Gender Roles Demystified in F. Sionil Jose's "The Feet of Juan Bacnang"

Gender is not something that we are born with; gender is what we are socialized into. It is something that is imposed to us by institutions of power like family, school, and the church. Almost all cultures associate gender with sex, but there is a big difference. Sex is strictly biological, while gender is everything else aside from the biological aspect; it is behavior, emotional, and social characteristics attributed to men and women. Gender, then, is dictated upon us and culture is the basis of our behavior. Some cultures have women as sexual aggressors, and in others, women as construction workers. This proves that gender is something fluid and that both men and women are not boxed into the stereotype. This paper would focus on how gender roles are demystified in F. Sionil Jose’s “The Feet of Juan Bacnang,” no matter how subtle they may be. This paper would also note some important observations on nomenclature and the protagonist vis-à-vis the ethno-epic hero.