Simpleng Taytel, Kumplikadong Kuwento

ni Murphy Red

Synopsis:

Base sa kanyang pamagat, magulo ang storya ng bida at hindi inaasahan ang mga pangyayare sa loob ng kuwento. Ang bida ay isang estudyanteng tumigil sa pagaaral, napa barkada, lageng umiinom at maaaring nalulong sa droga. Siya ay isang lalaking napapaisip kung bakla nga siya. Mayroon siya kaibigan na si Big J, may asawa na ito at kasama niya lage sa lahat ng inuman at kung ano pa. Sweet si Big J sa kanya, may halong pagaalala ang mga ginagawa nito. Isang beses sa inuman, nagkaaminan ang dalawang ito na gusto nila ang isa't isa, sumod sila sa inuman ng kanilang barkada at nakantsawan ng labis na pangaasar ng mga kasama nila. Nang uwian na, naghahalucinate na ang bida at kung ano ano ang naiisip. Nasa isang disyerto ang kanyang pagiisip habang sa katotohanan ay naliligo ito sa basurahang inaakalang oasis. Nang nakasakay siya ng jeep pauwi, tinititigan siya ng mga pasaherong nagiisip kung ang kanilang naririnig ay huni ng tambutso o halakhak niya.

http://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladlad:_An_Anthology_of_Philippine_Gay_Writing#Simpleng_Taytel.2C_Kumplikadong_Kuwento_ni_Murphy_Red

Features:

The Ladlad anthologies bridge this epistemological break through a postcolonial approach to the hybridity of non-heterosexual subjectivities in the Philippines. In this three-volume series, gender-transitive identities, including effeminacy, are recognized together with other, gender-intransitive configurations of gender and sexuality, thereby repudiating the universality of the pre-Stonewall bakla without exclusively validating gender-intransitive identities. It is no longer the parloristang bakla, the fashion designer, the lying husband and the haunted closeted schoolmaster who exclusively represent homosexuality (I will discuss this social/professional distinction later in this paper), but with them we have office workers, students, men who are in relationships with other men who are not “straight”—characters who have no interest in gender-crossing.

Murphy Red’s “Simpleng Taytel,Kumplikadong Kwento” is a clear example of this trend. Here we have a set of friends who selfidentify as men, whose interests are closer to the “traditional” lalaki. The difference between these men and the tunay na lalaki is that the former like each other and end their “homosocial” bonding with a healthy dose of bromance—groping, kissing and feeling each other. This certainly poses an issue for heterosexuality—for heterosexuality can, after all, only be problematized after homosexuality—which becomes difficult to gloss as it is deconstructed by queer theory. How many times does a man need to have sex with another man, whether reluctantly, hesitantly or willingly, for him to be considered a homosexual? On the other hand, are homosexual men who (sometimes? often? always?) prefer sex with straight men even gay? 

Bakla, Homosexual, Gay, Queer:
A Post-Colonial Glossary of Non-Heterosexual Cultures in the Philippines
Richard Karl Deang
PAROLES 8, The electronic journal of the Department of European Languages, November 2012, Page 22

Excerpts:

The politics of the gender-transitivity/genderintransitivity is most challenged by Murphy Red’s “Simpleng Taytel, Kumplikadong Kwento.” We see this clearly when Big J finally asks the narrator, “Ano ka ba talaga, pare?” That same question would normally translate as the death of any closeted gay man, and if we considered only the narrator’s “manly” or “siga” performance, he would necessarily be gay, following the traditional Filipino concept of the bakla. After an amusing round of questions and answers, in the style of the theater of the absurd, challenging the traditional concepts of sex, gender and sexuality, the narrator finally explains:

“’Dre, iba-iba ang itsura namin, e. Di kami magkakamukha. Lalong di kami magkakaboses. Di synchronized ang pilantik ng daliri at di choreographed ang mga mannerisms, mga kembot, mga kendeng. . . . Conventional siguro masyado ang notion mo, pero maaaring ‘yung pinakasiga sa Tondo, sumususo rin.” 

Bakla, Homosexual, Gay, Queer:
A Post-Colonial Glossary of Non-Heterosexual Cultures in the Philippines
Richard Karl Deang
PAROLES 8, The electronic journal of the Department of European Languages, November 2012, Page 23-24

http://parolesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/paroles-08.pdf