Apparitions of Fear and Power: Reading Monster Theory to Philippine Figures of Queerness, Femininity, and Indigeneity

This project examines the cultural reception and historical narratives surrounding two figures in Philippine mythology and history, the Manananggal and the Babaylan. While the Manananggal is typically known as a viscera-sucking monster in Filipino folklore, and the Babaylan is known as an Indigenous spiritual leader marginalized through colonial discourses, their narratives intersect in complex ways. Rather than viewing these figures as isolated from each other, this paper argues that their interrelation reveals the gendered and colonial anxieties underpinning Filipino cultural production. By foregrounding the storytelling, folkloric, and rhetorical elements embedded in their representations, this paper situates both figures as products of a shared discourse of control and resistance shaped by colonialism, religion, and gendered power.

Drawing on transdisciplinary Monster Theory, this analysis approaches the notion of the “monster” not as a fixed or purely aesthetic category, but as a socially constructed site through which societies project and negotiate collective fears and desires. As Jeffrey Jerome Cohen posits, monstrosity operates as a cultural text and reflects anxieties about transgression, embodiment, and otherness. The Manananggal’s fragmented body and the Babaylan’s transgressive spirituality thus function as rhetorical and symbolic markers of the same discursive process: the colonial redefinition of Indigenous femininity and queerness into forms of deviance or monstrosity. In this way, both figures expose how colonial and patriarchal power rely on the regulation of bodies, particularly those of women and gender-nonconforming individuals, to enforce moral and spiritual hierarchies.

To interrogate how these constructed categories of monstrosity and sanctity emerged and evolved, this project examines a combination of historical and contemporary sources. Central to this analysis is the Relación Del Culto Que Los Indios Tagalos Tenían Y Dioses Que Adoraban Y De Sus Entierros Y Supersticiones (or the Account Of The Cult That The Tagalog Indians Had And The Gods They Worshipped, And Of Their Burials And Superstitions), written by Fray Juan de Plasencia in 1589. This chronicle is one of the earliest Spanish colonial documents recording the existence of both Babaylans and monstrous figures like the Manananggal. In this text, Plasencia produces a taxonomy of “priests of the devil” that conflates Indigenous priestesses with folkloric entities, illustrating how colonial rhetoric sought to demonize native spirituality and reinforce Christian moral authority. By reading such colonial documents alongside contemporary interpretations of these figures in literature, film, and popular culture, the paper traces how these discursive strategies persist and transform across time.

Employing Michel Foucault’s theory of abnormality, monstrosity, and the juridico-moral, alongside Cohen’s framework of Monster Theory, this study situates the Manananggal and Babaylan within a broader understanding of gendered and colonial knowledge production. Through this approach, I argue that both figures operate as sites of resistance as much as repression, revealing how Indigenous and feminine embodiments continue to defy colonial norms and disrupt dominant cultural narratives. This project illuminates how monstrosity, spirituality, and femininity intersect within Philippine history and folklore, underscoring the importance of reinterpreting these figures not as remnants of superstition, but as dynamic symbols of survival, power, and cultural memory.