Six days ago, content creator Nas Daily lost more than 500,000 followers on Facebook. Even as of writing this article, he is still losing quite a number. With a staggering drop, one must have done something very horrible, right?
In a Facebook post, the granddaughter of the renowned tattoo artist Whang-Od, Gracia Palicas, exposed that the Whang-Od Academy for Tattooing is a scam. The course offered was supposed to teach the “Ancient Art of Tattooing.” She stated that there was no signed contract between Nas Daily and Whang-od and that this academy is disrespectful to the legacy of Whang-od and the Bubot tribe.
Another post made the next day also came forward with a negative experience working with Nas Daily. Louise Mabulo, the founder of The Cacao Project, shared that Nas Daily mocked Filipinos during his visit to her hometown. He also made a distasteful joke saying that he only needed to put “Philippines” in the title of his videos and would get millions of views and that the videos will receive “brainless ‘Pinoy pride’ comments.”
I remember scrolling through my feed and seeing the situation unfold. Quite frankly, I was disappointed. I wasn’t a fan of his content, but I had respect for him. He showcased cultures and people around the world and showed genuine interest and passion for the content he makes. However, as it turns out, all this was just a facade, and he turned out to be a jerk.
But this Nas Daily situation is just the tip of the iceberg. This is more than just a douchebag exploiting Filipino culture, many underlying issues allowed this to happen.
Pinoybaiting
You would probably see this kind of thing happen everywhere all over the internet. Videos like “Trying Jollibee for the First Time!” or just any videos having “Philippines” or “Filipino” mentioned in their title would accumulate a big number of views and engagement. Content creators know this, some of them pander to Filipinos to exploit this phenomenon to gain more views. This has happened so many times that it has a name; Pinoybaiting.
I have personally witnessed this on the internet, where just because a content creator mentioned the Philippines, Filipinos would be everywhere in the comments saying “Filipino attendance check,” “Pinoy Pride,” or even commenting with the Philippine flag.
But Pinoybaiting only scratches the surface of the real problem, it is a symptom of a bigger issue; colonial mentality. Being colonized by three different countries for so long, there is no doubt that we still feel its effects to this day. We were conditioned to think that we are inferior, and this is still deeply ingrained in our society in this day and age. We have an unaddressed inferiority complex that makes us crave validation from foreign countries, thus what these foreign vloggers have to say is much more important to Filipinos than local content creators. A local content creator could make a travel vlog about the Philippines that is ten times better and more informative than the exaggerated ones made by someone that is probably just Pinoybaiting and end up getting fewer views than them.
I also saw other Filipinos being mean to those who fall for the bait, calling them “embarrassing,” “attention-seeking,” or even saying that it is their fault that these things keep happening. I see this as victim-blaming. It is not their fault that the Philippines was colonized for centuries, and having such a mentality deeply rooted in society is not easy to unlearn.
I do think that it is cool that there are travel vloggers who present different cultures and show their experiences with various people. However, it becomes a problem when they become our voice; when they speak on our behalf and become the primary storyteller. Instead of hearing narratives from the locals themselves, we hear the anecdote of these vloggers. The locals’ voices are reduced to paraphrased sentences or short quotes that occasionally appear in the video.
It is important to understand the line between appreciation and appropriation. When does it become exploitation?
Showcasing a culture must be done with genuine curiosity and a willingness to understand and learn about the culture. Taking the time to do research, listening to the locals, or just, in general, making an effort to learn the culture are examples of appreciating and being respectful of one’s culture. Appropriating, on the other hand, is when one uses someone’s culture for their personal gain. This is what Nas Daily did, he used Filipino culture to gain clicks. He knew what he was doing when he added “Philippines” in the title, and what Mabulo stated she heard from him solidifies that.
What to do next?
Decolonizing our perspective is the first step to make. We should stop thinking about what others from the outside think of us, and see that even without their validation, our culture is still something to be proud of.
We can also support our local travel vloggers. After all, they are probably most fitted to be the storytellers of our culture.
by Jazlyn Ong (Notes from a Diva)