Paper short abstract:

This paper considers intimate relations between Filipinos and Amerikanos with regards to the discourse of 'colonial mentality'. How Filipinos conceptualise Amerikanos, and in turn, how they perceive themselves - and how this is or is not changing - will be the focus of this paper.

Paper long abstract:

In a nation-state that has experienced over 400 years of colonial rule, and that since Independence in 1946 has retained significant political, economic and socio-cultural ties with its coloniser America, love has been heavily influenced by idealised imaginings of the white 'Other'. Love for, and idealised and romanticised imaginings of, the white 'Other' translate at the intimate level of the self to an internalisation of inferiority referred to in the literature as 'colonial mentality'. The Filipino self is understood in some respects as inferior to the Amerikano (a term widely used in the Philippines to refer to Western foreigners).

Using these ideas as a jumping-off point, this paper explores how idealised and romanticised feelings of love for Amerikanos plays out in a local context. On Siargao Island, Philippines, increasing numbers of young Filipino women and men are entering into romantic relationships with young Western lifestyle migrants as international surf tourism to the region booms. This paper will elucidate how intimate tensions at the level of self are both re-worked and reproduced in such a context. An interesting paradox has been created whereby young local Filipinos - particularly women - gain new confidences in themselves as their opportunities for globalised intimacies expands; yet the idea of the inferior Filipino self is both naturalised and reproduced as young Philippine women unfavourably compare local men to Amerikanos. The women draw on imaginings reminiscent of past colonial stereotypes of the Oriental 'Other' whilst doing so, typically characterising young Filipino men as 'bad' and 'ugly'.