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'Filipino' or 'Filipinx'? San Diego Comic-Con's use of term sparks online debate anew

By  John Patrick Magno Ranara
Published Jul 27, 2022 1:15 pm
San Diego Comic-Con / Facebook

While the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) usually sparks excitement among Filipinos because of all the exciting news in the world of pop culture and entertainment, the convention seems to have caught the ire of some netizens because of the use of a certain controversial term.

On July 22, the international entertainment event posted a group picture of its guests for "The Filipinx Voices in Pop Culture", a program that highlighted Filipino-American influences in mainstream entertainment on its social media sites

The description reads, "Filipinx/Filipinx-American influences can be found in every facet of pop culture. But have there been times when this culture has been pushed away from representation? Does the general population know how many Filipinx people are behind their favorite media."

The guests for the program included Alix Catherine (content creator, The Welcome Party), Earl Baylon (voice actor, Tomb Raider series), Mitch Narito (actor, The Good Place), Andrea A. Walter (film director and cinematographer), Law Sharma (senior content producer, Cinemablend), and JPG (pop-culture consultant, InterMyth).

Despite the representation, some Filipino social media users reacted to the post in a negative light because of the use of the term "Filipinx". 

Filipinx first trended in 2020 after Dictionary.com added the word to its database. Its definition is as follows:

  • of or relating to people of Philippine origin or descent, especially those living in the United States (used in place of the masculine form Filipino or the feminine form Filipina): a Filipinx singer-songwriter.
  • Sometimes Offensive. a person of Philippine origin or descent, especially one living in the United States (used in place of the masculine form Filipino or the feminine form Filipina).

While it was intended to be used as a gender-neutral term to refer to Filipinos, many argue that the word "Filipinos" is already the proper gender-neutral term to be used because Filipino language does not differentiate between genders. 

"Gentle reminder that 'Filipino' is already a gender-neutral term. People who say 'Filipinx' are just Filipino-Americans who think eating Lumpia and Jollibee is what makes you Filipino. Please do not use 'Filipinx'," one user wrote. 

In a reply to SDCC's post on Twitter, one user commented, "We don't even have the letter X in our language, how are we supposed to spell 'Filipinx' in Tagalog, 'Pilipineks'? 'Filipino' is already gender neutral. We don't assign genders to terms like Spanish. We don't even have he/she terms in Tagalog. It's a superfluous term."

Others commented on the history of colonialism and said that foreigners should not decide what term to call Filipinos.

Meanwhile, other Twitter users decided to compare the term Filipinx to the term "mamser", an amalgam of the words ma'am and sir that serves as a generic term for either ladies or gentlemen. 

TAGS: Filipinx San Diego Comic-Con

About the author

John Patrick Magno Ranara

Content Producer

The two things you need to know about Patrick is that he has two surnames and that he is not a starfish. The rest is that he is an avid lover of horror, animation, and animals.