Quanico, Anna Katrina G.

ANTH 10 B

Dela Cruz, Francis B.

Philippine Society: The Evolution on the Perception

Of Generations on Sex and Marriage

Background of the Study (What is the study about?)

Filipinos are known to be a conservative society but at the state of being a colonial

country, certain influences are inherited by individuals and these influences are evident in how

they perceive sex and marriage. Rules on dating, who to pay on dinner dates, how to act properly

on gatherings, how to respect the partner’s family, and how to allot time for your partner, were

being followed. There are also various factors that influence an individual in choosing a partner

like the right age to have a partner, family ties, peer influences, media, and religion. For

Filipinos, right morals when engaging in relationships must be taken to importance. These

include the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of individuals on marriage and sex.

Sex and marriage has always been a sacred concept in the Philippine context. Filipinos

treat these entities as two inseparable events in the life of an individual. But as generations pass,

these two individuals started to drift apart from one another until they are considered as two

different phenomena and as they continue to part, their sacredness devalues. Therefore, it can be

certified that there is a cultural change brought by certain influences which include globalization,

xenocentrism, generation gap, and socialization.

Significance of the Study (Why study the field?)

 In Sex Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Among Adolescents in Los Banos, Laguna of

Toretta (1984), he stated a significant number of people engaging in premarital sex and the

generation he studied was the Boomers II in the generation identified by Schroer (n.d.) . Just as

Toretta, Aswinarno (2006) and Tan (1993) also studied the engagement of youth in premarital

sex of Generations Y and X respectively. The results of the studies show a significant pattern in

the changing numbers of people engaging in the activity. They even showed the factors that

influenced individuals to participate in premarital sex. The factors, age, family, peers, media, and

religion, which they presented, are all similar in each of the studies; the irony is that there is a

gradual change in the number of the people engaging in premarital sex through differing

generations.

This study would weave into context the previous studies stated above and would

uncover why there is an increase in the people engaging in premarital sex as generations pass by.

Consequently, the study would also seek the influence of Western culture, generation gap,

socialization, xenocentrism, and globalization.

Statement of the Problem (Area of concern, condition to be improved upon)

Francis’s Part

Objectives

1. To identify how the Philippine culture view sex and marriage as two inseparable entities

and how they perceive these as sacred

2. To assess changes in the number of people engaging in premarital sex by incorporating

the studies of Torreta, Tan, and Aswinarno

 3. To determine how Western influences affect the perception and culture of Filipinos on

sex and marriage

Results and Discussion

The Filipino Culture towards Sex and Marriage

Francis’s part

Differences of the Three Generations in the View of Sex and Marriage

There would be three sets of generations that will be tackled in the study and would be an

essential tool for the analysis of the change in the view of sex and marriage through time.

Schroer (n.d.) proposed labels for different generations, which will be used throughout this

study, time they are born, and a brief background of who these people are and the landmark

events that have occurred during their time. The first generation is the Boomers II, which may

also be referred to as Generation Jones (these two terms will be used interchangeably in the

study). This generation scopes the people who were born at 1955-1965, which today aged from

50-60 years old. The Generation Jones has a very traditional view on marriage which will be

traced through the history of marriage in the Philippines. The second generation to note is the

Generation X, the people born from 1966-1976, the generation immediately after the Generation

Jones. These people from Generation X now have ages ranging from 39-49 years old. This

generation was said to be the “best educated generation”, according to Schroer (n.d.). This claim

is parallel to the findings of Mendez and Jocuano (as cited by Nadeau, 2008) that Filipinos took

into importance the genealogies of their chosen partner to predict or at least be informed of the

next generation they will be producing. The last generation to be introduced is the Generation Y

or the Milleniums. They are people ages 21-38 born from 1977-1994. Nadeau (2008) stated that
according to Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, this modern generation may be characterized as

less religiously affiliated with regards to culture and this is caused by modernization and external

influences.

The Generation Jones held a traditional culture when it comes to marriage in which they

believe in preserving the sacredness of marriage and applying it to their actual lives. An old

saying, “a real man knows how to wait”, referring to premarital sex, was of importance to the

Boomers II (Ramones, 2011). To support this argument, it is caused by the phenomenon that this

generation is characterized by a conservative community that is coitus is exclusive only for

married couples. Immorality is associated with premarital sex especially with multiple partners

and social stigma acts as the sanction of the mistake one have performed.

Abot (n.d.) showed how the perception of the Generation X differs from the previous

generation when viewing marriage with respect to traditional beliefs and practices:

“Where traditional practices were centered on “virtue,” modern practices were

characterized by liberation and free exploration. While civil marriage was still frowned
upon due to the Filipinos’ penchant for their religion and their desire for expensive
festivities (in Catholic wedding celebrations) and extravagance, there were other
indicators for this more liberal attitude”

The desire for expensive festivities devalues the sacredness of marriage which is initially

intended for the union of man and women. It signifies that marriage is starting to

commodify and these is brought about by globalization and Western influences.

