Thursday, October 17, 2019
Folic acid and b12 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Folic acid and b12 - Assignment Example It is also significant in the synthesis of certain pyrimidines and purines which are important elements of the DNA (Wilton & Foureur 256). Determining the level of folic acid in the serum of individuals can help determine ones choice of folate supplement that may be recommended for them to help improve their nutrition status and improve their medical condition (De Wals et al 34). If the level of folic acid is very low, the individuals may have a weak immune system because of the low levels of white blood cells in blood. This may also imply that the individual with lower levels of folic acid have poor nutritional statuses especially in the case of alcoholics. In this case therefore, it may be significant to increase the level of folic acid of the individuals so as to improve their medical situation. The type of folate to be used in this process will be based on the needs of the individuals, for instance if the white blood cells is very low, the individual may be required to be given folic acid rich in vitamin
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
The Media in contemporary culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
The Media in contemporary culture - Essay Example Of course, different people have various opinions on why the advertising is effective. For example, Berger, who wrote Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture states advertising are a lottery, as it is still that nobody knows what advertisement will be effective and what will not. Berger adds that the advertisement executives believe that they waste half of money, spent on advertisements, but no one knows which half it is. (2000, p.2-3). Nowadays media is one of the most powerful instruments of forming the opinions of its consumers. Most of the marketing strategies that exist nowadays are built on the influences of the media. It is the irreplaceable instrument for selling things. Decades ago people bough what they needed, and their needs were dictated by their life conditions and financial status. It is nowadays that at first media creates the need in the specific product or group of products in people, and than they purchase the advertised thing. Thanks to the media people no longer buy things they need; they rather buy the attributes of the desired social status. Hirschman (2003) states that core societal values have an important role on advertising production and reception. Thus, to become fashionable, a product has to be promoted emphasizing its contribution to those societal values. Today media dictates people not only what they should buy, but also how they should behave, and what should they long for. Lindner, the author of the study, which analyzes the images of women in general interest and fashion magazine advertisements, states that: "advertisements often contain very subtle clues about gender roles and may operate as socializing agents on several levels. Because advertisements are publicly broadcast, the men and women portrayed are often perceived to represent the whole population, and men and women in the advertisements seem to accept these portrayed behaviors,
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
A journal Article Review of Children of Lesbian and Gay parents Essay
A journal Article Review of Children of Lesbian and Gay parents - Essay Example One major aspect concerning gay and lesbian families is the diversity of the family structure as apart from the couple other people might also be involved in the family structure if in case the couple decide to conceive a child using a donor sperm or a surrogate mother in case of lesbians and gays respectively. In some cases, heterosexual couples after having children might undergo a change in sexual preferences that might result in divorce and eventual legal problems about the custody of the children. Legal problems are also encountered when gay or lesbian couples who have adopted children decide to separate. To begin with, there is considerable variation among various states across the world in recognizing marriage between the same sexes. While a mere 5 states in the US legally recognize same-sex marriages, many other states recognize such marriages conducted in other states or offer limited recognition or do not support them at all. While there are civil unions for these couples i n certain states, they are denied of any kind of federal benefits. In most cases people who argue against legalization of same-sex marriages cite child rearing as a major reason. However laws have been more kind on the children of gay and lesbian parents as they are eligible for health care and insurance and would be protected by law if their parents are married legally. The legal issues surrounding the custody of children and visitation by such parents have also come under scrutiny citing reasons such as the parentââ¬â¢s relationship with a same-sex individual may have adverse effects on the mind of the children. The court rulings in this aspect in several states is divided as some courts have ruled a favorable opinion while others have maintained that individuals with same-sex partners would not make a good parent as it might have a bad influence on the child. While legal issues still loom large with respect to lesbians and gay people taking custody of their own children, laws
Monday, October 14, 2019
Critical Thinking Essay Example for Free
Critical Thinking Essay 1. Is it wrong to kill someone in self-defense? I think that ultimately itââ¬â¢s wrong to kill anyone no matter the situation. Do I understand killing someone in self- defense? Yes I do, if you are at your home and someone breaks and enters into your home and your safety and familyââ¬â¢s safety is jeopardized I feel that a person should protect themselves at all costs no matter what. Itââ¬â¢s not against the law for an individual to bear arms, unless they are a felon. But I believe that no person should not react if there life is at risk. 2. Should people be given equal opportunities, regardless of race, religion, or gender? Yes I do believe that no matter race, gender, or religion, everyone deserves a fair chance at success. Whether itââ¬â¢s applying for school, jobs, etc. I donââ¬â¢t think that these things can affect the way and individual works! I do believe in equal opportunity! 3. Is it wrong to ridicule someone, even if you believe itââ¬â¢s in good fun? Yes I do believe itââ¬â¢s wrong to ridicule someone even if itââ¬â¢s fun to you, it may not be fun to the person you ridicule. Whatââ¬â¢s funny to you can be very hurtful to the next person; you donââ¬â¢t know what the person your ridiculing has been through or what they are going through. I have seen and heard of people being ridiculed by someone and they have actually taken drastic measures as far as committing suicide or have gone on a killing spree. Killing the ones that have ridiculed them or put them through a lot allowing people to ridicule them. Itââ¬â¢s easy for one to look at someoneââ¬â¢s misfortunes and tease them and make fun of them. Just because you want to make yourself feel better. I think that people that do this are unhappy with their life, that they have to make otherââ¬â¢s feel bad about thereââ¬â¢s. Itââ¬â¢s not right and itââ¬â¢s not fair.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
The Public Relations Theory
