“Armor” as a a Political Statement of the LGBT Community

A Gender Analysis of John Bengan’s Armor

Baysa, Shiela May C.
Critical Approaches to Literature 122
28 May 2018

Armor, by John Bengan, has dominant touches of an LGBT-themed short story that fo-
cused on the main character’s, Ronnie, experience as a gay man whose image is that of an out-
dated beauty queen, and whose everyday life in the duration of the story is spent in a community
in Davao where that reputation of his lies. John Bengan’s approach to tell this specific gay man’s
story has a tone not that of negativity, from the general aspect of his storytelling to the portrayal
of the place of the gay characters in the community where his story is set. Lois Tyson mentioned
in his text “Lesbian, gay and queer criticism” that stories that tell the narratives of gay men were
rather perceived negatively and these literature were read and received with homophobia, in re-
gards to a heteronormative society that is inclusive of a stigma that loathes homosexuality (317).
This kind of reading and kind of loathing of the LGBT community roots back from traditional
gender roles, from Feminist criticism, where the sexes of male and female are programmed to
behave in sexist roles based on biological essentialism. (85)

We come to the understanding of the life of the main character Ronnie, a gay man, who
seemingly dress feminine, joins pageants, is attracted to men. At the first part of the story, he
wanted to commit suicide because of the fear that hitmen will come and gun him down because
he is a drug user. He does not want himself vulnerable to that kind of death so he wants to kill
himself before that happens, and have his own way of his death.

What is most vivid here first is his apparent platonic relationship with Biboy, the drug
pusher who sold drugs to him and a friend of his whom he let stay in his house for a while and
who helped him in his pageant costume. This kind of relationship with Biboy in the text showed
no signs of negativity or even sexual aspects, as Lois Tyson stated, “their interpretation [of ho-
mosexual love] rests on, and imposes on the novel, a view of heterosexual love as the only kind
of normal, healthy love there is. Any other kind of love is presumed abnormal, unhealthy, and to
be avoided” (319). Bengan presented their relationship in the story as a normal one, similar as
heterosexual friendships and relationships, contrary to the homophobic belief that homosexual
friendship and relationships always include heteronormative sex, having the positions of the
masculine and the feminine, the feminine being the gay man. The behavior of the LGBT com-
munity in the Philippine setting, as implied in contemporary setting, is greatly based on what

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sexual position they consider themselves: the famous terms “top”, “bottom”, “versa top”, “versa
bottom”, etc. (Reilly). This is a significant detail to define them as a person and as a lover, linger-
ing through how they live their lives. Ronnie and Biboy’s friendship is free from this heteronor-
mative functions of sex.

His character also debunks the stereotypes with gay people that they are evil or products
of evil, moving away from the negative myth accepted as truth that being sexual predators are
insidious to being gay (Tyson). Ronnie had no intentions of sleeping with Biboy, and it was pre-
sented that he had a straight male lover whom he spent his money on. In that situation, he was
the victim, the subject of the oppression of patriarchy to take advantage of the desire of gay men
for love in a homophobic community. Gay men, from the point of view of the straight man men-
tioned in the story, were objects vulnerable to illusionary desire, and showing them a little bit of
attention means that straight men can take advantage of them in forms of money, emotions, and
time. The fact that Ronnie’s boyfriend married the girl he got pregnant insinuates the impression
that homosexual relationships are for pastime only, a temporary place, and a kind of phase on the
lives of straight men. The endgoal still will be heterosexual relationships because of reproduc-
tion, adhering back to biological essentialism and adhering to the image of the traditional family
of a heterosexual couple with a child. Even if Ronnie’s lover really loves him and his intention
was not money, he still sticks to the heterocentric belief that traditional family values are the
norm and that these values are naturally superior to a homosexual relationship. Ronnie, because
of this, was downhearted to the point that he wants to end his life, showing how dominant inter-
nalized homophobia is, wherein the gay man naturally thinks he is at fault for the hate that he
experiences, therefore he turns out hating himself too (Tyson). There was no confrontation with
his former lover and he did not talk about it at all, showed no loathing towards his lover, and just
learned to accept it and let misery embrace him.

Having a main character that is a gay man also sends in visibility for the LGBT commu-
nity, as it recounts a story that is in their point of view, voicing out an experience of how they
too, like women, are marginalized, as being the other gender. This “otherness” of the gay charac-
ter is strong in the story in the manifestation of a faded beauty queen who is struggling to get his
way on the top again. Apparently, the way to visibility for him is to join the Miss Gay Pageant in
their little community and win grand prize. Pageants, sexist as they may be, is a stairway to em-
powerment for these marginalized people. Principally because Ronnie and the other contestants
form themselves a community, showing that they exist and that they are capable of being visible
to the world. This community, while engaging visibility for gay men, shows the heterocentric
culture that they are in that they can stand out, that their existence is as important as others, and

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the kind of their reality prevails, and that is as normal as living as a heterosexual. The audiences
of the Miss Gay pageant see the pageant as only a form of entertainment, supposedly because
they are reenactments of Miss Universe which favors Western standards of beauty for women,
parading these standards to satisfy a male audience, and the pageants for gay are deemed less
real and less serious than the pageants for women, adhering again to biological essentialism and
heterocentrism that to satisfy a man is to be a woman because of her genetic makeup. But in the
story, the intention of the pageant contestants, let alone Ronnie is very internal, there have been
no mentions of their reason of joining is for pleasing a man or appeasing the male audience.
Their reasons are for validation of themselves. They join to compete for the crown and to have
the glory for themselves, and not to indulge in the male gaze. Ronnie’s own reasons do not in-
clude quenching a thirst, or to get a straight boyfriend afterwards, let alone flaunt his womanly
dressed body for men, or to seek revenge or sympathy from his ex-boyfriend. He does it because
if he wins, he is going to be valid and important again.

