Changing the Filipina image, one blog entry at a time

By Candice Montenegro, Contributor INQUIRER.net ONE boredom buster I've shared with all my friends is Googling. It's basically just typing in random words or names on Google and looking at the websites that the search returns. It's actually a fun way to learn new things everyday. When you type the word "falafel," for example, you can read the origin of the famou s Middle Eastern food as well as yummy recipes that teach you how to make some. Anyway, if you're up for it, try typing in the word "Filipina." Here are some o f the results you'll get -- Filipina Penpals, Filipina Dating, Filipina Singles , Sexy Filipina, Pinay and Exotic Models. Yes, that's apparently the stereotypi cal Filipina that is shown online. Good thing the top-ranked site now is a blog called The Filipina Images. The Filipina Images is an advocacy blog and news site that aims to, as its head er proudly says, "Reshape the Filipina Image Online." The Filipina is more than just mail order brides or models -- she is a mother, a sister, a professional, a beautiful person inside and out -- and the blog aims to show the world exact ly who she is. Created in August 2007 by Lorna Lardizabal-Dietz, Dine Racoma and Noemi Lardiza bal-Dado, the site aims to âbalanceâ the Filipina image available online by gat hering blog entries, stories and news items that highlight accomplishments of P inays here and abroad. The blog contains stories ranging from Pinay talents winning competitions abroa d to Pinays who made a difference in other people's lives. It also provides lin ks to other blogs that contain entries that help promote their advocacy of show ing a more diverse and more complex Filipina. It doesn't try to cover up the truth that there really are Filipina mail order brides. What it tries to promote is the fact that all Filipinas, no matter what their careers are, have dignity and deserve the right to empower themselves. The Filipina Images offers three easy ways for ordinary bloggers like you and m e to help change the Filipina image online. First, they encourage bloggers (men and women alike) to post entries and discus s anything about the Filipina. The use of the word in discussing things apart f rom penpals or online dates will help in slowly changing the sites in the searc h engine results page (SERP). Second, they encourage a Google bombing campaign -- an attempt to influence the ranking of a given page by linking certain words to a particular site. A Filip ino-American production group called Touchblue once suggested a similar campaign to Goog le bomb the word Filipina and to link it to websites such as the Gabriela Network and Babae San Francisco. However, this Go ogle bombing campaign encourages people to link to just one site -- the Filipina Womenâs Network (FWN ) site -- which makes it more effective and more likely to affect the SERP. Lastly, the site provides a cute little badge that says âYan ang Pinay,â which bloggers can use to link to the FWN site or to the Filipina Images site. The blog is a solid effort to consolidate stories that empower the image not on ly of Filipino women but Filipinos in general. It breaks the stereotypes and sh ows the world what we have and what we truly are. But more importantly, it remi nds fellow Filipinos that thereâs so much we have to offer. More than just chan ging the image of Filipinas online, The Filipina Image changes the way we look at ourselves. It makes us proud of our fellow Filipinas, and thereâs no need fo r Googling to know that at the end of the day, that's what matters most.