,
contemporary writers are now retelling some popular traditional fairytales andgiving them an updated touch by rewriting the female characters to become
more empowered and have more agency. However, not all of them are able to
do so effectively because as Kuykendal and Sturm (2007) argue, they merely userole reversal, with the sole intention of disrupting the binary genderconstruction. The result is a fractured fairytale, instead of a feminist fairytale. A
fractured fairy tale or folktale is a story that has been modified in such a waythat it gives unexpected characterization, plot development, or contrary point ofview (Kinsella, n.d.). This role reversal can be considered to reinforce genderstereotypes more as they assign the “weaker” traits associated with one gender
to the other. The intention might be to give a different perspective, but it canalso be instilling in the readers that some traits are “negative”, instead of
accepting them as part of being human. Examples of this “negative” traits arebeing soft-spoken or gentle, being associated with women. When role-reversal isdone and they are assigned to men who are “saved” by stronger women, this
only reinforces the gender stereotypes that being soft, or gentle is inferior tobeing strong or aggressive.
These pitfalls and limitations of traditional children’s literature can beconquered. Some writers use the fantasy or magic element of traditional
literature to reconfigure the representation of genders and show more
contemporary gender roles and attributes. But others go beyond these andfocus more on balanced power relations among genders. This change inperspective in representing gender in literary texts can be connected to what
Connell (1987) says about gender identity formation. She says that gender

4Gender Relations in the Contemporary Retelling of the Tales of Grandmother Basyang: Going Beyond Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles

identity formation is more complex than just having the external factors like
looks, attributes, and roles affecting the personality or identity of people. She
reasons that thinking this way fails to recognize both the complexities of theperson and the dimension of social power. In place of this thinking, Connell
suggests to “treat gender formation as the effect of an encounter with power
and necessity rather than normative prescription” (Connell, 2013, p.191). This
study aligns with this thinking and as such will focus on gender relations among
story characters and how power is manifested in them.

1. 3 The Research Subject: The Retelling Series of The Tales of GrandmotherBasyang
Three retellings taken from the series of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang
have been chosen by this study to show and illuminate the effective use ofgender relations in fairy tales and folk tales. The three retellings were chosenbecause of a common theme among them, marriage between parties of different
power positions. However, before the three retellings have been picked out, thewhole series of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang had been selected because theseries of Grandmother Basyang has a long historical background that makes it amajor part of the Philippine Children’s Literature.
The series or Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang originally written by Severino
Reyes are made up of 400 traditional Filipino stories inspired by folktales
around the world. Traditional Filipino literature is a literary genre, that’s justlike the western traditional literary counterpart, started in the oral traditions(Traditional Literature, 2015). The series of Grandmother Basyang are considered
to fall under the traditional Filipino tales’ category despite being influenced by
the Western literature because they feature fictional characters found in
traditional Filipino myths, fables, trickster tales, folktales, and tall tales.
The three retellings in this study are part of the 400 original stories written
as part of a weekly magazine section of Liwayway Magazine in 1925. Liwayway
Magazine is the first all-Tagalog magazine in the Philippines and is thecornerstone of a chain for vernacular weekly periodicals in the country (Lent,
1953). Liwayway Magazine mostly printed fiction and in this magazine, the seriesof The Tales of Grandmother Basyang started to be shared to the reading public.
And since around the period of 1920s, weekly magazines are getting more
popular in the Philippines, The Tales of Grandmother Basyang started to be known

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among the Filipino readers.
Despite the strong presence of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang in thePhilippine popular culture in its early day, there was a short time that they had
been forgotten because of American pop culture influx in the Philippines (likeDisney movies and American literary books). The stories found their way backagain in the consciousness of the Filipino people in the 1940s after the WorldWar II, in comic form. Then, the stories had been made into movies, to radio
dramatization, to television shows, to musicals and ballet performances, and toits most recent resurrection, in picture books.1 The resilience and continued
relevance of this series make Grandmother Basyang a household name and thestories are considered cultural legacy. Parents, educators, and care givers often
use these stories to read to children, even at a young age.
Popular culture also makes references to Grandmother Basyang and helps
sustain interest of the younger generation in this series of stories. This strong
presence in the Philippine society makes it an interesting site for exploration ofgender representation and gender relations.
It should be noted that even though the subject of this study are thecontemporary retellings, the original stories are not included because the focus
is not how the tales have been revised or retold, but the gender relations
among the story characters. Another reason is that the original stories thatcame in the 1920s are already out of print and are not in picture book form.
The contemporary retellings are the selected subjects because they are theones that are accessible to the Filipino children, both in the physical andtextual/visual sense.

