In light of recent hints of a toxic corporate culture of sexual harassment at ABS-CBN News following charges of such filed by news anchor Gretchen Fullido, starlet Bianca Gonzalez issued this non-opinion on Twitter…
Yes, women should support women. But when its women involved in both sides, nawawala ang “babae ako” at nagiging “babae tayo”. Mahirap. Ang mga involved lang ang tunay na nakakaalam ng katotohanan. But still, we do our best so that women support women.
Translated to straight English:
“Yes, women should support women. But when it is women involved on both sides, it’s no longer ‘babae ako’ (‘Me woman’). It becomes ‘babae tayo’ (‘We women’). It’s hard. Only those involved can know the truth. But still, we do our best so that women support women.”
This could mean one or both of two things:
(1) Women should stick together no matter what.
(2) Trouble within female communities are internal to women and that the truth should sort itself out internally.
It’s hard indeed. Hard to tell what Gonzalez means. She likely struggled to squeeze this tweet out under pressure from Netizens who had called out the deafening silence of celebrities even as this case attracted more and more attention online.
Words chosen too carefully end up conveying nothing or, worse, revealing the opposite of what the message intended to convey.