It cannot be denied that the controversy of Andrew Luis Lapid (aka Buknoy Glamurrr) surfaced numerous expressions of hate and further discrimination towards the queer community.
The social media unrest against Buknoy began on June 5, after he discriminated and undermined a tricycle driver and rendered the job shameful in a vlog entry on YouTube, garnering over 1.6 million views.
Many people in the online community expressed dismay over Buknoy’s irresponsible remarks, defending the entirety of tricycle drivers not limited to those they know. And after weeks of receiving a lot of hate mail and negative reaction videos, he apologized for his remarks on July 3.
A lot of people thought that the apology was not sincere, and was simply an act of defending the vlogger’s point of view. And due to uncontrollable circumstances, the Buknoy hate trend spread like wildfire.
And Buknoy’s sarcastic posts and self-serving responses did not improve the situation:
In fact, Buknoy’s vanity fair did more harm than good.
What’s worse is that due to normalizing the hatred towards Buknoy, the vlogger was reduced to become a means of attacking the queer community in general. We often see posts of people insulting Buknoy’s sexuality; even some women are guilty of this. These people find joy in pointing out the fact that the vlogger did not have a vagina; therefore pointing out that Buknoy does not have anything to be proud of because he is limited to the biological structures of a male, damned to bear a penis in eternity.
Therefore, the existence of the queer community was once again reduced to a discourse limited to the matter of sexual organs.
Now the question has to be asked: Is Buknoy to be blamed for the attacks against the queer community?
The answer is: Of course, not.
The fact that the attacks against Buknoy are nowhere near reminding him of the importance of the labor force already proves just how low the quality of discourse is in Philippine society. A lot of people still patronize a cornucopia of old and worn-out arguments limited to fallacies.
This compels us to realize that as bashers—or as I would like to say, “civilian critics”—need to have an awareness of the dynamics on how pursue an issue even deeper, how they would formulate even more politically-correct suggestions.
We need to develop a means of going beyond what is superficial in any argument and to think outside of the box: to what extents can we widen the scope of the discussion? Otherwise, we will forever be caged in outdated modes of critical thinking, forever damned to the primitive reasoning of the neanderthal.
One thing is for sure: It is ultimately wrong to attack Buknoy’s sexuality.
What we need for Buknoy to be enlightened is to provide him constructive criticisms that debunk the influencer’s wrong claims. And in return, Buknoy needs to develop an emotionally-mature mindset that knows how to take responsibility for his actions.
In my note as a communications specialist, Buknoy needs to accept the fact that his intentional meaning is way different than that of public perception (This is Oral Communication 101!).
Therefore, simply putting out clarifications will not be taken as a form of apology; it will unavoidably be interpreted as a form of a defensive measure, and will appear lacking of sincerity.
Buknoy needs to be brave enough to take full responsibility over his intentions manifested in his subconscious, and confess to it, as well.
By doing so, Buknoy will be among those to change the mindset of the public and contribute to the epiphany that the queer community is socially conscious. It is within his undeniable responsibilities as an influencer because like it or not, Buknoy will continuously be present in the online community.
The best he could do is be decent enough to admit of his wrongdoings, and most importantly, to rectify.
Editor’s Note: This essay was first published in Essays Against Mediocrity.
About the Author
John Thimoty Romero is a licensed professional teacher, a graduate of Philippine Normal University – Manila last 2017 as Bachelor of Secondary Education – Major in English. Upon his graduation, he received the Gawad Graciano Lopez – Jaena Co-Curricular Award for Campus Journalism.
He is the founder of Essays Against Mediocrity, a website dedicated to support independent authors, poets, and other content creators.
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