1. 4 Purpose of the Study
This study hopes to show that traditional literature like the retellings of The
Tales of Grandmother Basyang, originally thought as sites of biased genderstereotypes and gender roles, have the potential to become a place ofempowered representation of women through balanced gender relations.
This study hopes to achieve this by giving a background and context of the
topic in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 lays out the existing studies on The Tales ofGrandmother, gives a brief description of the Method of Analysis, and explains
the use of theory of gender relations and power continuum as analyticalframework and tool in discussing and analyzing the gender representations in

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the picture books. Chapter 3 shows the retelling summaries and analysis.
Finally, Chapter 4, the conclusion, gives a summing up of the study.

Chapter 2: Tools of Analysis
2. 1 Review of Literature
Although the series is a key figure in the Philippine Children’s literature, notso many studies have been done on the series. And of those that are published,
only few touched on the gender aspect of the series.
One of the few studies was done by Katrina Gutierrez (2009). The history of
the Philippine literature is very much connected to our colonial past and thestories of Lola Basyang are often thought to have post-colonial literary
attributes. In Gutierrez’ study, she refutes the label of post-colonial text on theseries and calls them glocalised text instead. Glocalisation is a literary
movement that appropriates the global literature and localize them, taking theforeign element and giving them local flavor. Gutierrez focuses on examinationof glocal manifestation in the retellings and The Tales of Grandmother Basyang by
Christine Bellen. She suggests that the glocalisation process done in theretellings contributes to the continued reconfiguration of Filipino identity. In her
discussion of how this happens, she touches on women characters of the series
and how they show non-stereotypical gender attributes, like warrior-like,independent, and strong-willed. This glocalised women representation, Gutierrez
claims, contribute to the identity building of the Filipino children.
Another study that touches on the gender aspect of the series is that ofGarces-Bacsal, Tupas, and Hernandez (2016). This study, just like that ofGutierrez, does not really focus on gender representation in the retellings of The
Tales of Grandmother Basyang, but discusses it in part as it explores the main
claim of the authors. The study puts forward that idea that the retellings of theseries of Lola Basyang are subversive and decolonizing as the characters andplots show symbolic disruptions of the established system of the colonial
heritage of the Philippines. One of the disruptions given are the stronger
representation of women as independent, headstrong, as opposed to the colonialconcept of Filipino women as meek and weak.
Both studies discuss the progressive representation of women in the retellings
but talk heavily on the images of women in the stories. They took the divergent

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image of strong women in some stories from the series and relate them tosubversion to the normative image of feminine modest women of western
fairytales. Both studies applaud the retellings for breaking away from thestereotypical ways and roles of women. These two studies did not inquire on
the relationships between and among the characters. However, as Connell (1987)
points out, breaking apart from the gender roles that have been prescribed by
the society is not enough. What might be needed in liberating the women in
their oppressive situation calls for more than being presented with a range ofroles that women and men can have. What might be needed might be morethan role reversal or showing that men and women can do most things in thesame way or capacity. Liberating women in their oppressive situation calls formore than that. It calls for the examination of their relations, for this is where
power lies, and where power is involved, oppression comes as well. In this study,
the focus will be exactly that, the discussion and analysis of the gender relations
between the characters in the retelling of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang.