The Public Relations Theory According to Johnsten and Zawawi (2004) on the public relations theory, they defined public relations as the principle and a strategic management functions which provides and to maintain mutually beneficial relationship of the company and the public in order to create a develop conditions and policy. In regards of this, public relations as a management functions in the company also has a big role and responsibility to assist the company in significant to achieve companys main objectivity. On top of that, the role of the public relation practitioners can be also classify as the ethical heart in every organization. They seek to be able to communicate with all of the significant publicans, not just in the internal but also external, in the effort to handle the company problems and to preserve the positive image of the company in public. When we talk about the code of ethics of public relations, Patricia J. Parsons on her book has defined ethic as The application of knowledge, understanding, and reasoning to questions of right and wrong behaviour in the professional practice of public relations (2004). The concept of ethics itself is fundamentally important to be kept and practiced by all of the public relation practitioners in carrying out its duties on professional lives. Even said so, there are several code of ethics are having in every public relation organization which every member are expected to abide and need to be understood when they carry out their job as a PR practitioners. Thus, the main objective of these codes of ethics is to perform a guideline to educate their members, so that they can easily to conduct and present themselves in a better way when they do their job in the professional lives. Based on Patricia A. Curtin and Lois A. Boynton (2001), they defined the ethical thoughts into two concepts, te leological and deontological approaches. The teleological concept is basically more into doing actions and by double checking the outcomes, because in this concept it simply believes that the end justify the means. While the deontological approaches, is more into doing a good actions by following the proper rules. Thus, this can be say that the concept is always reminds the public relations practitioners that they should provide the best results for company and society by following up the proper ethics when it comes to solve the problem. In these past few years, the ethical concept is become even more crucial and essential to be followed by the organizations and the companies to deal with the internal and external priorities. Basically, the code of ethics concept is always reminds by the nature of what should be valued and done by the public relation in their professional lives; which includes such as respects, public interest, openness, confidence and privacy, professional reputation, honesty, loyalty, credibility, and integrity towards the company and the society (Curtin and Boynton, 2001). In the professional lives, the public relation practitioners have a heavy task to share the truth and the actual facts to the society, without forgetting their main priorities to protect the companys image. When it comes to the honesty, it would reminds us with the main ethical rule to be observed by public relations is that do not ever tell a lie to anyone. Basically, it comes very naturally to say that public relations in thei r professional practices have a tarnished historical reputation by using some of the unethical way, including manipulative, misleading, spin doctoring, and lying. It comes to everyones mind that either the concept of lying can be identify as an ethical or unethical, moreover some of them may think either public relation practitioners should used the type of white lie to inform people? Are they a part of the ethics which should be followed by PR practitioners? We can not doubt that sometimes people may say lie to cover up mistakes and to protect the images of the company. But, we could not forget that the basic way of communication has taught us that communication is irreversible, which by means once we say something to people then we would not be able to un-say it in the future. However, we understood that the role of the public relation as the main foundation is to always protect the company, but also not to giving any harm or negative effect to society. This become a main reason of why PR practitioners should be able to find a good tactics in solving problems, by always keeping up the benefit conditions for both company and the society. One example of the ethical actions of public relations practices can be seen from one of the issues existed around the year of 2007 in Malaysia. During that time, it was reported that the Malaysians Health of the Ministry Department has announced all of the fast food advertisements to be stopped and banned with the immediate effect; including all of the print and electronic media advertisements from the multinational fast food company such Mc Donalds, Burger King, and KFC. The main reason of why the Malaysians Government was intended to banned all of the fast food advertisement was only to protect children and citizens; since the foods provided by the companies contains with the unhealthiest food, and it has caused the rising rates of the sicknesses in Malaysia, like obesity, diabetes, also hypertension among the people. Even though the issue was still under investigation and consideration, thus, it makes one of a fast food company in Malaysia, Mc Donald, feels aggrieved and unfortun ate caused by the situation. In the mean time, Mc Donald as one of the biggest multinational fast food company which also having a lot of branches in Malaysia, has given their comment in regarding of this problem. Based on the research provided about the case study, it was reported that the Managing Director of Mc Donald Company in Malaysia deplored the thoughts of the Malaysians Government who wanted to ban all of the fast food advertisement in Malaysia. Moreover, the Managing Director also stated that instead of banning all of the advertisement, the Health of Ministry Department should provide more information about the caloric and the nutritional content of the fast food to the Malaysians citizens. On top of that, Mc Donald also claimed that they are actively been promoting the healthy campaign by providing the new set of meals, such Grilled Mc Chicken and Soya Bean to maintain the healthy nutrition of the consumer. Moreover, the Managing Director also stated that in these past few days they would like to pro mote the new-brands of healthy food from Mc Donald, such as salad, fruit juices, and many more. In relation to the ethical concept, in this case, can be say that the PR of Mc Donald company is very professional as they did the right thing to handle the case. Based on Patricia J. Parson theory, she describes the five values of the public relations ethical theory that need to be recognize; which are veracity (truth telling), non-maleficence (no harm doing), beneficence (doing good), confidentiality (respecting privacy), and fairness (social responsibility). By looking out from the ethical perspective, they are trying to handle this case in a professional way as following the code ethics of PR practitioners. Actually, it is a fact that the fast food company is providing us with unhealthy and sell it mostly with the oily food which cause obesity and some other dangerous disease. In the meantime, Mc Donalds Managing Director as a PR did not denial the facts. Instead of that, they are trying to cover up the whole main issue to keep the image of the company, by gathering up the new fa cts that the company now has promoting the new sets of healthy menu for consumer, such the new set of Grilled Mc Chicken and Soya Bean. Another point that can be considered as a PR ethics is that, they are trying to respond the issue with caution and give a positive feedback to the Government by way willingly to attend meetings that have been on schedule by the Health of Ministry to discuss the whole issue. These steps can be says as preventive steps done by the PR practitioners of the company to avoid large losses without having to harm the other party. As a result of using these tactics, Mc Donald did not get much losses and still exists in Malaysia, as well as the consumer still enjoy with the foods provides by the Mc Donald. When we talk about the longer term