Its bigger than "Bebot"

I offered a brief criticism about the video for Black Eyed Pea's "Bebot," but mine was more crticial on the wackness of BEP and the forced multi-cultural portrayal of culture. But, other than posting up the open letter to "Bebot," I never really put in my own 2 cents on its problematic representation of gender and sexuality.

I whole-heartedly agree with the open letter that went around the internet a week ago and believe that this type of dialogue is necessary, especially for a community that is continuously attempting to define itself within the mainstream. For people to respond back to the letter as academics being overanalytical, one must see that it's bigger than the BEP video. The discussion regarding the representation of sexuality is one that is rooted in our culture's own and American society's own sexism, mysogeny, and homophobia, but this does not grant certain artists the ability to bypass their own social responsibility. BEP and Xylophone should be aware of this responsibilty especially when what they are trying to do is showcase and bring to the mainstream positive images of Filipino-Americans in the media.

That goes another one of my very brief responses. But here's a blog that was directed to me by the homie, Mark, that is dedicated to the dialogue on "Bebot":

About Bebot - A Collective Review

On a separate note:

An article by the San Francisco Chronicle on the nation's only Filipino-American performig arts space, Bindlestiff.