2. 2 Method of Analysis
To find out the gender relations among the characters in the picture books
retellings selected for this study, critical content or text analysis is used. Studies
involving literary texts often use the method of literary analysis which focuseson what the authors do such as character development, symbolism, narrative
patterns, etc. (Galda, Ash, and Cullinan, 2000). This study departs from that andfocuses on critical content analysis. Critical content analysis focuses on what the
text is about, considering content from a particular theoretical perspective suchas gender (Beach, et. al, 2009). This critical content analysis is carried out in the
study by putting the summaries and analysis next to each other to makecomparisons, references, and discussion easier to understand.
Also, in the analysis and discussion of the retellings, both the texts(words)
and the illustrations will be used but only the term texts will be used for the
purpose of consistency.

2. 3 Analytical Framework
The retellings of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang are discussed and analyzed
in this study using the guidance of the Theory of Gender Relations and a power
positioning tool called the Power Continuum.

8Gender Relations in the Contemporary Retelling of the Tales of Grandmother Basyang: Going Beyond Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles

A. Theory of Gender Relations
In the realm of feminist scholarship, the idea that there is a connection
between gender and power is not something unfamiliar (Oldersma & Davis,
1991). This is because of the pervasiveness of gender inequality and women
subordination in the life of many, if not all, people. One of the early feminists
who explored this connection is Kate Millet who introduced the notion of sexual
politics and the idea that relations between sexes could be defined as a politicalissue (Millet, 1969). Going along this shift on focus on the relations among
genders is another feminist thinker, Nancy Chodorow. She argues that gender
is a theoretical construct rather than a natural order. As such, the locus ofsexual asymmetries could be shifted from nature to social relations, in which
gender relations a big part of (Oldersma & Davis, 1991). Another sociologist
who argues in the same vein is the feminist sociologist Raewyn Connell who
thinks that the inadequate conceptualization of gender tenders gender relations
as a more viable site in explaining gender inequality. She also thinks thatgender formation and gender identity are more than the internalization ofnorms and societal prescriptions because these norms and social prescriptions
vary and thinking that individuals just passively take in these norms andprescriptions undermine the agency of the individual (Connell, 1987).
Following the thinking of these feminist thinkers, gender relations is being
used as the analytical framework of this study because it assumes that if
gender relations in the society is a site to focus on to explore and analyze
inequality, it can also be used to explore, discuss, and analyze gender inequality
in children’s literature. This study uses the theory of gender relations to discussand analyze the gender representation in the contemporary retellings of thestories of Lola Basyang because a balanced gender relations or the relations of
power among story characters could also mean a more equitable gender
representation.
Literature is made up of gendered characters in relations to one another. In
these relationships, gender identity can be gleaned by the young readers. The
fictional relations may be too simplistic or far from the real structure of thegendered society the children of today are part of. However, as simplistic aschildren’s literature’s relations are, they still mirror struggles and conflicts, andjust like real struggles and conflicts in real life, there is no standard outcome.

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The outcomes can change due to the conditions that give rise to them. So, there
can be many different outcomes. From these outcomes, more empowered andbalanced gender identities can be derived. The potential of shaking up theexisting gender order in which women (and other marginalized genders) are
oppressed can be realized.

B. Power Continuum
As mentioned above, when dealing with relations, power is always involved.
And discussion of power should be more than the discussion of the dominating
and oppressed only. Power relations is not limited to this power dichotomy. For
this reason, this study will use the tool of Power Continuum, an analytical tool
adapted from Critical Multicultural Analysis of Botelho and Rudman (2009). Thispower positioning tool helps locate how power is exercised, circulated,negotiated, and reconstructed in a story (Botelho and Rudman, 2009).
Power Continuum has different power positions because it assumes thatpower between and among genders are fluid and changing in different parts ofthe story. These different points or positions are “Domination”, “Collusion”,“Resistance”, and “Agency” (Botelho and Rudman, 2009). When examining theretellings, the words and actions of the characters will be looked at according tothese positions. This will help make the relations of the characters more visiblefor interpretation.
The first position in the continuum is that of “Domination”. It is the exercise
of power over social circumstances. This position’s attributes include
dehumanization, victimization, imposition from external sources, and unequal
power based on race, class, and gender. Sometimes, the domination occurs defacto because of existing social constructs and systems. Sometimes, it isinterpersonal and used to manipulate the behavior of the particular individuals.
It is always dehumanizing: unequal voice, participation, decision-making, andaccess (Ibid, p.118).
The second position is “Collusion”. This position differs from domination,
mostly in the characteristic of internalized oppression or domination. Collusion
may be conscious or unconscious. Colluders remain silent even when they haveknowledge of wrongdoing. Towards the end of the continuum of collusion,
colluders become conscious of their power to take action, while conspiring with