impacts of either ethical or unethical concept of public relations towards the stakeholder, society, and the public relations itself; it can be say that having a trustworthy especially from society can be the strongest long term impact for either company or for the PR professions. Moloney Kevin (2006) on his theory has argued that, there is a mutual beneficial relationship between the organisations (the stakeholders) and the individuals (the society). He also stated that, The PR producer is involved with corporate ethics in another way as well. So basically, there is an indirect link between the personal ethics to the moral and philosophical values when they carry out their job as a PR, to keep the professional balance between organisational and the society as well. In simply says, society indirectly provides a major influence on the corporate survival. When the company and PR practitioners gained the real trustworthy from the public, it would autom atically help to give more profit to the company. Thus, we can not doubt that to get trustworthiness from the society, public relation practitioners are required to understand the real concept of the PR ethics. As already mentioned above, public relation practitioners during their professional lives are having a bad historical reputation, such by always using spin doctoring. This tactic has caused a bad image of public relations because some people may assume that this profession is just a form to deceit people. From here, it can be seen that ethical theory is very important for PR to create a new standard of good image in front of the public. As for conclusion of the essay, public relation is fundamentally important to establish the mutual beneficial relationship between the company and the society. In regards of this, public relations have a big role in business industries, to build a strong connection between organisation and the public. By seeing it from this perspective, we can say the ethical concepts are very important and still need to be followed by all of the public relations practitioners in every company, in order to obtain trustworthiness from society. Words Count: 1,769
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Rosalind Franklin :: essays research papers
Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Franklin lived during an exciting and turbulent era both socially and scientifically. Upon passing the admission examination for Cambridge University in 1938, at fifteen, Franklin was was informed by her affluent family that she would not recieve financial support. Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s father disapproved of women receiving college educations, however, both Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s aunt and mother supported her quest for education. Eventually, her father gave in and agreed to pay her tuition. Franklin would later prove to be worth her education. As Rosalind Franklin was pursuing her degree World War II raged. She focused her research on coal, the most efficient use of energy resources. Five papers on the subject were published before Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s 26th birthday. Further, Franklin had given up her fellowship to become a physical chemist at the British Coal Utilization Research Association at age 22. She was indeed an efficient and driven researcher. Franklin utilized the X-ray diffraction techniques (that she has become most famous for) while working in a Paris laboratory between 1947 and 1950, with crystallographer Jacques Mering. X-ray crystallography helped determined the three dimensional structure of DNA when Franklin returned to England. She became the first person to find the moleculeà ¡Ã ¯s sugar-phosphate backbone while working with a team of scientists at Kingà ¡Ã ¯s College in London. Unfortunately, leadership misunderstandings and personality conflicts depreciated Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s effectivness in the laboratory. Maurice Wilkins, the laboratoryà ¡Ã ¯s second in command, returned from a vacation expecting Franklin to work under him. Franklin came to the laboratory with the understanding that she would be researching alone. While Franklin was direct and decisive, Wilkins tended to be alluding and passive-aggressive. As Franklin made further advances in DNA research, Wilkins secretly shared her findings with the famous duo of Watson and Crick, who were then working at Cambridge. Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s discoveries fueled their research machine, allowing them to advance beyond others in the field. T hey would eventually publish on DNA structure in 1953. Due to discriminatory procedures at Kingà ¡Ã ¯s College, Franklin eventually left to become the lead researcher at Londonà ¡Ã ¯s Birbeck College--upon agreeing not to work on DNA. She furthered her studies in coal and made significant advances in virology. Franklin died in 1958 of ovarian cancer. She lived 37 monumentally significant years. After researching Rosalind Franklinà ¡Ã ¯s scientific career, I truly believe that she was a pioneer rather than a follower. Her early coal work is still referred to today; she helped launch the fields of high-strength carbon fibers; and was an integral part of early structural virology.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Masculinity in the Philippines Essay
In the imperial age, the military shaped society to suit its peculiar needs. Modem armies are complex, costly institutions that must ramify widely to mobilize the vast human and material resources their operations require. Since the armed forces demand the absolute obedience and, at times, the lives of ordinary males, the state often forms, or reforms, societyââ¬â¢s culture and ideology to make military service a moral imperative. In the cultural encounter that was empire, colonial armies proved as surprisingly potent agents of social change, introducing a major Western institution, with imbedded values, in a forceful, almost irresistible, manner. As powerful, intrusive institutions, modem armies transformed cultures and shaped gender identities, fostering rhetoric and imagery whose influence has persisted long after colonial rule. Above all, these armies, colonial and national, propagated a culture, nay a cult of masculinity. Recent historical research has explored the ways that rising European states reconstructed gender roles to support military mobilization. To prepare males for militaryà service, European nations constructed a stereotype of men as courageous and women as affirming, worthy prizes of manly males. In its genius, the modem state-through its powerful propaganda tools of education, literature, and media-appropriated the near-universal folk ritual of male initiation to make military service synonymous with the passage to manhood. Not only did mass conscription produce soldiers, it also shaped gender roles in the whole of society. Modern warfare, as it developed in Europe, was the mother of a new masculinity propagated globally in an age of empire through colonial armies, boysââ¬â¢ schools, and youth movements. As a colony of Spain and America, the Philippines felt these global cultural currents and provides an apt terrain for exploration of thisà militarized masculinity. Like the other colonial states of Asia and Africa, both powers controlled their Philippine colony with native troops led by European officers, an implicit denigration of the manliness of elite Filipino males. For the all-male electorate of the American era, Filipino nationahm thus came to mean not only independence but, of equal importance, liberation from colonial emasculation. Over time, a cultural dialectic of the colonial and national produced a synthesis with symbolism and social roles marked by an extreme gender dimorphism. When Filipino leaders finally began building a national army in the 1930s, they borrowed the European standard of military masculinity with all its inbuilt biases. By exempting women from conscription and barring them from officerââ¬â¢s training at the Philippine Military Academy, the Commonwealth exaggerated the societyââ¬â¢s male/female polarities. Once set in 1936, these military regulations and their social influence would prove surprisingly persistent and pervasive. It would be nearly thirty years until the armed forces recruited their first women soldiers in 1963; and another thirty years after that before the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) admitted its first female cadets in 1993 (Hilsdon 1995, 48, 51, 89; Duque 1981, vii). If we accept what one historian has called ââ¬Å"the emancipated status of Filipino women in the 19th century,â⬠then the prewar nationalist movement, with its rhetoric of militarism and male empowerment, may have skewed the gender balance within the Philippineà polity. In a Malay society with a legacy of gender equality-bilateral kinship, matrilocal marriage, and gender-neutral pronouns-this aspect of nationalism seems socially retrogressive.