Constructing the Bakla: An Analysis of Linguistic Performativity and Speech Acts Utterances of Western Gender and Sexual Identities

In constructing an identity that is compatible with the West, the urban gay, manly homosexual, and bisexual, to name a few, disassociation from the native identity bakla becomes apparent. This is consequential to the construction of the discriminated and insulted bakla as an amalgam of male homosexuality, cross-dressing and/or transgenderism, and effeminacy even in the gay community. Through the linguistic performativity by Judith Butler which focuses on the role of language in the construction of the identity, I argue that the utterance of Western gender and sexual identities to label oneself would mean not only constructing one’s own identity but also another—the bakla, by also meaning discrimination and insult. For this construction to happen, it would have to (1) conform and/or subvert the heterosexual matrix which coerces the formation of identity in order for it to be intelligible, and (2) be citational and iterative, which are parts of the language that could affirm the regulations of construction and repeat its performance. Through speech acts, I argue about utterances that meant not only to label and thus construct one’s own identity but also the bakla through the illocutionary act of discrimination and a perlocutionary act of insult. Finally, it should be noted that not all utterances would have to act in this way, and thus should be qualified through certain illocutionary forces that may be indicated in the propositional content or implied through the attitude of an utterance as argued by John Searle.