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dominant ideologies to gain power and gain agency. Domination and collusion
can be conscious and/or unconscious. Resistance and agency must be conscious.
(Ibid, p.119).
The third position is “Resistance”. Resistance is active questioning; it is thequintessential power construct of poststructuralism (Ibid, 119). It is the power
position that questions why the Domination is happening. Like a typicalpoststructuralist, a resister would interrogate how the Dominator came to be in
his power position and who/what allowed him/her to be there. It is nothaphazard nor purely reactive. “It is an unwillingness to be universalized andessentialized. It is by definition oppositional to imposition and coercive power. It
is speculative. It challenges discourses” (Ibid, 119). Bronwyn Davies claims
resistance as the “shaking up” by new discourses (Davies, 2000).
The last position is “Agency”. Agency is initiation and power. Agency ideallyresides with all classes, genders, and ethnicities. Agency is all-inclusive andcomplex. An agent can be an agent as well as another subject position. Being
able to read multiple discourses is part of agency, as well as holding
contradictory discourses (Botelho and Rudman, 2009, p.119). Botelho andRudman quote and agree with Bronwyn Davies (2000) that “agency is neverfreedom from discursive constitution or constructedness of self but the capacity
to recognize the constitution and to resist, subvert, and change the discourses
themselves through which one is being constituted” (Davies, 2000, p.67).

Chapter 3: Retelling Summaries and Analysis
The three retellings chosen for this study are The Maiden Who Defeated theKing, The Prince of the Birds, and The Prince with Long Nose. These three
Grandmother Basyang retellings have been chosen from the twenty picture booksin the contemporary series because of the similarities in the main conflict of thestory: marriages/finding love. Marriages and finding love are staple of fairytales
and other traditional stories, but these three retellings are picked out becauseof the way the female characters relate to other characters of other genders inaddressing this issue. These different relations will be discussed and analyze inthis section.

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3. 1 The Lady Who Defeated the King
(Summary)In the Kingdom of Tondo, there was a lady named Sharay who was famousfor her beauty. She was every man’s dream girl, including the son of the Datu
Abdul. Sharay also liked the Prince but Sharay was a daughter of a slave, andthe law of their land prohibited the marriage of two people from different
classes.
The Prince told his father that he loved Sharay not just for her beauty but
also for her kindness and intelligence. However, Datu Abdul still refused to letthem be together and devised a plan to break up the two by testing Sharay’s
intelligence.
He came up with many tests for Sharay, telling her that if she would passthose impossible tests, he would let her marry his son. The king gave her three
impossible tasks, but Sharay was able to outsmart the king in each of thosetasks. In the end, he allowed Sharay to marry his son, the prince, for he knewthat she would be able to help his son rule the kingdom someday with her
intelligence.
(Analysis)
Sharay, the female lead in this story, is a great example of a female characterin the “Resistance” position in the power Continuum. Sharay knew her position
in society, a child of a slave, but she was also cognizant of her potentials andcapabilities. She was aware of how famous she was in kingdom because of her
beauty, but she also knew that she had good judgement and reasoning. This
showed when she confidently accepted the difficult quizzical tasks given to her
by the King/Datu. She actively used what she had in her disposal, her wit andlogic, to resist the impositions of society that one should only marry within her
own class (she was a known beauty in the kingdom and could marry anyone
except for the Datu’s son). In the end, she proved that she was more than what
her beauty reputation and social position was, and was able to break down thenormative rule of marrying within one’s class only.
The Prince, just like Sharay, was also resisting the existing social imposition
that he only get to marry women of royal lineage. He was against it, and hemade his resistance known to his father and to Sharay. However, unlike Sharay,
he wasn’t the one who was directly being challenged so his resisting gestures
were not as ‘grand’ as Sharay. His resistance was not showcased as something