ââ¬â¢ Understandably, postwar historians have overlooked this glorification of masculinity and military valor in their sympathetic studies of prewar Filipino nationalism. Nonetheless, mass conscription shaped gender roles in the first half of the 20th century and fostered a rhetoric that pervaded Philippine politics in its second half. In deploying Europeââ¬â¢s cult of masculinity to support mass conscription, the Commonwealth introduced a new element into the countryââ¬â¢s political culture. Indeed, this engendered social order-propagated through conscription, education, and mass media-fostered imagery that would shape Philippine politics at key transitional moments in the latter decades of the 20th century. For well over half the fifty plus years since independence, the Philippines has been ruled by presidents who won office with claims of martial valor and then governed in a military manner. COMMONWEALTH A N D MASCULINITY The Philippine acceptance of this Euro-American model of masculinity provides strong evidence of the paradigmââ¬â¢s power. The successful imposition of this Westernized masculinity, with its extreme gender dimorphism, upon a Malay society with a long history of more balanced roles, makes the Philippines a revealing instance of this global process. Within twenty years, the span of a single generation, mobilization and its propaganda, convinced a people without a tradition of military service to accept conscription and internalize a new standard 1 of manhood. When tested in battle during World War 1, the generation of Filipino officers formed in this mobilization proved willing to fight and die with exceptional courage. Models of Masculinity During the two decades of this extraordinary social experiment, prewar Philippine institutions used two complementary cultural devices to indoctrinate the young into a new gender identity: a mass propaganda of gender dimorphism and a militarized form of male initiation. Among the many schools that participated in this experiment, t w v t h e University of theà Philippines (UP) and, a decade later, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA)-would play a central role as cultural mediators in constructing this new national standard for manhood. To translate a foreign masculine form into a Filipino cultural idiom, the cadet corps at UP and the PMA appropriated local traditions of male initiation, using them as a powerfully effective indoctrination into modem military service. Scholars of the Philippine military have often noted how the ordeal of the first or ââ¬Å"plebeâ⬠year serves to bind the PMAââ¬â¢s graduates into a class or ââ¬Å"batch with an extraordinary solidarity. The half-dozen doctoral dissertations on the Philippine military argue, in the words of a Chicago psychologist who observed the PMA in the mid-1960~~ that cadets form ââ¬Å"lifetime bonds. . . in the crucible of the hazing pro~ess.â⬠~ What is the meaning of this ritual with its extreme violence? Hazing, seemingly a small issue, has embedded within it larger problems of masculinity central to armies everywhere. In fieldwork around the world, anthropologists have discovered the near universality of male i n i t i a t i ~ nAround the globe and across time, many societies view .~ manhood as something that must be earned and thus create rituals toà test and train their adolescent males. Observing these rituals in the remote Highlands of Papua-New Guinea, anthropologist Roger Keesing offers a single, succinct explanation for the prevalence of harsh male initiation: warfare (Keesing 1982,32-34; Herdt 1982,5741). Similarly, at the m a r p s of the modem Philippine state, young men have long been initiated into manhood through ritual testing of their martial valor. In the 20th century, Muslim groups in the south have formed all-male ââ¬Å"minimal alliance groupsâ⬠to engage in ritualized warfare, while the Ilongot highlanders of northern Luzon require boys to pass ââ¬Å"severe tests of manhoodâ⬠by taking ââ¬Å"at least one headâ⬠in combat (Kiefer 1972; Rosaldo 1980, 13940). From an anthropological perspective, hazing becomes the central rite in a passage from boyhood to manhood, civilian to soldier. Filipino plebe and New Guinea adolescent pass through similar initiations to emerge as warriors hardened for battle and bound together for defense of the ir communities (Gennep 1960, vii, 11). Recent historical research has explored the ways that rising European states reconstructed gender roles to support mobilization of modern armies. By marrying anthropologistsââ¬â¢ universals to the historianââ¬â¢s time-bounded specifics, we can see how European nation-states, by making military service an initiation ritual, primed their males for mass slaughter on the modem battlefield. After Britainââ¬â¢s dismal performance in the Crimean War of the 1850s, headmasters at its elite ââ¬Å"public schoolsâ⬠began hardening boys for future command through sports. Indeed, Harrowââ¬â¢s head proclaimed that ââ¬Å"the esprit de corps, which merit success in cricket or football, are the very qualities which win the day in . . . war.â⬠A half-century later in South Africa, British troops faced difficulties subduing Boer farmers, raising questions about the military ââ¬Å"fitnessâ⬠of ordinary Englishmen. Responding to this perceived crisis, Lord Baden-Powell organized the Boy Scouts in 1908 ââ¬Å"to pass as many boys through our character factory as we possibly can (Mangan 1987, 150-53; 1981,2241; 1986, 33-36; Rosenthal 1986, 1-6). In his study of the cult of war in nineteenth-century Europe, historian George Mosse asks: ââ¬Å"Why did young men in great numbers rush to the colors, eager to face death and acquit themselves in battle?â⬠Simply put, they volunteered because the modern nation-state, through its poets and propagandists, made the passage to manhood synonymous with military service. To become a man in Victoriaââ¬â¢s England or Bismarckââ¬â¢s Germany, a young male had to serve. In the first months of World War I, this cult of war achieved a virtual florescenceà as young idealists hurled themselves into the slaughter. After 145,000 German soldiers died at Langemarck in 1914, one poet wrote: ââ¬Å"Here I stand, proud and all alone, ecstatic that I have become a man.â⬠Recalling this battle in Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler said: ââ¬Å"Seventeen year old boys now looked like men.â⬠Similarly, during World War 11, U.S. Army researchers found that American soldiers fought hard to avoid ââ¬Å"being branded a ââ¬Ëwoman,ââ¬â¢ a dangerous threat to the contemporary male personalityâ⬠(Mosse 1990, 15, 72; Stouffer, et al. 1949, 131-32). Not only did mass conscription produce soldiers, it also shaped gender roles in the wider society. To prepare every male for military service, European nations constructed a stereotype of men asà courageous, honorable, and physically formed on ââ¬Å"borrowed Greek standards of male beauty.