Mistresses sans social stigma
Lifestyle
MARRIAGE:
In this conservative Roman Catholic nation of 87 million where divorce
is still banned, it appears that mistresses — being one and having one —
have gained a degree of acceptability.
“There is no stigma to being someone’s mistress, at least not in the
Philippines,” says Jullie Yap Daza, author of the best selling book
“Etiquette for Mistresses: And What Wives Can Learn From Them”.
“And you don’t have to be rich to have a mistress. In fact some
mistresses at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder pay for the
privilege by cooking and cleaning,” the columnist and television
personality said in an interview.
“While we still have no divorce in this country mistress will always
be seen as wife number two or three or four, depending on how many a man
has,” she said.
First published in 1993 the book is now in its 11th edition, which
has already sold out its initial 5,000 print
run.
“I first got the idea for the book during the 1992 election campaign
when I asked candidates how many mistresses they had,” she said.
“They were quite open about. The wives on the other hand were less
open, saying as long as their husbands came home they could live with
it.”
Philippine law recognises the rights of illegitimate children who can
carry the father’s name and have inheritance rights. But the mistress is
not legally recognised.
Cynthia Falicia, spokesperson for the national women’s group
Gabriela, said mistresses have become a “sad fact of life” for the
Philippines.
“Because we have no divorce in this country many women find
themselves trapped in bad marriages,” she said.
Congresswoman Liza Maza currently has a Bill before Congress to
legalise divorce in an effort to give women at least a measure of parity
in their marriages.
“While absolute fidelity is demanded of wives, men are granted sexual
licence to have affairs outside marriage,” Maza said. “Yet when the
marriage fails, the woman is blamed for its failure.
“There are many unhappy marriages across all Filipino classes. Many
couples, especially from the marginalised sectors, who have no access to
the courts, simply end up separating without the benefit of legal
processes.”
A researcher with the University of the Philippines Centre for
Women’s Studies, who did not want to be named, described mistresses were
a “social reality”.
“Many married men have mistresses. Some women accept it. Some choose
to ignore it,” she said, adding that if this predominately Catholic
country had modern divorce laws “things may be different”.
“Wives may not like it but they are the ones with most to lose,” said
Daza.
“If they walk out on the marriage they stand to lose their kids,
security, social status and bank account.
“The mistress, on the other hand, may have her man but she has no
rights at all while the law does give rights to the children born out of
wedlock.
“I know so many women who have become mistresses knowing they will
never be Mrs X or Y but they don’t mind. They go in with their eyes wide
open even if love is blind,” Daza said.
She said the word “mistress” no longer had the same connotations it
did 20 years ago, and is now used more liberally in films and TV soap
operas. “No one is trying to hide or disguise the word,” she said.
Daza does give one piece of advice to mistresses: “Make sure you
insure him.”
“An insurance policy, paid for by the beloved philanderer, with his
mistress and their offspring as beneficiaries, is a piece of paper
that’s as good as a substitute marriage contract,” she said.
“Unless she has secured a house, jewels, cars, bonds and a bank
account in her name, insurance is her best bet.”
In a country where more than 80 percent of the population is
Catholic, divorce is unlikely to be legalised soon. The Philippine
Constitution declares that the state shall protect marriage as an
inviolable social institution and as the foundation of the family, a
provision that Catholic groups use to block any legalisation of divorce.
The law does allow couples to separate but not remarry, although an
exception is made for the Muslim minority for whom divorce is
constitutionally recognised as a custom.
The Family Code allows remarriage if couples obtain an annulment on
the grounds of “psychological incapacity” of one of the spouses — which
is open to wide interpretation.
Such annulments — known as “divorce, Catholic-style” — are accepted
by both church and state, but obtaining one is a long and expensive
ordeal that relatively few couples undertake.
“Is it any wonder that men in this country prefer to keep the status
quo when it comes to divorce,” Daza said. “What would happen if we had
divorce laws in this country? Men would have to start paying for the
children they produce,” she said.
In the meantime, Filipinos will continue to cope with contradictions
so endemic that, according to Daza, even some priests have been known to
keep mistresses.
“When I first started researching this book I thought it would be
difficult to get women to open up and talk. But women love to talk and I
was surprised just how frank some of them were,” Daza said. She had also
wanted to write a book on the married men with mistresses but, she said,
“no one wanted to talk”.
AFP |