Answer:

In the Philippines, every high school student has to read two novels by our national hero, Jose Rizal: Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo. One of Rizal’s most famous characters is María Clara, the mestiza heroine and love interest of Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, Noli Me Tángere's protagonist.

Ask a Filipina about María Clara, and they’ll tell you about being compared to her as a traditional, feminine ideal. Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, a prolific Filipina writer of the early 20th century, even describes María Clara as the “greatest misfortune that has befallen the Filipina in the last one hundred years.”

As a young girl, it seemed second-nature to me to be reserved and courteous. We were taught to fear the world, not show too much of ourselves, and strive to be beautiful like the women we watched on our telenovelas late at night. When I got older, I was reminded to be private about my personal affairs, not to reveal my intentions candidly, and appear mysterious because appearing too loud or forthright made me less of a lady. Underlying every Filipino parent’s neuroses is the fear that someone could hurt their little girl.

I was thirteen, an anxious adolescent both angry and falling in love with the world, when I learned that these cultural beliefs were a product of Western sexist ideology—and epitomized by María Clara herself