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that used superb thinking. Contrary to that, he was shown as someone who waslovestruck and constantly dreaming of being with Sharay. Nevertheless, hedidn’t take the refusal of his father sitting down and that still put him in the“Resistance” position. In the end, he and Sharay were able to have their way of
being together.
The Datu/King, on the other hand, was an archetypal figure of a character in“Domination” position. He was opposed to the wish of his son and Sharay to getmarried, so he used power over them. He gave Sharay tasks that he knew
would be impossible to be accomplished. Fortunately, Sharay knew ways tocounter the impossibility of those tasks. In the end, he lost to Sharay so heconceded and allowed them to be together, admitting that Sharay would help
his son in governing the kingdom in the future. This adjustment of the King/
Datu moved him to the “Agency” position, where he was willing to share powerwith Sharay and his son, the Prince, to rule over the Kingdom.
In this story, the main dominating power was represented by the King. When
the King yielded to Sharay, this was a big gesture and showed that Sharay’s(and the Prince’s) resistance triumphed. In this way, this retelling demonstrates
that femininity, wit, and persistence to defy an unfair law can triumph and win
over restrictions by the society. This retelling demonstrates that even adominated-over character can rise up, resist, and eventually gain Agency, andthis movement can be achieved even with while having female stereotypical
traits of softness and beauty.

3. 2 The Prince with Long Nose
(Summary)
There was once a King who was in love with a beautiful princess. He wanted
to marry her, but the princess kept refusing him, saying that she wasn’t readyto marry anybody yet. The King consulted a wise hermit as to how he could
convince the princess to marry him. The hermit told him that the princess was
actually under the spell of a giant disguised as the princess’ pet cat. The only
way to break the spell and free the princess to marry her true love was to stepon the cat’s tail until it loses its power. The King did exactly what the hermit
told him to do. He stepped on the cat’s tail for as long as he could even when
the cat was clawing and fighting him. The cat turned into a giant and cursed
the King and the princess. He cursed the couple to have a child with a long

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nose, just like a cat’s tail.
After the King and the princess got married, they had a child. The child had
a long nose as the evil giant predicted. The King and the Queen felt bad for him
and to protect him, they only hired people with long and strange-looking noses.
The prince grew up then thinking that most people looked like him, except for
his own parents with short noses. However, one day, he was able to escape thewatchful eyes of his guards and was able to go out of the palace. There he saw
how most people looked. He also saw a beautiful princess who was taking astroll. Sadly, the common people who finally got to see how he looked like madefun of him. The beautiful princess heard the mean words said to him andinvited the prince to walk with her.
The King and the Queen heard about this kind gesture of the princess anddecided to pay the princess’ family a visit to personally thank her. However, in
their kingdom, the Prince with a Long Nose was also made fun of. The Princess
took pity of him and touched his nose, and with this magic touch of the princess,the long nose came off. The curse of the evil giant was lifted by the touch of theprincess.
(Analysis)
Most of the characters in this story are dominated over at different points inthe story, whether the characters were direct holders of power or not (most of
the characters are royalties so they had power over the subjects of their land).
However, most of them resisted their way out of the domination, some resortingto the use of authoritarian power or magical power.
One of the characters in the story who was dominated over despite being aholder of power himself was the King. In the beginning of the story, the Kingwanted to marry the then Princess but couldn’t because of an evil spell on her.
He was dominated over by this evil spell, but he found a way to resist this. He
used magic to defeat the evil giant who had the Princess under spell and action
showed that he moved from being dominated over to the “Resistance” position
to “Agency” position when he was able to finally break the spell, free thePrincess from the enchantment, and marry the Princess. In the middle of thestory, the King, joined by the Queen, once again were dominated over by the‘curse’ of the evil giant of having a son with a long nose. The King and theQueen showed some resistance to the power of the evil spell by making somechanges around their son (like changing the portraits of their family members

