Level of acceptability of the Contemporary Filipino Pang Masa Songs to Employees of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the level of acceptability of the Contemporary Filipino “Pang-masa” songs with sexual innuendos or with double meaning to employees of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW)

With this study, NCRFW could gain significant views on the effects that the songs might have on society and the latter’s perception of women. Data were gathered from 78 (85.72%) staff members belonging to supervisory technical and administrative levels through a survey questionnaire and interviews. The study was mostly represented by 79.47% females and males were only less than one-fourth of the total respondents. Results obtained revealed that the songs Labi sa Labi (55.12%) and Sisirin (38.46) sung by Mystica and Diwata, respectively, have a low level of acceptability to employees of the NCRFW. Intervening variables somehow helped in determining the level of acceptability – more females (35.90%) categorized the Labi sa Labi as not acceptable at all, while males (11.56%) rated it as not so acceptable.

Undoubtedly, religion greatly affects the level of acceptability of the songs. All of the seven (7) Born Again Christians did not accept the songs. Likewise, members of other religions such as Catholic, Baptist and Iglesia ni Cristo, gave the same evaluation. That is not acceptable at all.

The length of service, on the other hand, did not really affect the acceptability level of the respondents.

Respondents shared common remarks on the songs’ general description – they were offensive, demeaning to women and has gender biases that could perpetuate the negative portrayals of women in the media. Moreover, respondents mentioned that some principles such as of the church teachings, the principles of valuing quality delivery of information and communication, social norms, the principles of equality between sexes and women’s rights, and the principles that the Beijing Platform for Action has been promoting were violated by these songs.

Overall results showed that the “pang-masa” songs were not really acceptable to employees of the NCRFW. Nevertheless, it is suggested that this study should be supported by another research of the same content and set of songs involving another group of respondents. Thereafter, a comparative study could help deepen the need to analyze the Contemporary Filipino “Pang-masa” songs explicit to sexual innuendos in terms of message content, such that they convey messages which are not incriminating/discriminating to women or men.