Machismo on the Campaign Trail: When Candidates Mistake Misogyny for Strength

By Sonia P. Soto

There’s something about election season in the Philippines that seems to give certain candidates permission to unleash their worst instincts—loud, lewd, and laced with macho bravado. And every time, without fail, it’s women who bear the brunt.

In recent weeks, a disturbing trend has emerged, one that is neither new nor surprising, but remains infuriating: candidates—most of them men—falling back on sexist jokes, crude innuendos, and the age-old formula of humiliating others, particularly women, to project strength or charisma. It’s as if they believe that by posturing as alpha males, they automatically earn the right to public office.

Take, for instance, the case of a congressional aspirant in Pasig who, in what he later defended as a joke, offered an “annual night” to single mothers who are still menstruating. The fact that this was said onstage, in front of an audience, during a campaign event, says much about what he thought was acceptable political humor. What’s worse is his deflection afterward—blaming the “editing” of the clip and accusing rivals of politicking—as if the damage hadn’t already been done.

Elsewhere in Misamis Oriental, a governor seeking reelection suggested that only attractive women should receive nursing scholarships—because, in his words, “ugly nurses might make male patients feel worse.” It’s astonishing that someone who’s already held public office could still be so tone-deaf and unrepentant.

Then there’s the vice mayor in Batangas who dismissed his rival, a seasoned public servant and cultural icon, as “laos,” implying that a woman past her prime has no place in politics. These statements reveal an alarming reality: many of our leaders still equate a woman’s value with her appearance, her youth, or her sexual availability.

Not even women are spared from perpetuating this mindset. Mocha Uson, a candidate herself, recently launched a campaign jingle that was as suggestive as it was shallow. That such content comes from a woman only reinforces how deeply internalized misogyny can run—and why liberation must begin with consciousness-raising, even among women. We cannot advance gender equality when women are used—or use themselves—as tools of titillation rather than voices of transformation.

Fortunately, not all is bleak. Voices like that of Congresswoman Geraldine Roman offer a glimmer of hope. Her clear stance against the normalization of sexism in politics is a much-needed reminder that dignity still has a place in public life. In a time when vulgarity passes for “relatability,” we must amplify leaders who uphold substance over spectacle.

But these incidents cannot simply be reduced to bad taste or poor judgment. They point to a larger failure in our political culture—a failure of gender mainstreaming, of accountability, and of ethics. That the Commission on Elections had to issue multiple show cause orders in such a short time reflects not just the candidates’ behavior, but also the system’s long tolerance of it.

If politics is a mirror of society, what does it say about us that these men (and women) feel empowered to spew misogyny without consequence? And more importantly, what will we do—especially as voters—to ensure that leadership no longer tolerates this kind of degradation?

Because if we continue to laugh off sexism as “just jokes,” we risk laughing our way back into the hands of leaders who will never take us—or our rights—seriously. #