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into people with long noses) but their actions to ‘resist’ the power of the curse
and the judgement of people were not enough to liberate their son. They weremore like quick fixes.
The removal of all the painted pictures of their family, the hiring of palace
workers with strange looking noses, and the limitation to go out for the prince
all just shielded the Prince with Long Nose to realize how different he was,instead of making him realize that being different was okay. Their way ofresisting is not as empowering as the actions of another character in the story
who was in the “Resistance” position: the Princess of the other Kingdom. The
Princess of the other kingdom resisted using more “active” gestures, such as
telling off the people who were making fun of the prince’s appearance. She also
invited him to walk with her to save him from the jeering and judging eyes ofhis kingdom on one time that the Prince got out of the palace and was exposedto the people of his kingdom. Another big gesture from the Princess of theother kingdom was her touch. She didn’t fear the ‘backlash’ that her touchmight give her, considering that the prince’s nose was the one part of his bodythat was strange. When the Prince with Long Nose was made fun again when
he visited the kingdom of the Princess, the Princess made a big gesture ofphysically touching his nose to show everybody that his nose is not strange. As
a result, the spell was broken.
In this story, the readers can see that there is a balance in the display of‘saving’ and ‘being saved’ relationship. Both genders in this story were
‘dominated over’ by magical elements. The first one was the beautiful princess
who was under the spell of the evil giant, and the prince with long nose who
was cursed by the same evil giant. However, we can see that this retelling
didn’t make use of the typical “men save women” route only. Instead, it showedthat both men and women could save each other. Women could save men, justlike how the Princess broke the spell of the long nose of the Prince. Men could
also save women, just like how the King broke the enchantment of the beautiful
princess in the beginning of the story.

3. 3 The Prince of Birds(Summary)In the kingdom of Tongkian, there lived a princess named Singsing who was
known for her kindness and love for the common people. She liked to walk and

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mingle with them. She was well-loved and everybody wished for her to have agreat partner in life.
One day, the King, told her that it was time for her to get married. Princess
Singsing told her father that she would like to marry her lover. The King didn’tknow anybody who had a romantic relationship with the princess, so he washappily surprised to know that she already had a lover. However, when Princess
Singsing finally introduced her lover, her father was shocked because theprincess’ lover was a bird! Although he was the Prince of the Birds, the King
still couldn’t believe that his daughter was in love with a bird.
Princess Singsing told the King that her beloved bird could turn into a humanbeing if he wanted to. Sadly, the King still disapproved and refused to let
Princess Singsing marry him. At this same time, the Kingdom of Tongkian was
besieged with many problems. Princess Singsing and the Prince of the Birds
helped the King solve those problems, hoping to change the King’s mind about
their marriage. The King initially agreed but he changed his mind after the
problems were solved. Because of this, the Prince of Birds got disappointed anddeclared to the King that he initially planned to turn himself into a man had theKing allowed their marriage. However, since the King kept going back to hiswords, he would rather stay as bird who honors his words than become a man
like the King who goes back to his words. After hearing this statement,
Princess Singsing decided to stay with the Prince of Birds forever, than stay in
the Palace. And with her declaration, Princess Singsing magically turned into abeautiful colorful bird and flew away with the Prince of the Birds.
(Analysis)
This story started with most main characters in the “Agency” position.
Princess Singsing was free and could do many things and didn’t experience any
impositions from his king father or other people. This was clearly shown in theways she interacted with the people of their kingdom. She could walk among
the common people with no chaperone. She chatted with them and was notprevented from mingling with them despite her being a lady of the palace.
However, in the middle of the story, this freedom didn’t last. When Princess
Singsing introduced her lover to her father, the King, was very shocked andangry. He was shocked because the lover of her beloved daughter was a bird!
He was the Prince of the Birds but was a bird, nevertheless. He was angry
because her daughter, Princess Singsing, chose a bird for a lover when she

