Flabbergasted

I was particularly aghast by an article I read in the Philippine Star last week. The columnist wrote things she thought were amusing about the Philippine-famous househelp.

The columnist said that maids are a necessary evil. She enumerated how she lives a carefree (more of an irresponsible life I think) life because she has another human being to clean up after her. She can have crispy pata at nine in the evening, throw a party and make a mess and have the place look like nothing happened within 30 minutes and pass the burden of raising children. She also shared how home appliances get broken because of the maids’ ignorance. The entire article, which the columnist says is dedicated to “chimminy aa” (how politically correct), essentially made fun of maids and yayas with true stories to further showcase their ineptness.

The article might actually be funny. There are people who may really find the anecdotes in the article entertaining. And there are some people who won’t. I have to say I am guilty of making fun of other people, models, celebrities, politicians. But there is something about making fun of househelp that disgusts me. I just don’t see it right. The reason might be because I find it unjust to mock people who the society already looks down to. Whether we admit it or not, there is a stigma attached to househelp and making fun of them exacerbates this stigma.

I believe it’s bad enough that we have someone right in our very homes who gets paid to do the dirty things for us. Flaunting it makes it worse.