This sets forth that the problems of the LGBT and women are interwoven with each oth-
er, all because of their genetic bodies. Their relevance is taken away from them because the pa-
triarchy place them in otherness. Tyson mentioned social constructionism wherein “homosexual-
ity and heterosexuality are products of social, not biological, forces” (321). The story acknowl-
edges that Ronnie’s life is composed of his own choices, including his gender expression and
sexuality, that his “otherness” by being gay was not a biological thing, but a product of his envi-
ronment. He chose to be himself, and his marginalization is a result of social constructs.

The contestants in the pageant, on their variation of the country they represent, symbol-
izes how they have common experiences but these experiences are not necessarily universal.
They have the same wits but with different approaches, wanting different countries to represent,
implying desire for different things. It ventures on different countries most famous in in-
ternational pageants like Venezuela, USA, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Great Britain, showing how
the culture of pageantry are adhered to how women in these countries are, and that is what these
contestants perform– the Latina or American or European beauties that win in beauty contests:
the ones with big eyes, pointed noses, small lips, white skin, tall height, features particular not to
Asian women, especially with Filipino gay men.

The language of the contestants are also noticeable in the text. It used a lot of gay lingo,
the witty, slang sentences of “I am Beauty, and the Beast will follow!” (14), “All things bright
and beautiful. All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful. The Lord God made
them all!” (14). These introductory pageant taglines are used for entertaining the audience but

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moreover, these gay men are using these to stand out. This kind of language is very particular
and exceptional to their community and it remains as the proof of their surviving community and
their subversion. Having their own language suggests identity, which they desire to have. This
language serves as the language of their struggle to be recognized by the community, having
something of their own, having created a collective identity through language.

Ronnie’s assignment of representing Great Britain is a thing he considers a great chal-

lenge and opportunity, having thought of the country as the land of The Queen, King Arthur, and
Lady Diana. These intertextual figures are persons of empowerment and inspiration to him–
leaders that defy tradition and rule their land with grace and who have lingering reputation and
legacy up to this day. He considers the opportunity to be empowered himself and acquire sub-
stantiality, strength, and cogency, as he wants to be back on the crown again. It becomes a proof
for him that challenging tradition is not at all wrong, it is difficult to do so, but it is possible and
can have great results within the nation and within himself, and that being like these figures is a
cure to his self-alienation. It is a statement that being alone is not a bad thing, especially in liber-
ating oneself and going against the established absolute norms which seem to be not right. He
then transforms his self-alienation from something negative to something positive. This self-
alienation, imposed by his depression from his lover and his faded fame, was something he used
to stand out. He does not torment himself with his self-alienation now and deems himself in
power.

The symbol of the Armor, based from King Arthur, is an object used to represent his emo-
tional strains, and his desire to be freed from it. He sees this armor as the statement of his sub-
version to what people then thought of him– a weak one. This armor first heals him from the
agony of his life, building it first with Biboy (digressing himself from self-alienation, finding a
genuine friend), and then using it to present himself as a strong leader. He was wearing a
sparkling gown at the day of the pageant with this armor, stressing an androgynous appearance,
an indication that he has both masculinity and femininity, making a point by his spotlight that
one person, disregard of gender and sex, can possess the qualities attributed to males and females
at the same time, and that it is a matter of choice, not a matter of fate.

The use of the symbol of the armor is to present his disruption of the social norms that
being gay has, now showing that gays are not just the effeminate ones, but they can have any
personality that they want to. He lit up the stage now after building up his own agency from his
victimization and marginalization. The plot transforms him into getting back what was normally
his.

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 Christopher Yap-Wright mentioned in his study of Gay Themes in Philippine Fictions in
English that gay self imaging in that context is “either through (1) gay-self inhibitions, or (2)
flaunting the “fabulous gay self” through a homoerotic way, gender-crossing, or transvestism in
literature are both illustrations of literary imaging” (295), and in the story, Bengan stayed faithful
of those images but presented it in a cry that those images are stereotypical and are evolving, and
even though they are considered “female” and “weak” of societal norms, there is no difference
that they can stand out, be leaders, and be equals of the dominant gender.

Works cited:

Bengan, John. “Armor” Likhaan 6: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, edited
by Gemino H. Abad. 2012. Web. May 22, 2018.

Reilly, Andrew. “Top or Bottom: A Position Paper.” Psychology & Sexuality, 7:3, 2016. Web.
May 25, 2018.

Tyson, Lois. “Feminist Criticism.” Critical Theory Today. 2nd edition. New York:
Routledge, 2006. Print.

Tyson, Lois. “Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism.” Critical Theory Today. 2nd edition. New York:
Routledge, 2006. Print.

Wright, Christopher Yap. “Skeletons in the Closets: Gay Themes in Philippine Fictions in
English” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN
0975-2935), Vol. IX, No. 2, 2017. Web. May 23, 2018.