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could have chosen anybody from the kingdom. As a result, Princess Singsing
moved to “Resistance” position from “Agency” position. Being in the“Resistance” position, Princess Singsing didn’t let the domination of her father
stop her from being with her lover. She resisted and actively sought ways
convince her father to be with her lover. She actively bargained with her father,with the help of the crisis that besought the kingdom, like marauding evil
giants.
These actions of the princess fully demonstrate how Rudman and Botelho(2009) described resistance. Princess Singsing resisted power by actively
questioning the oppressive decision of the King and by showing unwillingness
to be like other princesses who marry their own kind.
Sadly, she couldn’t fully convince the King. So, as a final act of defiance andresistance, she chose to become a bird herself and flew away with the Prince of
the Birds. This final act of Princess Singsing freed her and moved her back to“Agency” position. Princess Singsing’ decision to give up being a princess and ahuman being so she could be with her lover put her back to the “Agency”
position in the power continuum.
The King, on the other hand, started out in the “Agency” position just like
Princess Singsing, but moved in the “Domination” position from the middle andstayed there until the end of the story. The King was initially just and was nota tyrant of a ruler. He was also a loving father who didn’t put limitations to
Princess Singsing’s movements or decisions. However, this position changed in
the middle of the story when Princess Singsing finally introduced to him herbird of a lover. He was shocked with the idea of having a bird for a prospective
son-in-law and could not accept the absurdity of it. He was overwhelmed by thisemotion and his feelings moved him from “Agency” position to the “Domination”
position. He was so strongly opposed to the marriage of her daughter with abird that he lost his trustworthiness and went back on his words of letting
them get married if they helped in solving the problems affecting the kingdom.
He refused to agree to the marriage even though the Prince of the Birds
repeatedly help save the kingdom from many problems that besought it.
It can be argued that the King’s actions were done out of his fatherly loveand hope to have Princess Singsing a happy life. It could be seen as benevolent
domination, and this came with his role both as a King of their kingdom and afather to the princess, but it was still power over them. He refused to allow

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them to get married to the point of going back to his words. He used
manipulation and lies to get his way, and these are usual strategies of people
occupying the “Domination” position (Botelho and Rugman, 2009). In the end,
this led to the loss of trust of his daughter and the Prince of Birds.
The Prince of Birds was a magical creature who had ability to change into
human if he wished to. The readers didn’t get to see a detailed description of
his character, but the fact that the princess fell in love with him could be used
to infer that the princess saw in him some good qualities. This inference could
be confirmed when he helped the King and the Princess to solve the problems
that set upon the kingdom. Despite him being a bird, he had a good romantic
relationship with Princess Singsing. This shows that during their relationship,
he was in the “Agency” position. He felt no restrictions despite him being ofdifferent species from the princess. However, when the King refused to have
his marriage with the princess, just like the princess, the Prince of Birds lost his
agency as he could not freely do what he wished to do, that is to marry theprincess. He quietly questioned the Kings decisions and actively sought ways toearn his approval by helping him protect the kingdom. This active pursuit ofwhat he thinks was fair put him in the “Resistance” position in the power
continuum. However, at the end, when the King continued go back on his
words, he decided to seize back his agency and declared that he won’t turnhimself into human anymore for humans don’t honor their words. This set him
free and took his power back.
In this story, the gender relations among the characters relay that both
women and men have a say in how they live their lives and can actively work
to keep it if other people would prevent them from doing so. This story thenshows an empowering kind of relationship, for both genders, and challenges thepatriarchal ideology of fathers deciding what would be best for their children.

Chapter 4: Conclusion
In this study, the characters in the selected stories from the series are
discussed and analyzed using the lens of gender relations and power. Gender
relations is a rather new perspective of looking at women and men (and othergenders too) in the children’s literature and representation in general. While
women visibility and gender stereotyping in children’s literature are sites to18

Gender Relations in the Contemporary Retelling of the Tales of Grandmother Basyang: Going Beyond Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles

