The viral LGBT commercial of Bench
SCENARIO/ ORIGIN/SOURCE OF THE
EVENTS
The first scenario that I have
noticed is when the son is
acting tough and/or straight
whenever he is with his
father.
Another gender stereotyping
I’ve noticed from the
commercial is when they not
just need to act tough but to
dress aligned to their birth-
assigned sex as well.
IDEAS/REACTION/
PROBLEM
Men in nature are required to act
tough regardless of how they see
themselves. This is because of the
way society would react. This
results not just for men but for the
other members of the LGBTQ+
community to act based on their
birth-assigned sex and/or the way
how society would like and not on
how they want to express
themselves.
In other countries, they have
already practiced or are used to
seeing people dress how they want
and what they prefer regardless of
their sexuality. But in the
Philippines, there are still people
who will judge based on how you
look or present yourself. This goes
not just to the LGBTQ+
community but for men and
women as well.
THOUGHTS ABOUT
THE ISSUE
It’s sad that people who are part
of the LGBTQ+ community are
somewhat deprived or not
having the freedom to express
their identity or how they see
themselves just because of other
people’s opinion or judgment. I
have friends who are part of this
community and sometimes I can
sense the worry they have
whenever we are in public
places. They tend to overthink
and ask questions such as how
the people around us react
whenever they have done
something. I hope this type of
stereotyping comes to an end
and give the community the
freedom of expression they
deserve.
My take on this is the same from
what I have explained in the first
example, which is that people
who dress the way they prefer
and are comfortable with and
are not based on their assigned
sexuality are deprived of
freedom just because of how the
society will react. Such
experiences lowers the self
esteem and/or confidence of
those people who are
experiencing this on a daily

Third example is, fathers are
naturally seen as strict. Like
from what the commercial
shows, the son is having a
hard time to open up to his
father regarding his sexual
identity as he is scared of
how his father will react no
matter how close they are.
Lastly, similar to the third
example. For the reason that
fathers are seen as strict and
tough, we tend to assume that
it is difficult for them to
accept their child’s sexual
identity, especially their son.
However, the commercial
shows that not all dads react
the way we suppose, rather it
shows how the father noticed
his son’s identity and
approached it.
Most families tend to see fathers as
more strict compared to mothers.
This results in children to be scared
and develop fear of communicating
and/or expressing their thoughts
and emotions to their dads.
It became a Filipino norm for dads
that if they have a son, it should act
and develop aligned to their
cisgender. Also because their sons
are the ones who will carry their
name until marriage. This gives
their child the fear to freely express
how they perceive themselves
which develops trauma as they
grow older and eventually blame
and doubt their abilities.
basis. This also gives them
social trauma and tends to doubt
themselves.
As I have mentioned, most
families tend to fear their dads
because of how strict they can
be. Additionally, fear may also
come out of admiration and
respect that they have also
because dads are each family’s
breadwinner. Regardless,
parents must be our safe place.
The person whom we can run to
whenever things get rough and
we can express our thoughts and
our own self as well with no
judgment.
.
I wasn’t expecting the
commercial to end that way.
However, in today’s generation
a lot of families are starting to
be more open about such social
issues and that there is a high
chance of at least one family
member experiencing one.
Having them get to talk about
such issues that they personally
face must be normalized and
should not be heavily discussed
within the family members. I
believe that if we and the future
generation practice this more
often and quit stereotyping,
there will be a better community
for each and one of us and no
gender will be deprived of
freedom to express themselves.