â⬠By the 1920s, w omen were, through this century-long process, ââ¬Å"transformed into static immutable symbols in order to command the attention of truly masculine men.ââ¬â¢I4 Rhetoric of Colonial Masculinity Although the American colonial regime eventually played a central role in the formation of a Filipino officer corps, the US Army was initially hostile to the idea. During its first decade in the islands, the US Army was absorbed in a massive counterinsurgency campaign, and, like colonial armies elsewhere, denigrated the masculinity of its subject society. In little more than two years after their landing in 1898, the U.S. Army learned the same colonial lessons that the British and Dutch had distilled from two centuries of using ââ¬Å"native troopsâ⬠in India and Indonesia. Asian soldiers were, from an imperial point of view, welladapted to withstand the rigors of service in their own country. But only a European had the character required of an officer. As the editor of Englandââ¬â¢s Statesman wrote in 1885, educated Indians were ââ¬Å"wanting in the courageous and manly behavior to which we justly attach so high an importance in the culture of our own youth.â⬠Colonials often found dominant lowland groups both ââ¬Å"effeminateâ⬠and insubordinate. But certain ââ¬Å"martial racesn-such as the Gurkhas, Ambonese, or Karens-were thought capable of great courage under fire and fierce loyalty to their white officers5 In effect, there was an imperial consensus that certain native troops, when drilled and disciplined by European officers of good character, made ideal colonial forces. From the outset, the American commander in the islands, General Elwell S. Otis, felt, like most Americans of his day, that elite Filipinos were unfit for command. In an essay for a U.S. military journal in 1900, one American officer dismissed the typical officer in General Emilio Aguinaldoââ¬â¢s revolutionary army as ââ¬Å"a half-breed, a small dealer, a hanger-on of the Spaniards.â⬠Thus, when the US Army formed its colonial forces, the Philippine Scouts, the soldiers would all be Filipinos, but their officersà were to be white Americans selected from ââ¬Å"the line of the Regular Armyâ⬠(Woolard 1975, 13, 225; Franklin 1935). In sum, Americaââ¬â¢s high colonial rhetoric celebrated the special bond between American officers and their Filipino troops, and, by implication, denigrated elite Filipino character and capacity for command. Writing from retirement at the end of the US rule, one American veteran, Constabulary Captain Harold H. Elarth, offered a succinct version of this rhetoric. ââ¬Å"By fair dealing, unusual sagacity and confirmed courage,â⬠young American officers, ââ¬Å"pacified and controlled tribes that for 300 years had continuously warred with the Spaniards.â⬠This success, he explained, came from ââ¬Å"the psychology of the Malayâ⬠which inspired Filipino soldiers to follow their American lieutenants with ââ¬Å"adorationâ⬠(Hurley 1938, 298-99; Elarth 1949, 14-15). Nationalist Response In the early years of American rule, Filipino nationalists rejected this emasculating colonial rhetoric and made the training of native officers a central plank in their campaign for independence. By demanding officer training, the all-male nationalist movement challenged colonial assumptions that native men were, by racial character, unsuited for command. In the political rhetoric of the day, military drill would advance the nationalist cause by training officers for a future army and hardening the fiber of the countryââ¬â¢s youth. To assert their manhood, nationalist leaders seized upon any pretext for military drill, even service under the colonial flag. Only a few years after the Philippine-American War, certain colonials and nationalists began to cooperate in building a Filipino officer corps. In 1907, the fledgling Constabulary School at Manila graduated its first Filipino officers from a short, three-month training course and then moved to permanent quarters in the mountain city ofà Baguio for a more rigorous six-month curriculum. A year later, the U.S. Congress authorized the admission of Filipinos to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1914, the h s t Filipino cadet, Vicente P. Lim, graduated with an academic rank of seventy-seven among 107 cadets-an event of suchà significance that the Philippine Resident Commissioner, Manuel Quezon, made a special trip from Washington, DC.6 When America entered World War I, the Philippine Legislature voted overwhelmingly to raise a Philippine National Guard division and Senate President Quezon crossed the Pacific to lobby personally for Washingtonââ¬â¢s authorization. Even the War Departmentââ¬â¢s determined effort to block its mobilization until 11 November 1918, the very last day of war, could not dampen the Filipino enthusiasm for military service. Over 28,000 men volunteered. With bands playing and banners flying, the Philippine National Guard drilled for three months until it was disbanded in February 1919 (Woolard 1975, 170-84, 196). During the 1920s, the American colonial regime, in fundamental change of policy, began training Filipinos for command. After taking office as governor-general in 1921, General Leonard Wood, a career officer, mobilized the resources of the US Army to open officer training programs (Hayden 1955, 734-35). To train a first generation of Filipino officers, the US Army loaned instructors, rifles, and bayonets to the newly-formed military science departments at Manilaââ¬â¢s colleges and universities. Along with the weapons, these programs also borrowed an American model of the military male. Though the program spread to many schools, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of the Philippines (UP) remained, for over a decade, the largest and most influential. UP Cadet Corps Drill began at UP in 1922 when its Regents funded a Department of Military Science and Tactics, retained an active-duty U.S. Army captain as its chairman, and authorized an armory. Five years later, UP President Rafael Palma, a prominent nationalist, praised the Department for establishing ââ¬Å"the nucleus of a future national military organizationâ⬠(Panis 1925, 14-15; Palma 1924; Peiia 1953, 1-2). As Palma predicted, the ROTC program grew rapidly, adding field artillery in 1929 and machine guns six years later. After passage of the National Defense Act in 1935, the university acquired another 2,000 Springfield rifles and doubled its cadet corps to 3,304 trainee officers by 1938. Beyond drill and marksmanship, the program indoctrinated its cadets into nationalism. ââ¬Å"We need to make . . . our youth . . . so proud of their race and their democracy that they will die fighting for it,â⬠President Quezon told the UP cadets in 1937. ââ¬Å"We have all been trained,â⬠wrote the Corpsââ¬â¢ cadet colonel a year later, ââ¬Å"with patriotism ever so carefully engraved in our hearts by our military instructors, we are proud to say, as they would have us say, w e are ready.07 Other Manila universities followed these leads. While the publiclyfunded UP had the largest cadet program, the elite, Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila was proud home to the countryââ¬â¢s top drill corps. The 1923 Manila Carnival featured a drill competition by cadets from San Beda, the National University, and, of course, Ateneo and the UP. Along with basketball and baseball, close-order drill contests would remain a high point of inter-collegiate competition until the war. These parades, featuring what one UP cadet called ââ¬Å"thousands of virile young blood[s]â⬠¦rifles on their shoulders, gallantly marching to the time of their music,â⬠drew large crowds and sparked school ~ p i r i t . ~ By the early 1930s, a decade of reserve-officer training had encouraged an ideal of military masculinity among cadets at Manilaââ¬â¢s universities. At the UP, trainee officers articulated an ideology that equated masculine strength with national defense. ââ¬Å"A nation stands or falls, succeeds or fails, just in proportion to the . . . manliness of each succeeding generation,â⬠wrote a cadet in the 1931 yearbook (Viardo 1931, 381). Cadet sergeant Fred Ruiz Castro, a future Supreme Court chief justice, explained that military training helps ââ¬Å"engender the proper citizenshipu-notably ââ¬Å"courtesy to all especially to the old and to the weaker sex.