The Husband's Gender: Constructing the Filipino Gay Identity in the television drama series My Husband's Lover
Santos, D.G.S. (2014). The Husband’s Gender: Constructing the Filipino Gay Identity in the television drama series My Husband’s Lover, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
This study aims to analyze how the Filipino gay identity is constructed in the narrative of GMA’s drama series My Husband’s Lover. It examines the overall structure of the drama series, focusing on its plot, dialogues, characterization, and narrative point of view. This examination of the drama’s narrative elements uncovered the heteronormative construction of the Filipino gay identity.
The research is guided by two frameworks: Judith Butler’s performativity and heterosexual matrix and Roland Barthes’s semiological system. The semiological system developed by Roland Barthes guided the data gathering, while Judith Butler’s performativity and heterosexual matrix guided the analysis and categorized the data.
The study is divided into three levels of analysis. The first level identifies the owner of the power of narrative in the drama series. The second level examines the dichotomy and integrations between the socio-cultural references of the bakla and gay. The third level of the study focuses on the Western influences infused in the identities of the main gay characters of the drama series.
Keywords: My Husband’s Lover, gender, gay, identity, television, drama