explore when searching for places of inequality in literature, visibility andstereotypical representations are not the only areas where gender inequality is
being manifested. The way men and women relate and interact with each otherin the stories like fairy tales, and the way power is acquired, contested, or lost,
show a clear and effective picture of the presence of gender inequality.
Power holders, both in a dominating position or collaborative position (agency),
can show continued prevalence or emerging contestation of patriarchy or maledomination. Power, in a patriarchal society, is usually associated with men, so
when women characters show agency and power in the picture book retellings,
this is seen as an act of breaking down the oppressive domination of men in the
narratives. This breaking down of the system is shown in the three selected
retellings of The Tales of Grandmother Basyang. The women characters in theretellings show that they have agency in choosing to marry the person theywant to be with, can hold on to this agency position despite problems, or moveinto agency from a dominated-over power position. Marriages in traditional
literature usually are social practices that are structured with the power
advantage of men (like princes and kings choosing and taking their wives). The
three retellings in this study show that it doesn’t have to be this way. Women
characters can destabilize traditional contexts by showing behaviors that break
restrictions. Women characters can initiate the physical contact and break thespell (The Prince with Long Nose); they can choose a lover of different species (The
Prince of Birds); and they can outwit and out-talk a King who set up difficult
tasks (The Lady Who Defeated the King).
The stereotypical representation of women in traditional literature of being
subjected to societies and men’s rules (like princesses would need to follow
their fathers and women slaves would need to follow everybody) might havenot been eliminated as the retellings need to keep its traditional contexts andcharacter features. However, the retellings were able to go around the
traditional female stereotypes and empower the women characters by creatingplots that give women agency and ability to change their power positions inrelation to the dominant gender in the stories. In this way, the threecontemporary Grandmother Basyang retellings provide a course of action fortraditional story writers to create usually disempowered genders (most often
the women and other non-male genders) to have more power, control of theirlives, and more equitable power relations with other genders.

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In this study, I laid out the power positions of the different story characters
to show how effectively written decisions and actions that balanced out power
relation among genders can challenge gender inequality, gender roles, andstereotypes. The discussion and analysis I laid here is a template that can beapplied to other traditional literary genres (like fables, tall tales, or myths) andcan be used as a conversation starter with readers that can hopefully lead to a
discursive analysis of the gender relations in literature and in life.
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Notes
1	The Tales of Grandmother Basyang has taken many different forms. Its first form, written byits original author Severino Reyes in 1925, was in a form of short stories serialized in aweekly magazine called Liwayway. In 1949, Pedrito Reyes, the son of Severino Reyes, revived the tales in comic book form and appeared in the early issues of Tagalog Klasiks. In
1958, Sampaguita Pictures used one story from the comic-form of The Tales of Lola Basyang
and made them into a movie. A few decades after, in 1985, another movie was produced
based on this series. This time, it was a trilogy and was produced by Regal Films. In
1997, a renowned poet and literary critic (Bienvenido Lumbera) sifted through the original manuscripts of Severino Reyes and chose 30 stories and rewrote them in a book anthology form. This book anthology placed the series of stories of Severino Reyes among
the acclaimed Filipino literary pieces. In 2006, Anvil Publishing House asked Christine
Bellen to make a picture book out of the stories Reyes. After that, PETA also sought thehelp of Christine Bellen to help produce a musical/stage play based on the picture bookseries. In 2007, GMA Television bought the rights to televise the story series. (Almario,
et al., 1994).

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Abstract

Gender Relations in the Contemporary
Retelling of the Tales of GrandmotherBasyang: Going Beyond Gender
Stereotypes and Gender Roles
Leilani Ogalesco DE VERA
Since the start of the Second Wave of Feminism in the 1970s, several studies
examining the extent of women’s presence and portrayal in children’s literature
have been conducted. These studies pointed out the imbalance in the
representation of gender in children’s literature, like picture books. However,increasing the visibility of female characters in children’s literature andportraying less stereotypical attributes are not the only ways to better
represent women. Another way, and perhaps the more effective way, especiallyin traditional stories like folktales and fairytales, is to have equal power
relations with other genders in the narratives. This study hopes to bring gender
relations into picture as an effective way to equally represent genders inliterary texts. This study looks at three selected Filipino picture books from theseries The Tales of Grandmother Basyang originally written by Severino Reyes andretold by Christine Bellen. The selected books showcase that gender relation isa stronger and a more viable way of representing women in children’s
literature, specifically in traditional narratives. The stories will be examinedusing the lens of gender relations and a discussion on why this approach togender representation is stronger than just breaking down gender stereotypes
and gender roles will be given. The discussion and analysis will be informed by
the analytical framework of Theory of Gender Relations and the analytical toolof Power Continuum.

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