â⬠In the 1935 UP yearbook, Castro and his comrade Macario Peralta, Jr., a future defense secretary, co-authored an essay arguing that drill molded the masculine virtues necessary to build the nation: ââ¬Å"From the Corps, graduate men steeped in patriotism . . . men who know their duties both to country and to God . . . men who are sound thinkers, strong hearted â⬠¦These are the men the country needs to cope with new problemsâ⬠(Castro and Peralta, Jr. 1935, 345). Reinforcing this gender dimorphism, UPââ¬â¢S all-male cadet companies barred women from drill but recruited them as ââ¬Å"sponsorsâ⬠to appear in formal, frilly gowns at full-dress parades. Illustrative of this imbalance, in theà late 1920s one of these sponsors gave the Corps a ââ¬Å"colorful orationâ⬠titled ââ¬Å"The Woman Behind the Man Behind the Gunâ⬠(Castro 1932; 355; Quirino 1930, 427). By 1936, the UP cadets had expanded their Corps of Sponsors toà forty coeds such as Miss Eva Estr ada, the muse of the Second Artillery Battalion and a future senator. On National Heroes Day, the UP cadets staged a mock battle in the cityââ¬â¢s main park, the Luneta. ââ¬Å"Planes sweep down from the clouds to drop their deadly bombs,â⬠wrote the college yearbook, ââ¬Å"men shoot, advance, fall . . . beneath the smoke the unseen drama of war with its horrors and victories.â⬠As male cadets littered Lunetaââ¬â¢s smoking battlefield, ââ¬Å"the Nursesââ¬â¢ Corps recruited from the ranks of the Sponsors rush to the field to give aid to the wounded and the dying.â⬠Among these all-male cadets, appeal to women, the defining opposite within this dimorphism, was deemed an essential attribute of future military leadership. ââ¬Å"The girls go for him in a big way (very big way),â⬠said the 1937 UP yearbook of cadet Major Ferdinand Marcos, ââ¬Å"so much so that most of the time he has to put up the sign ââ¬ËStanding Room Only.ââ¬â¢ Claims his heart is impregnable to feminine allure, and insists on calling guys who fall in love inebriated weaklings.â⬠Marcos himself internalized this gendered duality to write, after the war, of sacrificing his manhood to defend a feminized nation he calls Filipinas. ââ¬Å"We cursed ourselves . . . for having given up our arms and with them our manhood. . .,â⬠Marcos wrote of their wartime surrender to Japan on Bataan. ââ¬Å"Filipinas had welcomed us in spite of the disgrace of our defeat in Bataan. But it seemed that although she had smiled at us through her tears, she would not bind up our wound^.â⬠^ Harsh male initiation also became part of officer training at UP. Cadet Sergeant Macario Peralta, Jr., the future defense secretary, noted in the 1932 yearbook that the Corps had faced difficulties in ââ¬Å"breaking in the new cadets,â⬠but made sure that troublesome plebes ââ¬Å"receive sundry other polite attentionsâ⬠(Peralta 1932, 358). Peraltaââ¬â¢s yearbook biography, published two years later when he was cadet colonel, revealed the meaning of this euphemism. ââ¬Å"O ne year after the Colonel sprouted in the University campus, he commenced hazing the plebes and beasts with unrelenting inhumanity. He isà still at itâ⬠(Philippinensian1934, 396). Commonwealth Army In 1935, national defense suddenly became the most critical issue facing the Fhpino people. In Washgton, President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Philippine Commonwealth as an autonomous, transitional government with a ten-year timetable to full inde-à pendence. Under the National Defense Act, President Quezon made mobilization his top priority and committed a quarter of the budget to building a national army that would, by independence in 1945, have 10,000 regular soldiers backed by reserves of 400,000. In April 1936, some 150,000 Filipino men registered for the countryââ¬â¢s first draft and, nine months later, 40,000 reported for training. Within three years, over a million schoolboys were marching.I0 From its foundation in 1935, the Commonwealth, through military mobilization, intensified this process of gender reconstruction-encouraging a reinforcing array of national symbols, militarized masculinity, and domestic roles. With only a decade to prepare for independence and the burden of defense, the Commonwealth tried to fashion a masculinity that would sustain mass conscription. As it mobilized in the 1930s, the Philippines imported a Euro-American form of manhood along with the howitzer and the pursuit plane. To build popular support for a citizensââ¬â¢ army, the neophyte Philippine state deployed a gendered propaganda with men strong, women weak; men the defenders, women the defended. Just as the new nation was personified as the feminine ââ¬Å"Filipinasâ⬠in currency and propaganda, so young men were conscripted to defend her and her defenseless womankind. The government, in this transition to independence, slullfully manipulated public rituals and symbols to make a polarized gender dimorphism central to a new national self-image. We do not have to read against the grain to tease gender out of the Philippine Army, as if from some recondite cultural text. The key actors+ezon, Army Headquarters, and the cadets themselves-were quite self-conscious in their use of such imagery. The impact of militarization upon gender roles was most evident at the Manila Carnival-a grand, pre-war festival celebrating the fecundity of the land and the glories of its people. Like other pre-Lenten festivals across the Hispanic world, Carnival was a mix of the serious and frivolous, of celebration and reflection. Located at the heart of Manila, the sprawling Carnival enclosure held elaborate displays of provincial products such as rope or coconut. The two-week whirl of spectacle, society, and sport culminated in the crowning of the queen and her court at an elaborate formal ball. With the Philippines on parade, elite actors gained a stage to project images of nation and society before a mass audience. Before conscription, the queenââ¬â¢s coronation had been a lavish, highsociety affair-with eligible bachelors as escorts, whimsical Roman orà Egyptian themes, and matching costumes for court and consorts. Since the cityââ¬â¢s elites selected the carnival queen by jury or press ballots, winners were women of wealth, prestige, and intellect. At the 1922 Carnival, for example, Queen Virginia Llamas was escorted by her future husband Carlos P. Rom ulo, later president of the UN General Assembly. The queenââ¬â¢s consort at the 1923 Carnival was Eugenio Lopez, later the countyââ¬â¢s most powerful entrepreneur, just as 1931 queen was Maria Kalaw, the future Philippine senator and UN delegate (Nuyda 1980, 1920, 1922,1931). With the launching of the Commonwealthââ¬â¢s army only months away, the 1935 Carnival saw revelry and whimsy giving way to military symbolism and a serious debate about gender roles. To accornmodate its greatly expanded display, the US Army occupied ââ¬Å"an entire section of the Manila Carnival Groundsâ⬠for 400 linear feet of military exhibits and a replica of a World War I trench warfare complex (Tribune, 3,9 February 1935). The cadets of Manilaââ¬â¢s universities were honored with a large military parade, treated to guided tours of the military exhibit, and featured as the queenââ¬â¢s escorts. In this martial spirit, gender was on the march. At her coronation ceremony, the Constabulary band played a march while Queen Conchita I-walked between ââ¬Å"two files of University of the Philippines cadets with drawn sabersâ⬠to a throne where the US Governor General placed a crown of diamonds on her head and the ââ¬Å"admiring throng applaudsâ⬠(Tribune, 16, 21, 22 February 1935). On their night in this Carnival Auditorium, Far Eastern University students staged aà spectacular revue called ââ¬Å"Daughters of Bathala,â⬠with males forming an outer, protective circle while women in gowns whirled about in a ââ¬Å"grand finale . . . symbolizing the types of modern Filipino women from the suffragettes and debutantes to the thrill-girls of the cabarets and the boulevardsâ⬠(Tribune, 3 March 1945). Instead of the usual frivolous rhetoric about feminine beauty, the 1935 Carnival launched a national debate on womenââ¬â¢s rights. Speaking before the convention of the Federation of Womenââ¬â¢s Clubs, Senate President Quezon announced that the Constitutional Convention had just approved compulsory military service. He urged the nationââ¬â¢s women to assume ââ¬Å"the duty to mould the character of . . . youth that we may build up here a citizenry of virile manhood capable of shouldering the burdens of our future independent existence.