Womyn

By Roger B. Rueda

March is month for womyn. There should have been one. I mean womyn should be recognized of their contributions in nation-building. They deserve it as most of our key posts in the government and private offices are held by womyn. And in awarding men of their outstanding performance, some womyn emerge amongst them. For instance, in the presidential service award and award-giving bodies sponsored competitions, some of the winners have been womyn. Sharon Cuneta lately has been awarded as one of the TOYM of the Jaycees.

Well, womyn now have been holding key roles in our society. They are respected as men are. They are entrusted because womyn like men are also talented and intelligent. But of course some do not because of the belief that men are suprahuman than womyn. Men are superior to them.

In literature for instance, amongst male national artists, there is Edith Lopez Tiempo. Her works are unparalleled and she still continues to promote literature in English by directing National Writers Workshops. Her poetry is universal—yet singular, too. One can find varied experiences because of various readings one can have. Her writing presents a different purple prose and her literary theories are very sound. I mean she is sensible of how to capture the miniature of today's world and fossilize it into books.

Amongst Filipino female fictionists, I enjoy Jessica Zafra. She is queer—or a real geek. She writes with passion though subtle because of her neologism. She gropes in the dark dredging new words and dumps them into her readers' brains. I mean if one were Jessica's reader, it wouldn't be substantial to him or her if the writer uses plain Jane words. It should be high falutin yet with correct verbiage. She has a lot of reads in bookstores.

I also love Rosario Cruz Lucero's history-based fiction. Speculations and real stories of the past are given life in her fiction which most of its locales are during those times of sugarcane cutters in Negros. Being used to urban stories, other young writers and I have to explore her fiction. She is like dredging out antique-like stories and saving it to young writers' and readers' brains.

Lakambini Sitoy's stories are focused on the urbanites and urbanism. She is one of the voices of today's generation. She has neoteric styles. I like her phraseology, too—its planate.

Zenaida B. French's poetry is very ornate and romantic. She is tolerant of her ideas yet does not condone literary conventions. Have you read previous issues of Free Press and Busay issues? Then you can say.

In the government service, BFAR's regional director is a demimonde—Dr Sonia V. Seville. She is operative and extends her service by teaching graduate schools. Students following the mark of her foot, have only to benchmark from her practice. Also, the 2001 presidential service awardee, Dr Ma. Jade B. Catalan, dean of a graduate school in Barotac Nuevo. She is very dynamic and always rushing for a result. She is altruistic because many now in the government have been enjoying their master's degrees. It is because she innovates new courses fit to the modern societal milieu and isn't afraid to sell it though the school has a very unlikely geographic location. However, she transcends for excellence.

Well, the country's CEO is a woman. She is a whiz at economics and government administration. I know she is very professional in dealing with our country's crises in many slants. She was here in Iloilo City last week to visit a call center here. See, she really gives attention to all and every sector. (By the way, thanks to her staff for accommodating our letter of invitation for her to impart us her message for our souvenir program and annual; the ACSI Business and Computer School family is grateful about it).

In TV industry, newscaster like Korina Sanchez is ever respectable and well-loved by her viewers compared to her other male counterparts. Thus, now she has a motif-based program, Rated K. And it is proving out.

At university, I adulated my female professors because they are very detailed and straightforward. They are artistic and meticulous.

There are many womyn that deserve to be lauded in this column yet of course I need a capacious room in this paper—and a ballpoint pen full of ink.

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P.S.

Being a feminist, I choose ‘womyn' instead of ‘women' because I want to replace the ‘men' thing into something that differentiates womyn as another entity equal to men. I hope this variant spelling will earn currency and will become a popular variant. My basis is Oxford Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage, 2002 p. 616.

For enquiries, email me at banitawriters@writing.com . I also entertain grammar questions.