Thesis

Valeriano, J.R. (2018). Pambato ng bayan? Tilaok naman dy’an!: A Phenomenological Analysis of Subcultural Politics and Gender in the Construction of a Mediated Identity in Fliptop, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

This phenomenological study explores the relationship of gender and subcultural politics in the construction of a performed mediated identity. It particularly focuses on the recorded performances of female rap battle artists of Fliptop, known as femcees, in Youtube, an online free video-streaming site, where the league makes the matches available for public viewing, and the history of the only femcee in the league. This study analyzes how an online identity is created relating to subcultural capital and gender in the Fliptop Rap Battle League, the largest of its kind in the Philippines.

This study utilizes Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception and Erving Goffman’s Presentation of the Self as the main analytical framework, enriched by Judith Butler’s Theory of Performativity of Gender. This research argues that the concept of subcultural capital by Sarah Thornton, as explored in this study, acquired and maintained by the femcee, is both a motivation and an embodied reality characterizing the performance of the femcee in the league. Two forms of text are used in this study, first are the recorded performances of the femcees in Fliptop, and second is the experience of the only remaining femcee to date of the league. Guided by phenomenological approach, the oral history method, and textual analysis are used respectively for the two texts.

This study was able to map out the position of the lone femcee in the male-dominated league and this involved the negotiation of gender for the femcee in both the front and back stages of Fliptop.

Keywords: femcees, subcultural capital, performance, identity, gender

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