â⬠And how was such a radical social reconstruction to be accomplished? Men would be called away for ââ¬Å"training in patriotism,â⬠but women,à Quezon said, should stay home to ââ¬Å"bring up upstanding, courageous and patriotic youngsters.â⬠Instead of being lulled by the ââ¬Å"sentimental glowâ⬠of his oratory, the Federationââ¬â¢s president, Mrs. Pilar H. Lim, the wife of General Vicente Lim (USMA ââ¬â¢14), co nfronted Quezon, demanding that he redress ââ¬Å"the injustice done . . . through the failure of the constitutional convention to insert a provision . . . granting the women . . . the right to vote.â⬠Quezon assured Mrs. Lim that he has ââ¬Å"always been in favor of granting this right to women.â⬠Indeed, two years later, under his presidency and through Mrs. Limââ¬â¢s leadership, a plebiscite on womenââ¬â¢s suffrage passed by an overwhelming margin.â⬠Over the next three years as mobilization intensified, each carnival accentuated the military symbolism and its supporting gender dimorphism. When President Quezon opened the towering gateway to the 1936 Carnival city, a full battalion of Philippine Army troops formed an honor guard while he ââ¬Å"severedâ⬠the ribbons with a specially-made native sword. In its Carnival coverage, the Sunday Tribune Magazine juxtaposed photo-essays of the military review (ââ¬Å"the steel helmets of the U.P. cadets glaring in the afternoon sunâ⬠) and the 1936 Fashion Revue (ââ¬Å"models resplendent in shining silver and satin.â⬠) For their night at the Carnival, the UP studentsà presented a richly engendered historical pageant, written by Dr. Carlos P. Romulo, featuring a cast of one thousand students (ââ¬Å"including seven hundred girlsâ⬠) and starring a woman student as ââ¬Å"Filipinas,â⬠the feminized symbol of the nation (Tribune, 15 February, 1 March 1936). Theme: After the establishment of the Republic, the nation will meet with difficulties and dangers, but it will overcome them all and thereby become stronger . . . Book of Time Revealed. Spirit of History ascends the stage from stage right and writes ââ¬Å"Commonwealth.â⬠111. Trumpets. Filipinas enters from stage left followed by people, including agencies, soldiers, dancers . . . IV. Spirit of Prophecy ascends from stage left . . . and . . . writes ââ¬Å"Republic.â⬠V. People cheer, bells ring, salute of guns . . . VIII. Invasion-all to arms. Battle. XI. Mourning dance. Filipina rises from the center of the floor, flag over her. National hymn is sung by all. I. 11. Despite such military inroads, the coronation of Queen Mercedes I featured the usual ââ¬Å"fantasy numbersâ⬠such as ââ¬Å"Parisian Laceâ⬠and the ââ¬Å"exotic South Sea Wastes.â⬠Her escorts were still society bachelors in white-tie and tails. A year later, the military symbolism was triumphant. At the 1937 Carnival, the queenââ¬â¢s escorts were now uniformed ROTC cadets. The queen now became ââ¬Å"Miss Philippinesâ⬠and her coronation, as its libretto indicates, was a martial drama of male soldiers rising to her defense as the engendered symbol of the nation. Scene I Triumphal entrance of the Army of Miss Philippines, sovereign of our cultural and economic progress, composed of officers and soldiers who will stage a military exhibition. Scene I1 Entrance of the Drum and Bugle Corps which will go through some military evolutions. Scene 1 1 1 The Drum and Bugle Corps will announce the arrival of Miss Philippines and her Court of Honor . . . Miss Philippines will be preceded by a group of pages carrying the crown and other presents, and another group of pages carrying her train . . . Scene IV The Drum and Bugle Corps announces that all is ready for the coronation of Miss Philippines. Scene V Ceremonies of the coronation of Missà Philippines, placing of the crown by His Honor, The Mayor of Manila . . . Scene VI Gun salute to Miss Philippines by her Army. Entrance of Foreign Envoys-Royal offering, etc. Scene VII Military evolutions by the Army of Miss Philippines and the Drum and Bugle Corps. Beyond the ballroom, the Carnivalââ¬â¢s sporting contests and the ROTC drill competitions proliferated in celebration of a physical, martial masculinity. Before a crowd of 40,000, for example, the Schools Parade featured girls in gowns riding on flower-covered floats while high school boys stepped past in ââ¬Å"uniforms and snappy marching [that] thrilled the watching t h o ~ s a n d s . â⬠~ ~ By the 1938 Carnival, the military parade had been transformed from a procession of students in their toy-soldier uniforms into an awesome spectacle of military might. With thousands of spectators packed along the boulevards, armed columns of Philippine Army, Philippine Scouts, and college cadets tramped past the Legislative Building as tight formations of bombers and pursuit planes ââ¬Å"roared overheadâ⬠(Tribune, 15, 16 February 1938). After its establishment in 1936, the Philippine Army deployed a similar dualism to build support for conscription among a people without a tradition of military service. As the date for draft registration approached, the Commonwealth plastered public spaces with recruiting posters. One depicted a statuesque Filipina, neckline cut low and bare arms outstretched for the embrace, calling on ââ¬Å"Young Menâ⬠to ââ¬Å"Heed Your Countryââ¬â¢s Call!â⬠Another asked, ââ¬Å"Which Would You Rather Be . . . this or that?â⬠-and then showed a snappy soldier smiling at two admiring women while a civilian male skulks in the rear, hands in pockets-a universal sipifier.I4 Then, at 8:30 A.M. on 15 May 1936, each provincial governor supervised an elaborate ritual to select the first conscripts for basic training. Before the public, the governor, flanked by military guards, placed the registration cards for all twenty-year old men in two large jars. ââ¬Å"Two young ladies, not over eighteen years of age, shall . . . make the drawing,â⬠read the Philippine Army regulations. ââ¬Å"These young ladies shall be blind-folded and shall wearà dresses with short sleeves-not reaching beyond elbowâ⬠(Commonwealth, Bulletin No. 17; Meixsel 1993, 301). So strong was the appeal of military training that four of the countryââ¬â¢s leading legislators, including presidential aspirant Manuel Roxas, volunteered for the first Reserve Officersââ¬â¢ Service School (ROSS) in mid-1936. In this commencement address to this class in September, President Quezon explained that officers were to serve as the nationââ¬â¢s models for patriotism and new, virile form of citizenry (The Bayonet 1936, 94, 98). The good officer. . . , wherever he is, . . . spreads the doctrine of loyalty, of respect for law and order, of patriotism, of self-discipline and education, and of national preparation to defend our country. . . . Our whole nation will become more firmly solidified, more virile, more unselfishly devoted to promotion of the general welfare, as our officer corps grows in quality and strength, and the results of its efforts permeate to the remotest hamlet of our country. Philippine Military Academy Forming such an officer corps was the most difficult part of this mobilization. As Quezon put it, ââ¬Å"the heart of an army is its officers.