There are various sentiments about the drastic changes from Generation X to the

Milleniums. Articles which express changes of the perception of this generation were promoting

liberalization from the prescribed culture. Chan (2005) emphasizes that this generation engages

in premarital sex because of the multiple messages they receive through media that shows sex in
advertisements, songs, variety shows, and pornographic sites and materials. An open article was

passed by Ramones (2011) stated that the country must be open to social changes such as

engaging in premarital sex because culture do change and she also labeled traditions as “lame”

that it is a choice of an individual to follow traditions set forth by the earlier generations.

Assessing these changes, there is a gradual increase in the change of the perception

between generations. There is a change in the view of the Boomers II and Generation Y but that

change double when comparing the Generation Y’s outlook on sex and marriage to Generation

X’s. It then triggered the inconsistencies in the culture of the Filipinos (cite the specific cultures).

Sexual Practices as Implications of Change

On one hand, Torreta, as mentioned above in his thesis, considered the sexual activities

of his participants as an important factor of his study. 61% of his respondents, which has a total

number of 311, practices premarital sex. On the other hand, a study that concerns why people

engage in premarital sex was conducted after nine (9) years by Tan in her thesis, Family

Relationships and Premarital Sex Attitudes among UPLB Undergraduate Students. She

uncovered why the young engage in such activities and the result revealed how the young

perceive sex at their generation. Some of the findings were that premarital sex (1) is an

expression of love, (2) is normal in a relationship, (3) is a basic need of man, (4) determines the

boy’s and girl’s popularity, and that (4) virginity id not a prerequisite for marriage. A study was

conducted after 13 years prior to Tan’s. It is parallel to what Toretta has initiated and it views a

completely new generation. There has been a growth in the number of people engaging in

premarital sex from 61% to 78.81%. The results conclude that there has been a shift in the view

of different generations in the concept of sex and marriage.

 Causes of Changes

First cause of changes will be socialization particularly in the child socialization.

According to Clausen (1968), there are three main agents in the socialization of a child: family,

school, and peers. Family is the first influence a child receives extending up to the grandparents,

cousins, and uncles and aunties. In this phase, the family gives the preliminary guidance for the

child before it socializes with other social structures. The school centers in the teacher-student

relationship that underlies when a child starts formal schooling. The teacher serves as the

temporary parent of the child when in school that is why it is important for the parents to attend

the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting for them to be oriented what their child does

when they are not around. When a child becomes an adolescent, peers advocate a huge influence

to an individual. Parents reiterate their roles by meeting and knowing the background of their

child’s friends and small groups but a problem will arise when acquainting with larger peer

groups. Bronfenbrenner (as cited by Clausen, 1968) stated that large groups in school compete

with other large groups with would pave way for deviance of an individual. This deviance is also

a phenomenon caused by individual freedom learned through peers. This is a dilemma of

parents: controlling a child on what they want and what the child wants. When a child is mature

enough it chooses to obtain freedom but parents still wanted to control it, but the more they

control it, the more likely the child engages in disapproved behavior and less time in the house

with the family. This leads to the child rejecting the beliefs of the family.

These beliefs include the conservatism of the Filipinos when it comes to sex and

marriage. The Philippines is now opening itself to premarital sex because of the desire for

individual freedom caused by the strain from socialization agents. The change within an
individual roots in the adolescent period which extends until he/ she received the individual

freedom he desires.

Another point of concern with regards to the social change is the generation gap. There

are two sets of people that Ackoff (1974) identifies: the young and the old. Because of

generation gap, the old, as parents and teachers of the young, shapes the young to what they

know is right and appropriate but what the young perceives is not parallel to what the view of the

old is. But teachers and parents never let the young question the culture and beliefs they teach to

children. Hence, they wanted the young to submit themselves to what is being taught resulting in

casting themselves (the young) out of the mold they are in (Liang as cited by Ackoff, 1974).

Ackoff suggested that the old and the young have a different view of the culture and the world.

The old is more concern of what is good about the current state thus minimizing their view of

what is bad, in which this view is later passed on to the young. But the young is more concerned

with what is bad of the current state and renew and remodel the culture and the world.

It is not enough that the old would let the young know what the values and beliefs are but

also consider what the young thought of these concepts. There is a vast difference when it comes

to perception of the two generations as stated earlier about the current culture and the world. The

old must not force the young to also believe on what they believe in because forcing them would

result in the young wanting to achieve individual freedom: a freedom that involves rejecting the

culture of the past.

An important point to stress on is cultural globalization and ethnocentrism. Cultural

globalization scopes the Western influence diffusing across globe and is now encompassing our

country continuing to change our traditional culture. It is from the West that we inherited the
openness with regards to premarital sex because at the early age of about 18 they were expected

to be economically dependent (Willy, 2013). The Filipinos, especially the young generations, try

to model this kind of community, being independent just to gain freedom and the only reason is

that it is the culture of the Westerns: xenocentrism. As the young generation grows

independently, they increase individualism which then may lead to changing of the views on

his/her own culture and starts to questions if the learned beliefs and values were right and not

just forced by the old to be right. This, consequently, shakes the perception of the young and

eventually changes the youth’s perception of the traditional culture into a new and restructured

set of beliefs.

Conclusion (Future Outlook)

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