â⬠Along with buying rifles and building camps, the creation of this army required, as the president was well aware, the construction of officers as exemplars for a new image of the Filipino as warrior. To form such leaders, the Defense Act provided for the establishment of a Philippine Military Academy at Baguio for the education of career officers. This academy was, in the words of the Commonwealthââ¬â¢s vice-president, ââ¬Å"the foundation stone of the entire military establishment,â⬠providing ââ¬Å"the leadership necessary to knit together a scattered and loosely connected citizen army into one whole, living, pulsating, homogenous machine that can fight with courageâ⬠(Scribe 50; Osmefia 7-8, 10). In establishing his new academy, Quezon, through his military advisers Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, chose the US Military Academy at West Point as its model. Transporting the West Point system, with all of its peculiarities, from the bluffs of the Hudson to the mountains of Baguio entailed cultural adaptation. From the perspective of the PMA staff, the new academy would socialize the cadets through its formalà curriculum and a four-year progression from neophyte to command. To succeed, however, these formal processes rested upon rituals and symbols that would make the academyââ¬â¢s abstractions meaningful to teen-aged Filipinos. Drawing upon the countryââ¬â¢s culture of masculinity, cadets used rituals of male initiation and group solidarity to reinforce the PMAââ¬â¢s institutional imperatives. Through a fusion of the West Point curriculum, faithfully reproduced by the PMAââ¬â¢s staff, and informal innovations by these Filipino cadets, an American academy became a viable model for a Philippine institution (Love11 1955, 316-21; Wamsley 1972, 399-41 7). To ensure that its cadets would be archetypes of masculine beauty, the academy barred applicants with ââ¬Å"any deformity which is repulsiveâ⬠or any who suffered from ââ¬Å"extreme ugliness.â⬠Medical examiners had to insure, moreover, that an applicantââ¬â¢s face was free from any ââ¬Å"lack of symmetrical developmentâ⬠or ââ¬Å"unsightly deformities such as large birthmarks, large hairy moles, . . . mutilations due to injuries or surgical operationâ⬠(Commonwealth of the Philippines 1937). To mould these exemplary males, the PMA became a total institution that would, like West Point, leave a lasting imprint upon everyà graduate (Janowitz 138; Goffman 1961). The PMAââ¬â¢s 1938 yearbook thus described the Tactical Department and its drill instructors as ââ¬Å"a veritable forging shop in which the raw and crude materials are . . . purified of their undesirable qualities.â⬠In their song P.M.A. Forever, cadets celebrated their academyââ¬â¢s capacity to make men (Sword 1938, 46-48, 104). Within the walls of old and glorious P.M.A. Theyââ¬â¢re molded to the real men that they should beMen who can face the bitter realities of life With courage even in the midst of bloody strife. As centerpiece in the nationââ¬â¢s gender reconstruction, the PMA indoctrinated its Filipino cadets into a Euro-American ideal of military manhood. With its alien curriculum, the PMA, more than any Philippine institution of its era, aspired to a cultural transformation, a remalung of its cadets on a European model of mascuhity. The academy made its imprint through a program of moral formation through body movement, incessant supervision, and formal in doctrination. In its own words, the PMA taught ââ¬Å"soldierly movements to inculcate prompt obedienceâ⬠inà daily marching; ââ¬Å"knowledge of ballroom ethicsâ⬠with weekly waltz lessons; and ââ¬Å"self-reliance, poise, initiative, judgment, enthusiasm, and disciplineâ⬠in gymnastics (Commonwealth 1938,1619). Filipino cadets reshaped imported values through their own culture of masculinity, malung hazing the PMAââ¬â¢s central rite of passage-from civilian to soldier, from plebe to cadet. Entering plebes arrived at the academy from communities with their own rituals of male initiation and expectations for manhood (Rosaldo 1980, 35-37). In many lowland villages of the 1930s, adolescent males passed through an initiation, such as circumcision, and had elaborate codes for masculine friendship epitomized in peer groups called barkada. In the villages of Central Luzon, for example, Tagalog males who joined tenancy unions during this decade were tested in an elaborate midnight ritual that branded each on the upper arm with a poker plucked white-hot from a raging bonfire (Fegan 1995; See also Blanc-Szanton 1990, 350). Growing up in such poor communities, many future members of PMAââ¬â¢s Class of 1940, the first products of this new school, were familiar with these masculine rites of testing and bonding. One classmate, Francisco del Castillo, recalled in his autobiography for the classââ¬â¢s 50th reunion Golden Book, that he often missed class in high school to join ââ¬Å"youth who did nothing but form gangs to fight other gangs for su-premacy in the municipality of Vigan.â⬠In a later interview, he added that his reputation as ââ¬Å"a local championâ⬠in ritualized knife fights, attacking with the right hand and defending with a towel wrapped tightly about the left, made him the ââ¬Å"leaderâ⬠of the townââ¬â¢s west-side gang. Asked if his gang practiced any sort of initiation, del Castillo replied that ââ¬Å"you let him do a certain errand and see how brave he isâ⬠(Mendoza 1986, 178; del Castillo 1995). For PMA cadets, hazing and the broader experience of plebe initiation served as a transformative traumaââ¬âcoloring the subsequent academy experience for individuals and uniting a new class through shared suffering. During their first months, plebes were subjected to an unbroken regimen of running, recitations, and drill under nameless, powerful upperclassmen. Arriving during summer recess when the main activity was their initiation,à incoming plebes faced the harsh, unwavering attentions of the second-year cadets, or ââ¬Å"yearlingsâ⬠-still aching from their own humiliations that had ended only weeks before. After the initial ââ¬Å"beast barracks,â⬠the hazing subsided into a constant, low-level harassment that continued for another eight months until the upperclass ââ¬Å"recognizedâ⬠them as full members of the Corps. Surviving this abuse left cadets with a strong sense of personal pride and class identity. Writing in the Golden Book, Class ââ¬â¢40ââ¬â¢s Cesar Montemayor recalled their plebe year as ââ¬Å"a one-year initiation period full of rites, rules and requirementsâ⬠that instilled ââ¬Å"desirable manly and military qualitiesâ⬠(Batch 36 Golden Book, 110-11). In showing how the Commonwealth constructed a new masculinity at the PMA, we cannot ignore the impact that this mobilization and its prop aganda had upon ââ¬Å"the whole orderâ⬠of gender roles in an emerging nation (Morgan 1994, 169-70). Despite its isolation in the mountains of Baguio, the PMAââ¬â¢s training of these young males had lasting implications for the whole of Philippine society. The school served, in effect, as a social laboratory, a crucible for casting a new form of Filipino masculinity. Through hazing, study, and drill, the academy pounded young males into a foreign mold of military manhood. By parading before the masses in Manila and acting in Tagalog films, these prewar PMA cadets projected this image of masculinity into an emerging national consciousness. Only a year after the PMA opened, a Manila film crew shot a two-reel documentary, titled The West Point of the Philippines, which, the cadet yearbook reported, was ââ¬Å"now being featured at the Ideal Theatreâ⬠and was ââ¬Å"taking Manila by storm.ââ¬
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